June 20, 2023 • 7 mins
Welcome to the cheery segment. More teens are unhappy with life than ever. Could this have to do with the internet and doom scrolling. Joe says to just unplug the internet.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Which is not the cheeriest topic. The number of teens
who don't enjoy life has doubled in the last couple
of years. Wow, not enjoying it. It's horrible, not a
good place to be, especially as a teenager. Gosh, I
enjoyed it so much, I could hardly stand it. It
(00:21):
started going up about it looks like I'm looking at
the chart, but two thousand and eight nine? What else
happened around two thousand and eight or nine? Does anybody remember,
maybe look up on your iPhone what happened around that time? Yeah,
everybody carrying around a phone, staring at it, social media,
(00:42):
all that sort of stuff. It tracks exactly with this chart,
which is no surprise whatsoever to anyone. Since the rise
of social media, depression and feelings of hopelessness have skyrocketed
among teens. Nearly half of teens say they agree with
phrases like I can't do anything right, I do not
enjoy my life, and my life is not useful, twice
(01:02):
as many as did just a decade ago, with the
very same questions being asked. It's interesting, isn't it. It
doubled in a decade with the same questions I do
wonder if there's some and it also is tied into
social media, just some social media is a bit of
(01:22):
a I'm gonna tell everybody how rough my life is
machine social media or how great is Yeah, it's funny,
it's funny. It goes either way. This is how awesome
everything is and you should feel envious of me, or
this is how rough I have it and you should
feel bad for me, goes both directions. There's no I'm
just kind of living a regular life with a okay
(01:44):
job that I kind of like, and my marriage is
perfectly pleasant and whatever.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Nobody does that. Yeah, you know, I'm glad you brought
this up. I think I can tie it together a
little bit. I came across this piece, which is an
interview with a doctor Jane, and I don't know how
to pronounce her last name. She's a brit Twinge, perhaps Twenge.
We'll just call her doctor Jen. Hey, you're on the
air with doctor Jean. What's your question anyway? So she's
(02:11):
writing about how depression and anxiety and suicide are such
a terrible problem right now among teenagers for the reasons
that you partly explain, Jack, and this journalist says, do
our kids have phones, I ask, et cetera, and they
get into the the social media connections and texting as
junk food. It's not real human connection that we've talked
(02:34):
about many times, and so I was glad to see
that idea spreading around. But then she writes gen Z
needs our help. Twene's daughters aside, they're so sad and
so convinced the world's appalling that they don't even want
kids themselves. Quote. They are more likely to report that
they don't think they will have children, and that was
particularly interesting. The percentage of eighteen year olds who said
they were likely to have children was high and very
(02:56):
stable from about nineteen seventy six to twenty twelve before
it started to go down. So it was stable for
what many decades, then started to change, which is really striking.
They'll say they can't afford it, I suggest, but as
Twin's book points out, millennials and Zoomers are not materially
worse off than previous generations were at the same age.
(03:16):
The disadvantages only in their minds. In fact, for gen Z,
there are labor shortages right now. People are desperate to hire.
Some of the most astonishing data in her new book Generations,
also shows that gen z in America at least genuinely
think that they live at the most misogynistic, racist time
in history.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Wow, that's unfortunate.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
But these things are demonstrably untrue. I say, why are
the kids resistant to facts? Quote? My theory, Twin says,
is that it's related to the increase in depression. Depression
isn't just about emotion. It's about thinking and cognition. It's
about how you see the world. And with more depression,
you're going to get more pessimism. Look, the negative view
of the world, of course, has some truth to it.
Every era has its challenges as well as its advantages.
(03:59):
But I think if you take that Beck and look
at the time we're living in, the advantages are not
often talked about. Sure there's still racism and sexism, but
a lot less than there was fifty years ago. And
they get into depression comes first, and the kids start
looking for negative facts, and it kind of spirals. It
reminds me of something else I just read, and I
wish I could find it. But a bunch of researchers,
(04:19):
psychological researchers, we're looking into the belief that things are
much worse than they are. And the thing they came
up with is the omnipresence of news and inputs and little,
well little bits of information of news on smartphones in particular,
(04:40):
the whole doom scronling phenomenon, and that news is always
and always has been biased toward negativity, toward suffering, crime, hate, pain, outrage,
the rest of it. And they're thinking it's the ancient
bias of news combined with its omnipresence with young people,
(05:01):
which has never happened before. You show me the thirteen
year old in nineteen seventy seven who is taking in
every bit of hard news they could possibly get all
day long.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
It didn't exist, would have been very difficult to do
if you wanted.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
To, right, Yeah, And so they're thinking that's that's a
big part of it, hm, But man, what do you
do about it? These are the worst times possible to
live in.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Well, the number of people kids saying I do not
enjoy my life has doubled in a decade.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
And what to be done to the children right now?
