We believe that modern technology platforms, such as Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple, are even more powerful than most people realize –
Eric Schmidt, Google, 2014
- There is a preponderance of evidence that social media and smartphone usage seriously damage the mental health of adolescents. Suicide rates among adolescents and young women have skyrocketed from 2007 to 2017.
- Smartphones and social media consumption by adolescents are intertwined. Almost all the social media platforms and smartphones are supplied by the following five Big Tech companies: Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, and Apple. These five companies have a total market cap of $3.5 Trillion. They are the wealthiest and most powerful companies in the world.
- This article shows how these five Big Tech companies use their tremendous influence to suppress information and deter scrutiny of how their products, services, and practices are damaging the health of young people.
Introduction
This article is a follow up to my pieces Social Media Severely Damages Adolescents’ Health and Suppression of Information and Research on Social Media Damage to Adolescents’ Health, published about a year ago. This article references statistics from 2016-2017, which were not available in the medical studies on which the previous pieces were based.
Social media usage has been heavily linked to adolescents’ mental health damage. This usage comprises mostly of Facebook (including Instagram), Twitter, and Google YouTube. Most social media consumption happens on smartphones. Most of the smartphone usage by adolescents and young people is spent on social media. Thus, social media usage and smartphone usage can be interchangeable for the purposes of this article.
Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, and Apple are the five Big Tech companies (the “Big Tech”) discussed in this article. They provide almost all social media platforms, smartphone operating systems and other software infrastructure. Apple also sells iPhones. iPhones have Google as their default search engine. Through the Apple App Store, Apple controls what apps can be used on its devices. Apple has total control over other media use on its devices through Apple News, iTunes Store, iMovie, and Books. Almost all other smartphones are powered by Google Android. Google controls apps and content in its Play Store on Android, although not as tightly as Apple. Google News is the main news aggregator.
Thus, these five Big Tech companies are the providers of the products and services that have been closely linked to a decline in adolescent mental health, as well as the rising suicide rates.
Adolescents’ Suicides Skyrocketed from 2007
Explosive growth usage of social media platforms and smartphones has coincided with suicide epidemics among adolescents and young women. An increase in suicide rates indicates broader social problems, including but not limited to worsening mental health.
Fig. 1. All Adolescents, ages 13-17, 2000-2017
Data Source: https://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate.html, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
Spreadsheet:
This graph and other CDC suicide statistics show that suicide rates among adolescents were dropping for long time, reaching an all-time low in 2007. In 2008, adolescent suicide rates started to grow. By 2017, suicide rates among the ages of 13-17 (for both genders) increased by 120% – making them 2.2 times higher than in 2007. The suicide rate increase among girls has been higher than among boys. Suicide rates among 12-14 years girls increased 3.4 times between 2007 and 2017.
Rising Suicide Rates and Big Tech Products
The current suicide rates among adolescents and young women are unprecedented, since before effective anti-depressants were introduced in 1990’s.
In 2007, Apple unveiled the iPhone, which became an instant hit. This led to an astounding increase in Facebook and Twitter use. Explosive rise in the Big Tech products usage was one of the most important changes in society during this time period. A great amount of evidence shows that typical use of the Big Tech products by adolescents is associated with increased mental illness.
In the past, much less evidence of a specific type of product or service causing such significant mental health issues, would have caused a robust public debate, independent research and government investigations. Why are these investigations not currently happening in regard to the staggering increase in suicides in relation to the use of Big Tech products?
Politics
One obvious reason for the lack of enforcement is that Facebook, Twitter, and Google distribute news and political information, and have a large impact on public opinion and elections outcomes. Most politicians and elected officials (including state Attorney Generals) prefer to appease Big Tech and to go after traditional targets, such as energy and pharma.
Does Big Tech Influence Media Coverage of Itself?
Of course, it does. Big Tech wields great influence on how social topics are covered by the media and, consequently, perceived by politicians and lawyers. The suicide epidemic is covered by the MSM (including Vox, The Nation, CNN etc.), but sparingly and without enthusiasm. Consider that these Big Tech companies have the power to choose what is elevated to a trend and goes viral, and what gets restricted or even completely disappears from the public eye.
