Google has been funding selected news outlets since at least 2013. This was done to garner their support for Google’s massive theft of third party content from almost all websites. Facebook later joined Google in further funding mostly the same news outlets. This money also buys the media’s positive coverage of Big Tech and protection from non-leftist criticism.
The Guardian, one of Google’s top beneficiaries, used to periodically publish articles to suppress any inquiry into the damaging mental health effects Big Tech‘s products have on children.
2017-08-13: Are smartphones really making our children sad? was a pretty good interview with Jean Twenge. But one of the questions was: “Your arguments also seem to have been drawn on by the conservative right as ammunition for claims that technology is leading to the moral degradation of the young. Are you comfortable with that?” This leading question has had a chilling effect on any research on this topic. Such insinuations basically serve as warnings to psychologists to stay away from such research, or they would be charged with the worst crime of our time — giving ammunition to conservative right.
2018-05-24: Are smartphones causing more teen suicides? by Jean Twenge. This is an honest article by a leading researcher – a rare exception from the party line.
2019-07-07: We’re told that too much screen time hurts our kids. Where’s the evidence? by various authors from the notorious Oxford Internet Institute would be better described as a hit job on this field of research.
2020-02-01: Amy Orben: ‘To talk about smartphones affecting the brain is a slippery slope’–Amy Orben used to be a “researcher” in OII, so she is predictably as apologetic for Big Tech as possible. She subserviently stipulates that “there is very little evidence for these concerns, and even less high-quality, robust and transparent evidence.” But even with her obvious biases, she is forced to make an interesting admission: “The direct collaboration with researchers hasn’t worked, because we as researchers are puny in comparison with these tech giants.”
Squelching research and discussion on this important subject is just another example of Big Tech combining business and far-left politics to maximize its profits and power.
Following is the original text from 2019-11-04
My piece Big Tech Suppresses Information About the Health Damage It Inflicts on Kids is published by WUWT. The following sources and sampling of publications have not been included.
Scientific Literature
The recommended ongoing professional literature review is posted and curated by Jonathan Haidt (NYU-Stern) and Jean Twenge (San Diego State U) in Google Docs. 64 pages.
Haidt, J., & Twenge, J. (2019). Social media use and mental health: A review. Unpublished manuscript, New York University
The following papers are samples, not a reference:
Decreases in psychological well-being among American adolescents after 2012 and links to screen time during the rise of smartphone technology. Twenge, J. M., Martin, G. N., & Campbell, W. K; Emotion (2018)
Social Media Use and Adolescent Mental Health: Findings From the UK Millennium Cohort Study. Yvonne Kelly, Afshin Zilanawala, Cara Booker, Amanda Sacker; The Lancet, E-Clinical Medicine (2019)
Media Use Is Linked to Lower Psychological Well-Being: Evidence from Three Datasets. Twenge, J.M. & Campbell, W.K.; Psychiatric Quarterly (2019)
More Time on Technology, Less Happiness? Associations Between Digital-Media Use and Psychological Well-Being. Jean M. Twenge; Current Directions in Psychological Science (2019)
Age, Period, and Cohort Trends in Mood Disorder Indicators and Suicide Related Outcomes in a Nationally Representative Dataset, 2005–2017. Jean M. Twenge, A. Bell Cooper, Thomas E. Joiner, Mary E. Duffy, Sarah G. Binau; APA Journal of Abnormal Psychology (2019)
Suicide and Mental Health in Popular Media
In March 2019, Dr. Jean Twenge published multiple pieces based on her research:
But a new analysis of a large representative survey reinforces what I – and others – have been saying: The epidemic is all too real. In fact, the increase in mental health issues among teens and young adults is nothing short of staggering.
Recent trends are startling. From 2009 to 2017, major depression among 20- to 21-year-olds more than doubled, rising from 7 percent to 15 percent. Depression surged 69 percent among 16- to 17-year-olds. Serious psychological distress, which includes feelings of anxiety and hopelessness, jumped 71 percent among 18- to 25-year-olds from 2008 to 2017. … the suicide rate among 18- to 19-year-olds climbed 56 percent from 2008 to 2017.
From 2009 to 2017, rates of depression among the ages of 14 to 17 in the U.S. jumped more than 60%, and emergency-room visits for self-harm and suicidal thoughts in this age group also increased sharply.
Sample Tweets, Sep. 2019
https://twitter.com/jean_twenge/status/1173657368711745536