What Happened in 2012?

What Happened in 2012?

I was recently introduced to Josh Szeps . This week he had an excellent interview with Dr. Jean Twenge .?

In the interview, Dr. Twenge talked about a 2012 turning point in the data from the US, Australian and UK for mental health, loneliness, depression and self-harm. On all measures, we have seen a spike that hasn’t let up.

What happened? Hint, It wasn't the economy. Dr. Twenge gives goes through 13 other possibilities on her Substack . Exploring potential reasons for this 2012 turning point. These are US specific, but she explores school shootings, opioid epidemic, and more. Here conclusion, it wasn't any of these.?

As the dialog continues, Dr. Twenge posits that in 2012, this was the first time most Americans owned smartphones. This was the same in the UK and Australia. And, a few years earlier, 2009, only half of teens in the US used social media every day. But, by 2012, it became "almost mandatory" to have a smartphone. Instagram was purchased by Facebook and the algorithms changed to ensure people stayed on the platforms longer.

The iPhone that launched during this time was the first to have a front-facing camera. Selfies become a thing! Additionally, as she looked at the data, this was also the time when in-person time rapidly went away and a general decline in sleep happened.

In the interview, Dr. Twenge doesn't believe this is the entire explanation, but the data seems to indicate it's a significant portion.

Dr. Twenge mentions in her posts , "Only smartphones and social media can explain why teen depression and loneliness increased internationally after 2010."

Will we as humans stop and consider what impact our technology has on each other? Organizations like Moms Against Media Addiction are leading the charge with our children.?

Governor Youngkin here in my own state of Virginia released on July 9 an Executive Order to establish a cell phone-free education for Virginia’s K-12 public schools calling it a “mental health and safety initiative.”?

Maybe if we visualize what’s happening on the backend when we use these social media platforms, we’ll take better care of our own and other’s usage. Naiden Nedelchev on his Information Security Network posted this picture of this Vietnam-based company, MIMSoftware running their bot farm . Now, don’t get me wrong, doing innovative things with software is great, but we need to ensure we are causing our fellow human to flourish not the other way around.

Alan Melton

Small Business Consulting + Business Coaching ?? 22+ Years Experience with 1,100+ Clients

4 个月

This is a sad state of our culture. I agree that smartphones and social media are a significant part of the problem.

badmus rasheed

Career Coach @ CCPRR | Certified Professional Resume Writer

4 个月

Interesting

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