Big Tech’s platforms and services are the communication channels over which any public debate happens. The mainstream media (MSM) depends on the Big Tech for clicks, subscriber acquisition and promotion of their articles. For example, the market value of Google is 175 times that of The New York Times ($843B vs $4.8B on October 11, 2019). Even this valuation of the NYT entirely depends on Google’s promotion of the NYT website and subscription services. There are other behind-the-scenes activities, by which the wealthy Big Tech companies subsidize the powerful but revenue starved MSM. For example, Google News Initiative includes active partnerships with Vox, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian, the Poynter Institute, the First Draft Coalition, The Trust Project, Global Editors Network etc. Through this and other similar initiatives, Big Tech companies help fund publications and news organizations, while also requiring them to agree to their Terms and Conditions. These actions increase both the dependence and compliance of media companies to Big Tech companies.
Big Tech Specifically Censors Health Related Information
Google’s August 2018 search ranking update specifically targeted health information. Initially, Google’s aim was to demote web sites with dubious medical information for health-related searches. There are many such websites, publishing incorrect and harmful information, sometimes peddling their own “natural” products for profit. When deciding to de-rank them in the search results, Google executives may not have intended to restrict criticism of their own services. But Google is neither the publisher nor the editor of the information ranked by its search engine. It has neither the capacity nor the permission to decide which health related information is correct and which is incorrect.
There are two consequences to Google’s decision to act as an arbiter of truth on health. First, it suppresses the debate on health-related topics, including the health impact of Google’s own services. Second, some of the sources selected by Google as “authorities” on the subject, are not among the best. This applies to professional societies, that have been corrupted over the last ten years by climate alarmism and other leftist agendas. The American Academy of Pediatrics (“AAP”) is the most important one for adolescent health, and a stark example of corruption.
In 2011, AAP published a Clinical Report—The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families (Guidance for Clinician),strongly cautioning about the dangers of social media usage to adolescents. It even contained the phrase “Facebook depression” (quotes in the original):
Researchers have proposed a new phenomenon called “Facebook depression,” defined as depression that develops when preteens and teens spend a great deal of time on social media sites, such as Facebook, and then begin to exhibit classic symptoms of depression.
Five years later, after the research had confirmed the existence of the phenomenon, AAP obsoleted this publication and replaced it with a generic policy statement Media Use in School-Aged Children and Adolescents (November 2016):
Research studies have identified both benefits and concerns regarding mental health and social media use. Benefits from the use of social media in moderation include the opportunity for enhanced social support and connection.
This new lack of concern by the AAP on this issue is surprising and brings their credibility and honesty into question. There is currently so much scientific evidence to the contrary. For example an analysis of a large representative survey states:
Another possibility is that the increased use of electronic communication and digital media during this time period may have changed modes of social interaction enough to affect mood disorders and suicide-related outcomes. For example, individuals who spend more time on social media and less time with others face-to-face report lower well-being and are more likely to be depressed (Lin et al., 2016; Shakya & Christakis, 2017).
See my previous piece for more proof of corruption in the health arena, including what appears to be a co-optation of researchers by Facebook. Other Big Tech companies and even some of their smaller brethren are attempting to emulate Google’s approach.
Big Tech’s Censorship Creates an Intimidation Effect
Gone are the days when Twitter and Facebook only showed their users posts and updates from the few accounts they chose to follow. Now these social media companies decide what to show a user, almost unilaterally, and treat the user’s choice of Friends and those they Follow as an advisory opinion. Big Tech companies make decisions to demote, restrict, or even to ban authors and publishers almost arbitrarily, well beyond the protections they are granted under Section 230 (which only extend to actions made in good faith and voluntarily). Big Tech have also defamed those they have deplatformed. For example, Facebook not only banned Laura Loomer, but smeared her as a dangerous individual.
Whether or not this was their intention, such frequent, unbounded, and capricious exercise of their power over the press creates an intimidation effect. Researchers, authors, and publishers have to consider the potential reaction of Big Tech to the content they wish to publish. Google has also explicitly intimidated researchers who might contradict its agenda, when it forced the New America Foundation to fire Barry Lynn and his Open Markets team. After being fired, Barry Lynn commented:
Google is very aggressive in throwing its money around Washington and Brussels, and then pulling the strings… People are so afraid of Google now.
