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Theodore Johnson: I see it a little like the warning labels they started putting on cassettes and CDs back in the ’80s or ’90s. It lets parents know, “Hey, there are some bad words and maybe some adult situations on this cassette.” But that alone isn’t the thing that parents should be worried about. It’s when the app begins to change their child’s behavior or their thinking in a way that parents are left disempowered to try to counter.
Amanda Ripley: I remember when those explicit warnings appeared. I feel like they made the music seem more attractive, not less.
Johnson: Yes! Without the sticker, I probably would not have bought N.W.A or 2 Live Crew or any of these tapes.
Ripley: Molly, what do you think? Is there cause for concern?
Molly Roberts: Yes. I think there’s reason to be concerned. And, yes, I think it’s overblown.
When you look at the science, what you cannot find is a clear causal relationship between social media and the mental health issues that folks are concerned about. You can find that particular types of social media use aren’t good for particular types of people. But I don’t think it’s beneficial to anybody right now to make generalizations.
Say that you’re an LGBTQ+ kid in a household that’s not very supportive. You go on social media, you meet people like you. That’s a good thing. On the other hand, say that you are already struggling with body-image issues. You go on Instagram, and you’re fed a bunch of bikini photos of models, and you start to feel even worse about yourself.
In a lot of ways, it seems like the biggest predictor of what happens online to people is what’s happening offline. So there is some risk in focusing too much on online life and then not attending to offline causes.
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