"This Is Very, Very, Very Worrying,"
An alarming new study on teen cannabis use and later psychosis. PLUS: Teens want more male vulnerability onscreen, and experts question tech in classrooms.
Hi Readers!
I’m Christopher Pepper, an award-winning health educator and the co-author of the bestselling book Talk To Your Boys.
I regularly out curated collections of news stories and essays like the one you are reading right now. Think of me as your friend who keeps up with everything and sends you the most interesting stuff.
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In this edition:
Teens Want Less ‘Stoic’ Men and More Male Vulnerability in Their Movies and TV Shows: Survey
A Huge Study Finds A Link Between Cannabis Use In Teens And Psychosis Later
Why Social Media Algorithms Can Exploit Us So Well
‘If A Drug Had The Same Benefits As The Arts, We’d Take It Every Day’
AI Is Poised to Reshape Social-Emotional Learning. But for Better or Worse?
The U.S. Spent $30 Billion To Ditch Textbooks For Laptops And Tablets: The Result Is The First Generation Less Cognitively Capable Than Their Parents
Biohackers And Wellness Influencers Are Pushing Nicotine As Part Of Their ‘Stacks’
Teens Want Less ‘Stoic’ Men and More Male Vulnerability in Their Movies and TV Shows: Survey (She Knows)
By Beth Greenfield: A new study, released this week, sends a powerful message to the entertainment industry around the desire for more content that shows men in loving, caregiving roles.
“Our findings reveal a profound cultural shift: Youth are craving a version of masculinity defined by emotional availability and joyful connection,” Yalda Uhls, founder and CEO of CSS, the study’s senior author and adjunct professor in UCLA’s psychology department, said in a press release. “By highlighting these narratives of partnership and care, storytellers can offer a vision of masculinity rooted in hope and love. For today’s young audiences, the most compelling hero isn’t the one standing alone, but the one who has the courage to be present.”
Health educator Christopher Pepper, co-author of Talk to Your Boys and the Teen Health Today newsletter, says it would behoove producers to listen to the message, and to understand the power behind what they create. “Many people look to their entertainment for guidance around how they should be living their lives and how they should act,” he says. “And I love that young men are saying they want to see more examples of sensitive guys, or emotional guys, with a full range of feelings that they show to the world.” READ MORE
From Christopher - WHY DID I CHOOSE THIS STORY? I loved this study, and appreciated being able to share my opinions here. It really gives me hope for young people and for our media!
A Huge Study Finds A Link Between Cannabis Use In Teens And Psychosis Later (NPR)
By Rhitu Chatterjee: As marijuana use among teens has grown in the past decade, researchers have been trying to better understand the health risks of the drug. Now, a new longitudinal study finds that cannabis use among adolescents increases risks of being diagnosed with bipolar and psychotic disorders, as well as anxiety and depression, years later
“This is very, very, very worrying,” says psychiatrist Dr. Ryan Sultan at Columbia University, a cannabis researcher who wasn’t involved in the new study published in the latest JAMA Health Forum.
Researchers analyzed health data on 460,000 teenagers in the Kaiser Permanente Health System in Northern California. The teens were followed until they were 25 years old. The data included annual screenings for substance use and any mental health diagnoses from the health records. Researchers excluded the adolescents who had symptoms of mental illnesses before using cannabis. READ MORE
WHY DID I CHOOSE THIS STORY? This is a large, well-constructed study, and the results are super concerning. I’m glad this issue is getting some real focus and research attention.
Why Social Media Algorithms Can Exploit Us So Well (The Noösphere)
By Katie Jagielnicka: Social media algorithms, the invisible strings of our digital reality, target us with ever-more-specific, just-for-you messaging.
In Careless People, a recent memoir by former Facebook director of public policy Sarah Wynn-Williams, she describes how the platform’s ‘Lookalike Audiences’ algorithm was used during Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. The tool first identified users who resembled existing supporters — for example, people who liked pickup trucks but hadn’t yet pledged political allegiance — and then flooded them with what she describes as a steady stream of ‘misinformation, inflammatory posts, and fundraising messages’ designed to secure their support. And, perversely, the more the content enraged the viewer, the cheaper it was to run the ads.
Like the mythical Sirens, algorithmic entities also often know exactly which emotional chords to pluck. And just as sailors struggled to resist the Sirens’ call, it can be tough to resist the algorithms’ pull. But that’s precisely the point. READ MORE
WHY DID I CHOOSE THIS STORY? Jagielnicka is a thoughtful writer who isn’t prone to panic or exaggeration, and I appreciate her helping us uinderstand the currently that are shaping the world we live in.
