Interesting Links for 24-02-2023

[andrewducker]

1. Social Media is a Major Cause of the Mental Illness Epidemic in Teen Girls. Here's The Evidence.

(tags:socialmedia girls mentalhealth teenagers psychology )

2. If you're looking for an alternative to Wordi because you're avoiding the NYT's transphobia, try Wordi - it's fun!

(tags:games words language )

3. American healthcare is a disastrous mess: weight loss and diabetes miracle-drug edition

(tags:obesity healthcare diabetes drugs USA OhForFucksSake viaSwampers )

4. Now companies are having to deny the lies that AI tells about them

(tags:ai lies OhForFucksSake viaPatrickHadfield )

5. Edinburgh budget: Dramatic twist sees Lib Dem spending for Edinburgh approved

(tags:libdem edinburgh politics wtf )

6. The FBI recommends using an ad-blocker.

(tags:advertising adblock fbi internet )

7. Lord of the Rings: New Movies in the Works

(tags:lotr wtf movies )

Comments

No 1.

[channelpenguin]

Very sad. I wonder what we can do.

I will say that my own experience as a shunner of social media for the past few years is that I am also "out of the loop and socially isolated" - that must be 10x worse for young folks. :-(

Re: No 1.

[andrewducker]

The impression I get is that visual media are worse - that Instagram, full of images of how you should be, affects people more than text does. And avoiding comparison is helpful. Facebook and Twitter, so long as you don't get into too many arguments, can be things that bring people together.

Best would probably be a small chat server or mailing list that allows people to keep in touch with friends without that expanding to the whole world.

[bens_dad]

Is 2 an alternative to Wordle or Waffle ?

[andrewducker]

I've not played Waffle, I think. I was just delighted to find another simple word finding game.

Re: No 1.

[calimac]

Kevin Drum did a piece on the recent rise in teen suicide. It predates covid and postdates the rise of social media, so he says neither of those can be the principal cause. But "the rise of social media" is not a single event. The impact of it has been getting much stronger over time. And considering what agonies I had to go through as a teen in pre-social media days, it would only be vastly worse today.

[bens_dad]

It is a bit different but I play
https://squaredle.app/

7.

[ng_moonmoth]

The part of me that derives glee from spectacular failures by those who should have known better is imagining the rights-holders greenlighting a big-budget production of The Silmarillion without consulting the fandom on the likelihood of the success of such a venture. I'm pretty sure it would rank high on the list of epic Hollywood disasters.

Re: 7.

[andrewducker]

Possibly thankfully they don't have the rights to the Silmarillion. The Tolkien estate has never sold them.

[channelpenguin]

Thank you for that! I've never fancied Wordle, never played the game, but Squaredle was fun. Took me a while to solve though!