🤡Oh we're uploading charts about why teens are unhappy? And saying it's "the phones" or "the apps?"
Well, let me upload my charts!
Showing that:
* Black kids are online *much more* than white kids.
* Black kids have seen *much less* increase in depression since 2011.
🙂🙃
If you ask older conservative adjacent dudes what's making teens depressed, they'll confidently tell you "smartphones and apps!"
But if you ask teens what's making them depressed, they'll tell you "older conservative adjacent dudes."
The racist people that used to target Black teens online, in real life, at school, at the doctor's office...
...have now started targeting white teens, online, in real life, at school, and at the doctor's office.
Like we said they would. 🤷🏿♂️
Picture a white teenage girl posting the following on Instagram:
"Feeling blessed! I just voted for Katie Porter, because she supports reproductive rights and gun control and anti-racism! I personally don't plan to have kids. I can't afford it! And I care about the environment."
There's a good chance that she could wind up the target of several different F*x News segments or attacks by sitting politicians.
I count at least 6 issues she could be attacked for, and receive online threats of violence for.
Yeah, that might make her unhappy.
That's before we even get to the unhappiness from unhealthy comparison to others.
If your solution for increasing her happiness is "Just don't be online!" Then I don't know what to tell you. I can't even argue with that. We're too far apart to even have a meaningful conversation.
Yes, a Black teen girl posting that same thing to Instagram would receive the same abuse. Worse actually.
But your racist F*x News watching relatives have been dishing this abuse out to Black folk since forever. It's not new to us.
What's new is that the hate has now come for your kids.
@mekkaokereke This last bit is critical. While I'm a straight white man who only relatively recently had the luck to end up in diverse communities, it's frustrating to see people suddenly worrying about online harassment as a novel invention.
See also: "Now we're suddenly living in [insert big-name dystopia]." No, we were living in the dystopia when the author wrote the story, but we in non-vulnerable communities sided with the villains.
mekka okereke 
John Colagioia