including increased rates of suicidal thoughts.
Holy fucking shit say the numbers.
From the study:
48% of females aged 18–24 who acquired a smartphone at age five or six report suicidal thoughts compared to 28% who acquired a smartphone at age 13. Among males, the corresponding figures are 31% and 20%, respectively.
But wait, there’s more:
Using regression analysis, we found that, globally, the age of access to social media accounts for approximately 40% of the overall association between age of smartphone ownership and mind health. Other significant contributing factors include poor family relationships (13%), cyberbullying (10%), and disrupted sleep (12%). Notably, 68% of the negative impacts associated with poor family relationships and 63% of the negative impacts associated with cyberbullying are downstream of age of first social media account. This suggests that having access to AI-powered social media environments at a younger age puts individuals at greater risk for poorer family relationships and exposure to cyberbullying. In contrast, only 19% of the effects of disrupted sleep can be explained by age of access to social media. This suggests that sleep disruptions arising from smartphone ownership at a younger age arise from smartphone activity other than social media (e.g. watching movies, gaming).
There is no causal link shown, just correlation. It could be absent parents who use gadgets to occupy their children that are causing this as well.
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Study recognises very strong correlation between poor family relations and poor mental health outcomes but doesn’t really attempt to separate it from smart device ownership. I’d be interested in seeing difference in outcome for a group affected by other potential causes and smart device ownership before jumping to conclusions like in the title of the post.
Blaming devices sells headlines these days.
