Which Is Worse, Potatoes or Smartphones?

"The Potato Eaters," by Vincent van Gogh

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Here’s a sentence I never expected to see:

The study also found that “the association of well-being with regularly eating potatoes was nearly as negative as the association with technology use.”

Hmmm. So this means we have to control for potato eating among teens if we want to measure how smartphones affect them. I suppose we can do that.

This is all part of an article about whether smartphone use makes teens more depressed. The answer is that we don’t know. But surely we can add some anecdotal evidence to address this question. Just think back. How miserable did you feel in high school when you were being teased or bullied or just shut out from the cool kids group? Got it? Good. Now think about how you feel when the same thing happens to you today on Twitter. Which seems worse?

I have a bad memory, so I’m going to say “about the same.” How about you? Let’s do some research, people!

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

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