It's Not Just "Screens." It's More About Bad Parenting.
But this isn't openly admitted that much.
You can take this post with a little hint of bias, because I’ve been trying to be a parent for about two decades now naturally and I haven’t quite hit that mark yet.
The common take on parenthood from those within the throes of it is: “Hardest but most rewarding job I’ve ever had.”
Without getting too woke here, it is hard to separate the realities of modern parenting and all you need to juggle from the realities of late-stage capitalism and all you need to juggle therein. The data is sketchy on this stuff, but 50–60 years ago, something like 55% of American families were single-income. Now it’s like 21% and declining. I know some conservative minister fools have come out and gone viral saying “Women working destroyed society.” That’s wrong, and it actually benefits society in many ways, but yes — two parents with demanding jobs, as their own parents age and figure out their finances, is a lot to figure out for anyone. I basically manage my dog, some essence of sobriety, and my wife’s emotions where I can help. And even that’s a lot.
I get confused sometimes how the prevailing narrative on “young people seem more depressed” is “Well, it must be tech!” or “It must be social media!” I guess those are the easiest reasons to grasp for. Before we go any further, we should also admit that young people were probably depressed 50–60 years ago — we just discussed it a whole lot less. One time when I was maybe 7–8, my dad (maybe 48 at the time; he had kids “late”) was drunk and started crying about how his dad “left him for the war.” So I mean, yea, I think kids were depressed in 1945. I just don’t think we had lots of studies and viral posts about it, naw mean?
There’s a new study out with the main finding that “Instagram causes depression in teenage girls” (I thought we already knew that?) and it’s been covered like gangbusters by a bunch of people. Here’s a halfway-decent New York Times column on it.
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