We're trying to teach them that they ought to be
a different sex and giving them powerful chemicals and surgeries
because they're in the wrong body. Good Lord, we've lost
our minds.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
So in the particular questions, the one which is most
concerning to you, I can't do anything right, my life
is not useful, or I do not enjoy my life.
My life is not useful, and I do not enjoy
my life. Track almost together, so they were around twenty
five percent of kids would have said that a decade ago.
(06:12):
Now for I do not enjoy my life, it's almost half. Well,
half of teenagers should not be saying I do not
enjoy my life.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
You know, I'm just throwing theories around, but I think
part of it is that everybody lives this global world
where we're hearing about everything around the globe constantly. I'm
thinking back to my childhood. I primarily took in examples
of people making a difference in the community where we lived.
I mean, coaches and teachers and leaders at church and
(06:44):
the kind lady who you know did this and that.
I saw people making a difference locally, and I thought, well,
of course their lives have meaning. I can see it
in front of me. So if I can be a
nice person, I can help, I can coach, I can
mentor I can do whatever I can make a living
or family, then of course my life's worth living. I
just think global like fame is such a thing now,
(07:07):
people think if I'm not at the top of the
heap on Instagram, my life has no purpose.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Plus comparison, being the thief of joy, I could only
compare myself to the other people in my high school class.
It's the only people I knew what their lives were
like at all. I had no access to anybody else's
teenagers life. Wow, no idea how anybody else was living.
Whereas now you're seeing teenagers from all around the world,
(07:33):
certainly all around the country, and of course they're putting
out their best version of their life in their cool
car with their hot girlfriend, boyfriend whatever interesting.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Unplug the internet, folks keeps coming back to the same place.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
How high would that number have to get before it
would be considered a national crisis? So it's now half
about half of where it is.
Which is not the cheeriest topic. The number of teens
who don't enjoy life has doubled in the last couple
of years. Wow, not enjoying it. It's horrible, not a
good place to be, especially as a teenager. Gosh, I
enjoyed it so much, I could hardly stand it. It
(00:21):
started going up about it looks like I'm looking at
the chart, but two thousand and eight nine? What else
happened around two thousand and eight or nine? Does anybody remember,
maybe look up on your iPhone what happened around that time? Yeah,
everybody carrying around a phone, staring at it, social media,
(00:42):
all that sort of stuff. It tracks exactly with this chart,
which is no surprise whatsoever to anyone. Since the rise
of social media, depression and feelings of hopelessness have skyrocketed
among teens. Nearly half of teens say they agree with
phrases like I can't do anything right, I do not
enjoy my life, and my life is not useful, twice
(01:02):
as many as did just a decade ago, with the
very same questions being asked. It's interesting, isn't it. It
doubled in a decade with the same questions I do
wonder if there's some and it also is tied into
social media, just some social media is a bit of
(01:22):
a I'm gonna tell everybody how rough my life is
machine social media or how great is Yeah, it's funny,
it's funny. It goes either way. This is how awesome
everything is and you should feel envious of me, or
this is how rough I have it and you should
feel bad for me, goes both directions. There's no I'm
just kind of living a regular life with a okay
(01:44):
job that I kind of like, and my marriage is
perfectly pleasant and whatever.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Nobody does that. Yeah, you know, I'm glad you brought
this up. I think I can tie it together a
little bit. I came across this piece, which is an
interview with a doctor Jane, and I don't know how
to pronounce her last name. She's a brit Twinge, perhaps Twenge.
