I've read almost every one of these interesting articles that have come up on this site over the past year or two regarding teenage depression. My own step kids are morbidly depressed, with my step daughter of 14 having attempted suicide and my stepson of 17 becoming a racist incel.

My own observations compared to my depression free childhood, which was not a happy one, is simply one of exposure. When I was young I had both online and offline communities, but the point is that they were my age, and my culture. I had no idea what was going on in the greater world, the scandals of the 90s being mere background noise to my Pokemon and Zelda and WWE. I could never remember who was president even in high school, and kids were more concerned with social drama rather than being socially correct.

Kids these days grow up in the adult world. You can blame social media or the Internet but the result is the same- kids share their space with adults, they have opinions on politics, they joke about economics and social issues, they bemoan capitalism without having ever participated in the system.

I think children operate best when adult life is a mystery, some intangible and incredible future that will happen but is not understood, and unfortunately the society we have constructed post 2000 has destroyed the ability for any young kid to be ignorant.