That’s bad. People shouldn’t be afraid of Google. If anything, it should be the other way around.
Conflict of Interest Statement
The author is suing Facebook, one of the Big Techs.
Remarks
The quote in the beginning is from The New Digital Age: Transforming Nations, Businesses, and Our Lives, by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen, 2014.
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I would like to see a study on the rise in teenage suicides caused by the steady drumbeat of “the world is going to end because of global warming”. If you all you hear hear from pundits, Demo/Progs, media, parents, scientists, ad nauseum, you have got to be thinking, “Why bother. We are all going to be dead in 15 years anyway.”
12 years! Soon to tick down to 11, pay attention John or we’ll take you smart(?)phone away.
The 11 year mark is already passed.
According to Greta, it’s now 8.5 years.
According to Greta, Greta can see CO2 in the air.
Ooooo-EEEEEEE-oooooo!
John
I doubt if the drumbeat would have been anything like as loud if it wasn’t for the amplifying effect of smartphones/social media.
global cooling was a big thing back in the 70’s, but one wonders f there would have been much more widespread panic if social media had been around.
tonyb
add being stuffed in front of a tv as a baby then handed a tablet to keep em amused then the cliamte crap and antidepressants that are handed to kids as young as four! with well known suicidal effects on the fools taking them, either while on them or when trying to get OFF the highly addictive so called solutions..
not the slightest bit of awareness that kids with no attention span arent adhd but created BY the tech theyre soaked in.
and far too many adults as well who should know better.
anti-social media rules too many lives
“and antidepressants that are handed to kids as young as four! with well known suicidal effects on the fools taking them”
A serious issue that is not being addressed adequately. Taking antidepressants is sometimes worse than not taking them, depending on the individual.
ADHD is real, there is a lot of empirical science behind it now, including actual brain scans showing actual differences. Over-diagnosis? Quite possibly, given the iniquitous state of US Health Care and the de facto prostitution of qualified practitioners to the drug companies.
And as ever with such articles, it fails because it seeks to cite a single cause for a patchwork of problems with roots in many areas of life.
Immediate environment, quality of relationships, economics, life chances/prospects, behaviour of those around them, etc. All play their role to some extent or other. Has social media made things worse? Yes. Has the portable screen allowed selfishness in adults to grow even more? Most definitely. But these are not the only reasons. The destruction of the family unit, the usurping of parental authority, the war on genuine virtue – all these were happening before social media came on the scene.
In a situation where a majority of the future of our country (young people) believe that the Fist Amendment to the US Constitution should be eliminated or restricted, does it make any difference whether speech is regulated by their sought-out Socialist government or Zuckerberg?
The founders of this country included free speech as the First Amendment for a reason. I believe that the courts should handle Woke individuals who feel their feelings have been damaged. Like Ron Paul (and Obama, lately) Political Correctness has gone a bridge too far.
And Political commentary should be absolutely uncensored.
I think that is about the same time Obama took office……
Actually the increase was when Pelosi and the Democrats first took over the House in 2006. It continued throughout the Obama Presidency with the most recent uptrend clearly due to TDS.
So how come #OneTermTrump hasn’t fixed it? What’s the deal?
Obama Bad! Trump Good! Trump makes deal! America great again!
444 days and counting…
Hey Adrian, are you related to Mickey Mann?
#BigTechKnew. For when ExxonKnew fails. Hey, it’s “free” money, just sitting there.
We have created a monster, its not particularly the Tech companies fault.
Human nature can be horrible, bullying, henpecking, etc. we are hard wired by evolution to do such things.
Then you give everybody a thing in their hands, where they can bully away without fear of face to face contact of conflict which evolution usuaaly has meant to control such urges.
Sounds more bull and hen nature than human.
Pop culture, postmodern education and over-prescription of psychotropic drugs, among other things, are what’s damaging adolescents’ mental well being. Social media merely amplify the toxicities and accelerate the damage.
The information that children receive during their education does not in any way allow them to sufficiently understand and evaluate information obtained via social media.
Most likely that information was obtained by their instructors from social media and networks as well.
