On this week’s second edition of The Editors, our panelists discuss the dramatically rising rates of depression among young girls. It’s a disturbing trend, and Michael points out, “We certainly did not appreciate the disruptiveness of social media to the socialization of teenagers and young people. . . . Their home was more private feeling, [a] kind of refuge from school. But now with the cellphone, they’re experiencing the same thing many workers complain about — that work now spills out to all hours of the day all through the weekend because of cellphones and the internet.”
Earlier, Maddy observed the incredible damage pornography has done to young people, and Michael agrees. “Pornography absolutely seems to play a role,” he said, “where the kind of excitement of adolescence was the idea of heading into sexual maturity and hoping for romance . . . going steady, having a steady boyfriend or girlfriend. But now, the ubiquity of pornography makes sex look . . . to a lot of young girls, like something that’s not intimate and special, but something that is dangerous, degrading, and potentially violent.”
Will Congress do something about this? Would it have any meaningful effect? Listen below to see what our panelists think.