I discuss the hidden aspect of the teen mental health crisis and criticize the focus on blaming social media for the rising rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide among teenagers. I believe that solely blaming social media oversimplifies the issue.
What surprises me is the finding that suicide rates were actually higher in the 1990s than they are now, challenging the assumption that rates have been steadily increasing over time. I wonder why suicide rates were high in the 1990s when social media wasn't a factor, and I invite you to share your theories on the possible causes for the period increase in suicide rates.
I emphasize the need to adapt to new technologies, including social media and AI, rather than placing all the blame on them. I acknowledge the potential negative effects of social media on mental health but argue for teaching teens how to use it in a healthy and safe manner. Additionally, I anticipate the future impact of AI on mental health and stress the importance of using technology responsibly.
You've heard about the teen mental health crisis. You've heard that anxiety and depression rates amongst teens are at an all time high. You've heard that suicide rates have risen dramatically over the past 10 years, but there's something that I can almost guarantee. That you haven't heard of because it is hidden and no one is talking about it.
Because I make mental health content, I'm constantly bombarded by everything new that's happening in the mental health space. And for the past couple weeks it feels like all I've seen is this guy. Since Americans don't know Jack about politics besides who the president is, I'm gonna take a wild guess that you probably don't know who this guy is.
And to be fair, I didn't know who he was either until about two weeks ago. This is the US Surgeon General, Dr. Vivic Murphy, and he's basically been blaming social media for the teen mental health crisis that we're in right now. If you watch the video I put out about four months ago, you know that I'm not a big fan of people slash schools blaming.
And suing social media companies for the teen mental health crisis. Here's an analogy for you. If we had data that showed that people were dying more and more in car accidents, let's say, we wouldn't say that the cars are the problem, we would come up with a solution to teach people better driving skills.
How to be a defensive driver, making sure you're wearing your seatbelt, et cetera, because the car isn't the problem. The problem is the user not knowing how to use the product, aka the car correctly. This is exactly how I see the teen mental health issues, and I'm not the only one who thinks this way. As I made this comment on a Mental Health America Post and this person agreed with me and she's a.
Clinical child psychologist, so that means I'm right and I'm basically a psychologist. No, no, no, I'm not. That was just a joke. I probably shouldn't have said that too far. So what's the hidden thing when it comes to talking about teen mental health? It's the suicide rates. Stay with me here. Let me show you what I mean, because this is gonna blow your mind.
Well, It did mine. At least. I wanted to see if anyone else had any theories besides social media on why we're having this teen mental health crisis, and that's when I came across this article. The explanations weren't terrible, but also not anything that you wouldn't have been able to kind of guess yourself.
Social media is bad for the soul. School has gotten more stressful. The parents aren't all right. We're looking at a cycle, not a trend. And this is what really caught my eye. Look at this chart. You see in the seventies, the suicide rate is pretty low. And then it jumps significantly in the nineties. It's actually higher in the nineties than it is the latest year on the chart, which is 2020.
I don't know about you, but I always kind of assume that the suicide rate is just kind of, Climbed higher and higher ever. So slowly. Ever since we started recording the data, I never knew that the suicide rates in the nineties were so high, so high. So the skeptic in me kind of came out and I wanted to actually check if this was right
That's when I found this study in the National Library of Medicine. And when you scroll down, you find this chart that shows suicide rates by the year and age range. As you see here in 1970, it is comparatively low and you start to see it slowly build up as you scroll down to the 1990s where it starts to decrease starting in 1995.
If you're like me after seeing this chart, you're asking yourself, well, what's the teen suicide rate? Now, and the same chart that I showed you earlier, you see that the suicide rate is now at about 15 point 15. The highest it got in the nineties was 13.8, but it pretty much hovered in the 13 area. And just so we're all on the same page here, because you may be looking at these numbers for the first time, these are not.
Percentages. 15 point 15% of teens did not die by suicide in 2021. It's 15 point 15 per 100,000 teens died by suicide in 2021. They don't put it in percentage form because if they did, honestly, The 2021 suicide rate and percentage form would be 0.0138, and it would be hard for people to see this as a problem because this looks like just such a low number.
The fact is, is that over 6,000 teens in 2021 died by suicide. When they had so much life left to live, and that's a big number. Back to the teen mental health crisis being social media's fault. Is it all these articles that say this, have you thinking that social media is to blame for the teen mental health crisis rates that we've never seen before?
Now they don't actually say this, but it's kind of implied that's, that's the gist that you get out of it when you read some of this stuff like this. New technology is something that human beings just. Can't handle. And that's the reason why suicide rates are so high. That's the reason why the teen mental health crisis is in the state that it is.
But why were they so high in the nineties? We didn't have social media back then. The internet came out in 1983, so it's not like it was a new technology in the early nineties that we were still trying to adapt to. And if you're thinking, well, maybe it was the.com bubble, but the.com bubble was. From the late nineties to the early two thousands, plus, not sure how much of an impact that would have on teens anyways, as a 15 year old typically is not investing in online businesses.
The only thing that I can think of is because in 1993, a very special person came into all of our lives.
No. That wouldn't make sense because I was born in 1993 and I would've just canceled him out. In all seriousness, I don't know why the suicide rates were up so high in the late eighties and early nineties, and I'm not sure why they started to drop after 1994. It's hard to Google search that. And at the time I was just a baby, you know, kicking it.
I'd love to hear your all's theories and why you think it may have dropped or started in the nineties. The thing that is the most striking to me though, is that no one is talking about how similar of a situation we are in right now as compared to the late eighties to early nineties. Instead, this is being treated as if it's completely brand new to us and that it's social media's fault, which is total bs.
Can social media hurt your mental health? Absolutely. That's why we need to learn slash teach teens how to use social media. In a healthy and safe way, we have to learn to adapt to the technology and not sue the living hell out of it because social media is a very useful tool for all of us, but it can also be a very harmful thing for your own mental health.
I will be pulling this next clip in the next three years because AI is gonna have a significant impact on people's mental health. I guarantee it. It's already being poorly used for things like. Riz G P T glasses, and we're gonna see a lot worse than that. But AI is a great, no. AI is a fantastic tool for people and businesses, but we have to learn to adapt to it and use it in a healthy manner.
The lesson here is we need to learn to adapt to new technologies and figure out how to use them. And a healthy way not to blame them, and then continue to use social media for five plus hours a day. Thank you all for watching. If you enjoyed this video, please consider subscribing. Also, like the video, leave a comment.
Let me know your thoughts. Did you know about the suicide rates in the nineties or was I the only one who didn't know that? Either way, thank you for watching. I will be back next week with a brand new video on how to have the most perfect mental health of your life. That's a joke. Chill.
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