The parents of these children are most likely social media junkies as well.
The grandparents are probably the last generation who have not been affected by the social media!
My B.S. Meter just went off!
I remember when I was a kid how the same arguments were made to fight against comic books and television. It’s obvious that the author hates Big Tech, but really. “Associated with” is a nonsensical term describing absolutely nothing.
Yes, global warming causes pirate decline!
Global warming causes an increase in ice cream and bikini prices!!!
An instance where correlation does indicate causation.
My exact thought too when I read this. I remember when I was a young kid being told to not watch too much television because it could; damage your eyesight, lead to obesity, make you lazy, cause you to become violent and cause a slew of other problems.
Yes it is very obvious the author hates big tech but I don’t doubt one bit adolescent’s constant use of their cell phones has some affect on their mental health.
There is a moral panic about teenage female suicide related to social media. As far as I can tell, it’s overblown.
The suicide rate for teenage girls is tiny. The suicide rate for teenage boys is much greater, and always has been.
The suicide rate for non-hispanic black males is about twenty times that for the general population of teenage girls.
In Canada, the suicide rate for some Eskimo (also called Inuit) communities is as much as 170 per 100,000. That’s about thirty times the rate for teenage girls in the general population. link
If you wish to avoid suicide, my advice is to choose your parents wisely. (/black humor)
The biggest by far incidence of suicide is middle-aged men.
They are drinking themselves to death or committing suicide, etc. That’s opposite to the trend for every other group in the world. They’re the forgotten people and they are the reason we have President Trump.
and don’t cross Hillary Clinton (/sarc)
This argument has been addressed in the literature, reviewed in the author’s 2018 articles, referenced in the beginning.
“Explosive growth usage of social media platforms and smartphones has coincided with suicide epidemics among adolescents and young women. An increase in suicide rates indicates broader social problems, including but not limited to worsening mental health.”
If the trend continues the problem will eventually take care of itself.
As for myself, it will not affect me as I have only about 2 solar cycles of life left.
You don’t have to be crazy to be miserable. As Jordan Peterson pointed out in one of his lectures, some folks who look depressed are just at the bottom of a hierarchy. Fix that problem and they perk right up.
https://adnauseam.io/
They click ads so you don’t have to (and discard the results to you don’t see them)! Be the “GI” in “GIGO”. This is a method of fighting back so threatening to Google’s business model that they banned it from the Chrome store!
Sounds nice but the ad clicking is the intended goal, not the process.
Clicking on every ad generates *more* money for Google et al, not less.
So you would be literally helping them by installing such “services”.
I would also note that the data feeding the profiling is far more than what ads are clicked; it is what sites you visit (not changed), what you search for (not changed), your online identity (not changed), possibly your email if gmail (not changed), your other platform activity like social media (not changed), etc etc.
In fact, I would not be incredibly shocked if adnauseam.io or other similar apps shoved a referral ID onto the traffic to get an “influencer” cut.
Going to your source, and looking at earlier data, the rate looks like 11/100k for 89-98. I think you started in a trough. Teen suicide was a big issue when I was in HS in the 80s. As to the current rate, I think a basic lack of parenting may be a stronger factor.
Kids in CA where I live are little uncivilized monsters, both to their society and their peers. Many parents don’t even try anymore. Look at the prevalence of property crime, graffiti, sideshows etc. even in the Silicon Valley, one of the most affluent places in the world, and home to your demon corporations. Social media is, IMO, a net negative, but tools are what we make of them. They are neither intrinsically good nor evil. They reflect the foibles of the user.
How evil does someone have to be knowing children are committing suicide as a result of their product and still do more of it
The CDC statistics show an increase of suicides in children and that should be an extreme red flag the Masters of the Universe as Big Tech call themselves to change or be changed.
.
Socialist Leadership Evil, Olen. They place a greater value on depopulating the masses, than they do saving individual lives. Its collectivist central planning thinking.
Keep in mind they view these suicides as twofers. First: reducing the population of future baby makers. Second: they use the emotionalism created by the suicides to falsely place blame on those defending individual liberties by claiming they, freedom loving people, condone bullying and must be silenced.
They see these suicides as necessary casualties in their war on the Constitution.
