Will reducing exposure to social media help relieve angst and depression in the young or worsen it?

The Senate has introduced a bill — the Kids' Online Safety Act of 2022 — designed to limit the harmful effects of social media on young people.

A large part of our youth's problems with anxiety and depression lies in the left's thrust to create a generation of victimized dissidents who will turn to progressive government for identity and purpose.  It's working — 65% of Gen Z voters went for Biden the Unifier in 2020.

The young lack identity.  The left has seized the opportunity to prevent them from evolving individual identities by making it difficult for them to develop any identity at all.  Constant exposure to left-wing academic and mainstream media influences convinces many that America is a deeply flawed nation — racist, imperialistic, and xenophobic.  The CRT agenda infiltrates basic school curricula.  Patriotism is for the unenlightened.  Take a knee.  Organized religions are oppressive, corrupt, and anti-science.  The traditional family structure is authoritative and patriarchal (even though most households are run by women).  Gender ideology strives to expose the myth that there are two sexes.  We are asexual but of infinite genders.  You don't have to be tied down to a restrictive first name — pick a pronoun, or make one up.  All social connectivity for the young is being eroded.

At home, many encounter parents who, themselves under the arching sixties influence of shunning authoritarianism, allow their offspring to flounder in their dissociated, anchorless state, choosing to coddle and indulge them rather than running the risk of compounding their angst by introducing discipline.  They are to be treated as adults.  And with the feminist requirement of two working parents, guilt of abandonment also rears its ugly head, further precluding disciplinary action. 

Having nowhere else to turn, they seek identity in social media.  Their self-worth becomes a function of their number of followers on TikTok.  Increasing numbers become depressed.  Thirty percent of young girls now experience major depressive episodes.  Mental health clinics and antidepressant medication manufacturers are flourishing.

Will it help to remove or ameliorate the impact of social media exposure on the issue of teenage depression and disconnect?  If the forgoing analysis has any validity, and social media are basically providing an escape from the chaos of the left's overreaching quest for social justice, perhaps limiting its availability will drive more into depression and drug dependency.

Perhaps legislators should take a unique stance in addressing this issue.  Instead of advancing the usual knee-jerk solution, give consideration to the possible unintended consequences of the proposed legislation.  Maybe replacing social media with something of value would be more helpful — like perhaps taking steps to portray America as a pretty good place, promoting family integrity, and admitting that boys will be boys.

Image: Blogtrepeneur.