How Bad Is Social Media For Your Mental Health? - Seerut Chawla

What's your issue with coddling?

I think, um, there's- there's a few different things and they're all sort of, um... Th- they're all part of the same sort of sticky web of dysfunction. Um, so there's coddling, there's social media, there's therapy culture, um, the sort of pop psychology stuff that I- that I criticize a lot. And they're all- they're all very related. So coddling, you could almost look at coddling as safety culture for children. And- which of course children need safety, but overprotecting children and, um, too much safety, i- it seems to stunt development. It seems to stunt your ability to overcome obstacles, to mitigate your emotions, your aggression, your impulses, um, to- to have any sort of resilience, um, when, you know, to the vicissitudes of life, which no one's- no one's immune to. Um, and then, uh, and- and the sort of extension of childhood, that coddled- that coddled childhood which is now extended, you know. It used to be that you- you were an adult around 15 or- or 16, um, or 18, and now it seems to go on and on, m- you know, into- into the early 20s, if not further. You have 30-year-olds saying, "I'm adulting." (laughs) Um, if you're an adult, (laughs) it's just behavior, it's not adulting. Um, and then, I guess safety culture, which is- which is like coddling for adults. It's- it's like treating adults like infants, um, incapable infants who- who couldn't cope with a different opinion. And if they, you know, have the misfortune of- of coming into contact with an opinion that makes them uncomfortable, then they need a safe space with puppies and coloring books. Um-

Yeah. What- what are the ways that this safety culture, coddling culture for adults, how does that manifest? What are the behaviors that we see?

So you- you, I mean, you would see it everywhere. So you'd see- you see it probably the most obvious, um, examples I think come from university campuses. So you see when anybody who's not, um, completely dialed into the sort of American flavor of, you know, social justice leftism, when they're, um, invited onto college campuses to have a talk, the huge- hu- in- in North America, the huge demonstrations that break out, um, people accuse them of personally victimizing them. Um, there's, uh, you know, sometimes the people are scared for their safety. They're worried they're gonna get attacked. Um, safe spaces are often provided. There's trigger warnings, um, you know, within aca- within your actual academic work, there's trigger warnings. And the research shows that trigger warnings don't actually work. They make things worse 'cause then there's that anticipatory anxiety about, um, "Oh, I'm gonna get triggered." Um, there's, uh, you- you see it in- in this pop psychology stuff where, um, everybody is traumatized and, um, we can't say anything that might hurt anyone's feelings ever. Um, you know, the- the greatest crime anybody can... th- the greatest sin is causing offense. Um, so they're all- they're all quite closely linked, I'd say.