It is Win-Win for the Socialist Central Planners and Lose-Lose for the Liberty Loving Individual.
Suicide numbers in Holland ar stable since 1985, so it seems this is a US only issue.
“Suicide numbers in Holland ar stable since 1985, so it seems this is a US only issue.”
If suicides aren’t up (or up only slightly) in the UK, Australia, NZ, etc., the Big Tech is unlikely to be the cause.
theyre up in Aus
This piece seems to be driven by the author’s emotion rather than facts. One reason for suppressing news about suicide is to reduce suicide. In Montreal, the papers do not report on a person who jumps in front of a subway train. This is because they observed a bunch of copycat suicides every time they did give publicity to one.
I’m with John York above, who wants to see what the effect of the constant message of the world ending in catastrophic climate change. Why bother with anything concerning the future if the world is about to end.
As Hans Erren point out, the suicide trend seems different in different countries, despite almost the exact same exposure to Big Tech. See in addition the Danish statistics:
Denmark suicide rate for 2016 was 12.80, a 7.56% increase from 2015.
Denmark suicide rate for 2015 was 11.90, a 6.3% decline from 2010.
Denmark suicide rate for 2010 was 12.70, a 21.6% decline from 2005.
Denmark suicide rate for 2005 was 16.20, a 1.25% increase from 2000.
Ref.: https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/DNK/denmark/suicide-rate
So it look like there are other major factors involved in the suicide trend.
#GoogleFBKnew
Now where’s my settlement $billions?
Contact your state Attorney General!
Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc are editors actively applying censorship in many subtle and less than subtle ways. Nowhere in the popular areas of the internet are there platforms that are impartial — they all operate ‘Freedom from Speech’ and none operate a ‘Freedom of Speech’ policies.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vVohGWhMWs for more.
You Tube has started editorializing videos that take the “wrong” position on climate change by posting the Wikipedia definition of Climate Change and a link to the article next to the video. I find this outrageous and encourage others to protest this, as I have done.
If you define – 10 to 24-year-olds as youths and 25 to 55-year-olds as adults, what has changed since about 2010 has been a surge in both the male and female youth suicide rates, with the percentage increase in the female rates being slightly larger.
___________________2010______________2017
Male Youth_______12.01_____________16.41 deaths per 100,000
Female Youth_____2.92______________4.46 deaths per 100,000
The same is true of the significantly higher male and female adult suicide rates,
which have both surged over the same time period.
___________________2010______________2017
Male Youth_______25.96_____________28.44 deaths per 100,000
Female Youth_____7.35______________8.66 deaths per 100,000
So yes, while it is true to say that female rates have surged in % terms more than male rates, they have not done so if you make the gender comparison using absolute rates.
“gender comparison”
Male and female are sexes, not genders.
You always get one…
Actually quite a few people make that mistake.
Correlation is not causation. Lets look at some of the top news stories from 2007 …
1. Transition in Pakistan.
2. The Mortgage Crisis.
3. The Saffron Protests.
4. Goodbye, Harry Potter.
5. Petraeus under fire.
6. Chinese-made toy recall.
7. The Virginia Tech Tragedy.
8. Stem-Cell Breakthrough.
9. Barry Bonds breaks a record — gets indicted.
10. iPhone Mania.
http://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1686204_1690170,00.html
Lots to worry about here above the iPhone.
“Gone are the days when Twitter and Facebook only showed their users posts and updates from the few accounts they chose to follow. ”
Maybe I’m doing something wrong … or right … but I get updates only from those I follow.
I shouldn’t have to remind the author that correlation does not demonstrate causation. Something has caused a change (unless it is random fluctuation); however, the correlation with social media may be spurious. I think that more work needs to be done to establish cause(s). I’m no fan of ‘social’ media. However, I think that the case presented is very weak.
+10.
A number of possible drivers have been listed above along with the emergence of social media uptake.
I would be tempted to also look at medical practice and the changes to its delivery of treatments to vulnerable people. I would look at the ease of entering into overwhelming debt and the consequences of that. I would look at the political drivers of depression not least of which would be the ongoing EU political system in Europe. It is forcing unemployment on young adults which is well over 20% in several EU countries around the Mediterranean. It does this while inviting then abandoning unwelcome migrants who imagined they are heading into the promised land…how wrong they were.
