According to the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services the suicide rate among children and adolescents (10–19) rose 57.4% from 2007 to 2018. The second largest cause of death, with the number one cause being accidents. Teens that spend more than three hours a day and do not get enough sleep and exercise which could possibly contribute to poor mental health and perhaps exacerbate pre-existing mental health conditions. Since social media has captured our attention the past couple of decades every waking moment we are engrossed in our phones, iPads, laptops, etc. https://blog.pcc.com/social-media-self-esteem-teen-suicide
When watching the video with Zeynep Tufekci, “We’re building a dystopia just to make people click on adds”, it made me realize, she’s right, this is a different 21st century. We are manipulated by people with power in the U. S. and the fact that there are persuasion architects within the digital world that take all the information that we have allowed Facebook, Google, etc. to have then use it to keep us coming back for more. It is alarming to learn that AI is constantly transforming with learning algorithms and most of us have no clue that it has figured out how to keep our attention because categories that are of interest to us is constantly presented. The question she asked about youtube videos, how many people notice that you start watching one video and an hour or so later you have watch twenty seven videos. That is a classic example of AI giving you back to back videos that pique one’s interest and they cannot stop watching.
