social media
Social media dramatically impacts our offline lives and mental well-being; examine its benefits, risks and controversies through scientific studies, real-life anecdotes and more.
Spoon for soup: How Social Media Forces Us to Eat by The Rules
Social media is present in our lives as an indispensable part of existence. Social media is our soup spoon. We can eat soup with a fork, with chopsticks, with our hands, or drink the broth straight from the bowl like water — and as a result, we either get messy or spend far too much time eating. A soup spoon lets us enjoy the meal calmly, without fear of soiling ourselves or our clothes. But is that really true? A small child can still get messy even with a spoon.
By Eliza Woodstorma day ago in Psyche
The Power of Presence
When “Good Parenting” Became a Feeling In modern parenting conversations, “good” has increasingly come to mean emotionally warm, verbally affirming, and immediately comforting. A good parent is expected to soothe distress quickly, validate feelings consistently, and minimize discomfort whenever possible. These traits are treated as obvious indicators of healthy parenting, reinforced by cultural messaging, therapeutic language, and social reward structures. When a child feels better in the moment, the parenting decision is assumed to have been correct, and when discomfort persists, the decision is often framed as a failure of care rather than a necessary part of development.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcasta day ago in Psyche
Estrangement from My Parents: 15 Years Later. Content Warning.
2011: The year that I decided that enough was enough. I went home for summer break from Job Corps. For context, home was in Texas and I was attending a Job Corps center in Arkansas, nearing completion of my vocational trade, which was Office Administration. I was nearly four months away from graduating. Days before I was scheduled to head back to Job Corps, I felt like the two people who were supposed to love and support me were now focused on their attention towards my two younger siblings (a brother and sister). That was the last time I saw my family. My relationship with my family had been deteriorating for years, even well before I decided to officially distance myself from them.
By Mark Wesley Pritchard 8 days ago in Psyche