Rod,
To do a thorough examination of the situation, comparisons should be made between different age groups in the US, and cross-cultural comparisons between different countries.
At the risk of going off topic, I’d suggest that things such as a cultural ennui resulting from having things too easy and not having any real purpose in life besides entertainment and hedonism might well play a role in apparent increases in suicide. Delaying maturity fits into the mix. I’d further suggest that the rise in the popularity of recreational drugs, and the consequent deaths from inadvertent over-doses supports the idea of a culture without purpose or any goals.
A person without a purpose is like a dog without hunger.
This article screams junk science.
‘There is a preponderance of evidence’
Translation: we don’t have proof, but lots of us believe it.
‘These five companies have a total market cap of $3.5 Trillion. They are the wealthiest and most powerful companies in the world.’
Appeal to envy.
‘how their products, services, and practices are damaging the health of young people.’
Not their job, mon.
They make useful products. The thrust of this article is to affix liability to these 5 principals for something they have nothing to do with. They are guilty of many things, but they are not the kids parents.
Yeah, the whole thing echoed “Climate Scientology methods.” Like the graph ordinate that doesn’t start at zero, and the imputation that correlation proves causation, appeal to emotion, and so on and on. Yes, young people dying is tragic, but the fraction is only about 0.0001. Attribution of any causation when the numbers are so small is difficult, perhaps impossible. Let’s come back to this when there’s some science behind it.
Anti-social media & smartphones, on which it is consumed, causes mental illness among teenagers. Suicides rate is a reliable indicator. Growth in mental illness cases might be explained away as better or earlier diagnostics, or changes in classification taxonomy.
The article is a follow up on two 2018 articles, which reviewed the available medical research. Some of it contains evidence of causation, and none contains evidence to the opposite.
More recent literature confirms the conclusions.
The author claims, “This graph and other CDC suicide statistics show that suicide rates among adolescents were dropping for long time, reaching an all-time low in 2007.”
The suicide rate for adolescents reached a peak of about 6.6/100,000 in 1988, before the internet revolution, and dropped for a number of years before reaching that level again in 2015. You appear to be cherry picking.
The article says that. The drop in the suicides rate was most likely due to more effective anti-depressants.
Won’t be long before some left-wing activist attempts to link the increase to climate change.
Perhaps, but I think they will avoid that on the off-chance someone correctly attributes it to global warming propaganda. After all, there is nothing more likely to cause an increase in depression and suicide then believing the world is ending and there is nothing you can do to stop it.
A few questions answered .A Swede on a Swede
https://youtu.be/femv1Kuw6JM
Leo
A very interesting article as always. There has been an ever increasing influence and control by social media / tech companies.
This was made clear during Zuckerbergs testament to Congress when it was clearly stated that he was the most powerful person in the room.
I consider there is reason for an article with the heading, someone is stealing your children. They are physically there but mentally somewhere else, and influenced by someone else.
I wish you luck and success in your pursuits.
Martin
Thanks!
I notice this article does not mention the effects of increased prescription use of Methylphenidate, aka Ritalin, on suicide rates. It would be interesting to see if there is a correspondence.
There’s a considerable body of evidence that drugs used to treat schizophrenia (for just one example) actually worsen the illness, over time.
Part of the problem is that early drug validation experiments consisted of removing the medication from half the study group and tracking their progress against those left on the drug. This resulted in comparing patients undergoing hideous withdrawal symptoms* to those still taking the drug.
* which can persist as long as a year or more.
I was very skeptical about this until I read some of the recent studies. But yes, the use of ritalin may be a factor, and a large one.
“This resulted in comparing patients undergoing hideous withdrawal symptoms* to those still taking the drug.
* which can persist as long as a year or more.”
People should not stop taking those kinds of drugs abruptly. That has been linked to increased suicides. You must withdraw from the drug under a doctor’s supervision to be safe.
I, personally, would consider taking these kinds of antidepressants only as a last resort, as I have seen a lot of people have bad experiences taking these drugs. If you can get by without them, or can find a substitute (marijuana works for some), then do so.