Simon Sinek argues that social media and cell phones correlate with worsening mental health among young people, highlighting alarming statistics (noting especially girls aged 10–14) and describing how online bullying and validation-seeking (likes/followers) produce more superficial friendships and lasting reputational harm. He frames these observations as correlation rather than proven causation and urges attention to the trend.
Questions this video answers
Girls aged 10 to 14.
He says the number of suicides has tripled in the past 15 years.
He states girls engage in social media 40% more than boys.
Chapters
Few of us can debate, right, that there's an increase in depression, anxiety and suicide amongst young people. I mean, the statistics are alarming. The highest rate increase of suicide in the United states is girls 10 to 14 years old. The number of girls 10 to 14 years old, the number of suicides has tripled in the past 15 years. Right. Girls also engage in social media 40% more than boys. It's not a causal relationship, but there's a correlation that's probably worth looking at.
We know about bullying online. When I was a kid and I tripped over in the cafeteria, everybody laughed at me. I was really embarrassed. They'd make fun of me for a day or two and then it was done. Now somebody will film it and it will last your entire school career. That has to affect somebody's self confidence and sense of self. The idea where all of our validation now comes from, the number of likes and the number of.
Followers we have has to have an impact on the way we conduct ourselves in the world and the way that we make friends. And many, many people will report that. They will admit that though they may have fun with their friends, that they have many superficial friendships, that they don't actually rely on their friends if they're going for hard times. Like, we cannot get away from this. We cannot get away from the fact that more and more universities.
Many private schools now, not just private schools, many schools now for young people now have wellness programs and therapists for children for like 10 years old and 14 year olds. Not because they think those kids are anything wrong with them, it's because the universities are inheriting 18 and 19 year olds that are struggling with wellness and coping mechanisms so badly that they're actually starting to address the issues with the kids younger to teach them coping mechanisms before they get to college. We cannot ignore these things. And though there are many factors, like the excessive amount of finite mindedness, like the excessive focus on short term performance, like the lack of loyalty to employees in companies, you know, companies constantly complain that your generation doesn't offer any loyalty to the company. I don't blame you. Why should you? They give you none. They miss their annual numbers and you're laid off. It's not a meritocracy, nothing personal, it's just business. Right? Why should you give them loyalty if they give you nothing? So I think we cannot ignore these factors, of which one of them, of course, has to be the imbalance of social media and cell phones in our lives. I'm not against it, I'm against the amount of it. Right. That we can't go for dinner with a friend and put our phone in airplane mode for an hour and a half and just be present with our friends. And so how do we combat this imbalance? We do more yoga. Like, you gotta be kidding me, right? Like, no amount of yoga will fix work life imbalance. I personally hate yoga. So I understand. I mean, you know, and what we forgot, I mean, it's a very American thing that we've done, which is we've taken the, these wonderful eastern philosophies like yoga and meditation, and we've actually made them selfish pursuits. Right? I went to this big meeting once. It was a small meeting, actually. I went to this small meeting once and there was a person sitting next to me who was apparently a big timey yoga instructor. The entire time we were in the meeting, she was on her cell phone under the table. And it wasn't like she had a family member in a hospital and she was checking in. I could see she was on social media, right? And at one point the conversation went to, we were talking about being present and she perked up. She perked up and she goes, that's why I love yoga. It helps me be present. Right? Being present doesn't mean you pay $35 and you feel good about yourself for one hour. Right? That's not what being present means. You do not get to say when you're being present, you are present when somebody else says you are. And the reason we meditate, for example, is because we learn things like calm and quiet and focus. And when you meditate, you have a thought and you learn to label that thought and put it out of your head and deal with it later. So that when you're with a friend and they're talking, you're not thinking about your next thought. You put your thought aside and you listen entirely to what they're saying. You focus on one thing, which is them, and you are not present until your friend at the end of the conversation says to you, thank you for listening. I feel heard. Thank you for being present with me.