We'll just call her doctor Jen. Hey, you're on the
air with doctor Jean. What's your question anyway? So she's
(02:11):
writing about how depression and anxiety and suicide are such
a terrible problem right now among teenagers for the reasons
that you partly explain, Jack, and this journalist says, do
our kids have phones, I ask, et cetera, and they
get into the the social media connections and texting as
junk food. It's not real human connection that we've talked
(02:34):
about many times, and so I was glad to see
that idea spreading around. But then she writes gen Z
needs our help. Twene's daughters aside, they're so sad and
so convinced the world's appalling that they don't even want
kids themselves. Quote. They are more likely to report that
they don't think they will have children, and that was
particularly interesting. The percentage of eighteen year olds who said
they were likely to have children was high and very
(02:56):
stable from about nineteen seventy six to twenty twelve before
it started to go down. So it was stable for
what many decades, then started to change, which is really striking.
They'll say they can't afford it, I suggest, but as
Twin's book points out, millennials and Zoomers are not materially
worse off than previous generations were at the same age.
(03:16):
The disadvantages only in their minds. In fact, for gen Z,
there are labor shortages right now. People are desperate to hire.
Some of the most astonishing data in her new book Generations,
also shows that gen z in America at least genuinely
think that they live at the most misogynistic, racist time
in history.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Wow, that's unfortunate.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
But these things are demonstrably untrue. I say, why are
the kids resistant to facts? Quote? My theory, Twin says,
is that it's related to the increase in depression. Depression
isn't just about emotion. It's about thinking and cognition. It's
about how you see the world. And with more depression,
you're going to get more pessimism. Look, the negative view
of the world, of course, has some truth to it.
Every era has its challenges as well as its advantages.
(03:59):
But I think if you take that Beck and look
at the time we're living in, the advantages are not
often talked about. Sure there's still racism and sexism, but
a lot less than there was fifty years ago. And
they get into depression comes first, and the kids start
looking for negative facts, and it kind of spirals. It
reminds me of something else I just read, and I
wish I could find it. But a bunch of researchers,
(04:19):
psychological researchers, we're looking into the belief that things are
much worse than they are. And the thing they came
up with is the omnipresence of news and inputs and little,
well little bits of information of news on smartphones in particular,
(04:40):
the whole doom scronling phenomenon, and that news is always
and always has been biased toward negativity, toward suffering, crime, hate, pain, outrage,
the rest of it. And they're thinking it's the ancient
bias of news combined with its omnipresence with young people,
(05:01):
which has never happened before. You show me the thirteen
year old in nineteen seventy seven who is taking in
every bit of hard news they could possibly get all
day long.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
It didn't exist, would have been very difficult to do
if you wanted.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
To, right, Yeah, And so they're thinking that's that's a
big part of it, hm, But man, what do you
do about it? These are the worst times possible to
live in.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Well, the number of people kids saying I do not
enjoy my life has doubled in a decade.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
And what to be done to the children right now?
We're trying to teach them that they ought to be
a different sex and giving them powerful chemicals and surgeries
because they're in the wrong body. Good Lord, we've lost
our minds.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
So in the particular questions, the one which is most
concerning to you, I can't do anything right, my life
is not useful, or I do not enjoy my life.
My life is not useful, and I do not enjoy
my life. Track almost together, so they were around twenty
five percent of kids would have said that a decade ago.
(06:12):
Now for I do not enjoy my life, it's almost half. Well,
half of teenagers should not be saying I do not
enjoy my life.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
You know, I'm just throwing theories around, but I think
part of it is that everybody lives this global world
where we're hearing about everything around the globe constantly. I'm
thinking back to my childhood. I primarily took in examples
of people making a difference in the community where we lived.
I mean, coaches and teachers and leaders at church and
(06:44):
the kind lady who you know did this and that.
I saw people making a difference locally, and I thought, well,
of course their lives have meaning. I can see it
in front of me. So if I can be a
nice person, I can help, I can coach, I can
mentor I can do whatever I can make a living
or family, then of course my life's worth living. I
just think global like fame is such a thing now,
(07:07):
people think if I'm not at the top of the
heap on Instagram, my life has no purpose.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Plus comparison, being the thief of joy, I could only
compare myself to the other people in my high school class.
It's the only people I knew what their lives were
like at all. I had no access to anybody else's
teenagers life. Wow, no idea how anybody else was living.
Whereas now you're seeing teenagers from all around the world,
(07:33):
certainly all around the country, and of course they're putting
out their best version of their life in their cool
car with their hot girlfriend, boyfriend whatever interesting.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Unplug the internet, folks keeps coming back to the same place.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
How high would that number have to get before it
would be considered a national crisis? So it's now half
about half of where it is.
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