Loneliness, Distress, and Defeat: Chickens or Eggs?

The following is a New Adam Project commentary on the article From Coping to Compulsion: How Screens Shape Young Men’s Lives, originally published by The Institute for Family Studies. IFS recently released part 2 of their America’s Demoralized Men report, titled Lost Pathways, Greater Struggles. In the following article, the team reports findings on four of the most captivating screen-related activities among young men: social media, gambling, pornography, and gaming. It’s interesting to note that among these four activities, men who regularly engaged with online gambling or porn were more likely (than those who regularly engage with social media and gaming) to report loneliness, distress, and depression, and dramatically more likely to report feeling like a failure. These two habits especially diverge from the normal ‘binge’ habits of men. This, of course, raises the burning question: what do we make of the unique correlation between online gambling and porn? Are the activities the cause of the feelings or do the feelings lead to engagement with the activities? Or is it all just a coincidence? Classic chicken or egg. The team concludes that “the causal arrow may very well go in both directions,” and it’s clear that these activities and these […] The post Loneliness, Distress, and Defeat: Chickens or Eggs? appeared first on Man in the Mirror.