‘If A Drug Had The Same Benefits As The Arts, We’d Take It Every Day’ (New Scientist)
By Daisy Fancourt: I can pinpoint the precise comment that made me want to embark on a career researching the health benefits of the arts. I was fresh out of university, working in the NHS, managing the performing arts programme at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London. A pianist had just finished playing on the dementia ward and a relative of a patient came up to me: “What a lovely entertainment programme you run”.
It was kindly meant – she’d enjoyed the session. The thing was, I already knew myself that the hospital arts programme wasn’t just entertainment. Far from it. In that sing-along session, I’d seen a patient who couldn’t remember the relatives who were visiting her sing along word-perfect to The White Cliffs of Dover and chat away afterwards about her childhood. Earlier that day, I’d seen a child with burns in the accident and emergency department who hadn’t needed any morphine once the theatre group started their performance, a premature baby who was crying inconsolably and refusing food but who calmed and started feeding the moment her mother started singing, and a man who’d had a stroke whose walking suddenly increased in speed and symmetry when we put headphones on him. Yes, the arts programme was enjoyable, and a welcome alternative for many patients to television viewing. But I was seeing firsthand, every day, the tangible, meaningful effects the arts were having on patients’ health. And I wanted to understand how and why these effects were happening – what was going on inside our brains and bodies. So, I left the hospital to find the answers. READ MORE
WHY DID I CHOOSE THIS STORY? I often see arts programs being sidelined or cut from school schedules, and I think we need reminders of just how important the arts can be.
AI Is Poised to Reshape Social-Emotional Learning. But for Better or Worse? (Education Week)
By Arianna Prothero: Will artificial intelligence short-circuit students’ social-emotional development? Or can it help them build vital interpersonal skills in an increasingly tech-driven world?
They’re no longer theoretical challenges for educators: AI-powered products are becoming increasingly powerful, and existing education tools that incorporate AI are being developed with the intention of supporting kids’ social-emotional learning. READ MORE
WHY DID I CHOOSE THIS STORY? The great need for mental health support in schools creates an opening for AI tools, and I think we need to be aware of what’s going on and really consider how we feel about it.
The U.S. Spent $30 Billion To Ditch Textbooks For Laptops And Tablets: The Result Is The First Generation Less Cognitively Capable Than Their Parents (Fortune)
By Sasha Rogelberg: In 2002, Maine became the first state to implement a statewide laptop program to some grade levels. Then-governor Angus King saw the program as a way to put the internet at the fingertips of more children, who would be able to immerse themselves in information.
By that fall, the Maine Learning Technology Initiative had distributed 17,000 Apple laptops to seventh graders across 243 middle schools. By 2016, those numbers had multiplied to 66,000 laptops and tablets distributed to Maine students.
King’s initial efforts have been mirrored across the country. In 2024, the U.S. spent more than $30 billion putting laptops and tablets in schools. But more than a quarter-century and numerous evolving models of technology later, psychologists and learning experts see a different outcome than the one King intended. Rather than empowering the generation with access to more knowledge, the technology had the opposite effect. READ MORE
WHY DID I CHOOSE THIS STORY? I have heard more than one teacher say that all the tech in schools just gets in the way of learning, and its interesting to see some evidence emerging that they might be right.
Biohackers And Wellness Influencers Are Pushing Nicotine As Part Of Their ‘Stacks’ (STAT News)
By Sarah Todd: Biohackers like it. Athletes and Joe Rogan do, too. Stanford neuroscientist and podcaster Andrew Huberman says it “sharpens the mind.” On social media, health and wellness influencers explain how they use it for a pre-workout boost or as part of their “stacks.”
Nicotine, the stimulant that makes cigarettes so addictive, is getting a reputational makeover. As smoking rates fall in the U.S., companies and influencers are pushing the purported cognitive and health benefits of indulging in oral nicotine and other products.
Beyond mega brands like Philip Morris International’s Zyn, a wave of startups with millennial-minimalist packaging now market “clean,” “modern” nicotine pouches aimed at helping people “lock in” and achieve their goals — whether that’s leaping over a Land Rover on a mountain bike or, per the tongue-in-cheek but still bro-y pouch brand Excel, “the relentless pursuit of shareholder value.” Tech companies like Palantir now stock vending machines with nicotine pouches from brands Lucy and Sesh in the hopes of boosting their workers’ productivity. READ MORE
WHY DID I CHOOSE THIS STORY? The history of the tobacco industry is filled with pivots, with companies redesigning and repacking their addictive products in different ways. This is their latest move.
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