The moral panic over social media and teen depression
Hi everyone! Mathew Ingram here. This is The Torment Nexus (you can find out more about me and this newsletter — and why I chose to call it that — in my inaugural post.) Since this is only the fourth edition of the newsletter, I am still working out some bugs, so please bear with me. Thanks for reading – and if you decide to subscribe, or upgrade to paid, thank you for that as well! Your contributions allow me to continue doing this. None of these newsletters are behind a paywall at this point (I haven't decided if I will do that in the future) and every issue is available via Ghost, through Substack, and on my website, so your contribution is more of a donation. If you enjoy this newsletter, please share it and/or give it a thumbs up/heart on the network of your choice.
Over the past few years, it 's been hard to avoid the conclusion that smartphones, and in particular the use of social media such as Instagram and TikTok, have caused an epidemic of mental health and body image problems among young people, and in particular teenaged girls — problems that in some cases have led to suicide. A recent piece in The New Yorker is just the latest in a long line of such reports: in it, writer Andrew Solomon interviews distraught parents and relatives of a number of young people who have killed themselves, and in every case the culprit seems to be their excessive use of smartphones and specifically their use of social media, which many of those involved seem to believe caused or exacerbated their childrens' anxiety and depression.
