(CNN Business) Last September, just a few weeks into the school year, Sabine Polak got a call from the guidance counselor. Her 14-year-old daughter was struggling with depression and had contemplated suicide."I was completely floored," said Polak, 45, who lives in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. "I had no clue she was even feeling remotely down at all. When I asked her about it, she just kept saying she wanted to get away from it all ... but I didn't know what that meant."...

Came across this news article and I have to admit. I’m thankful that the technology we have today was not around in the form it’s presently in when I was in school. Being a teen was hard enough as it is to throw this mess into the mix.

“Our children’s lives are buried deep within their phones and the problems live within their digital signal in places that parents don’t go,” said Titania Jordan, chief marketing officer of Bark. “If you’re not spending time in the places where your children are online, how can you be educated and then how can you give them guidance?”

Full article here.

As someone in their 50’s now, I can admit I have felt the potential negative effects of these social platforms. Thankfully, I have developed coping mechanisms and am able to recognize when I am starting to feel off. I’ve noticed it especially with Facebook. I have had numerous times I would feel pretty good mentally but after a few moments scrolling on the feed, I noticed feelings of anger, or sadness start to appear. Don’t tell me these companies have no clue what they are doing. They are doing things to drive ad revenues and pad the bottom line, they could care less about what their product is doing to people who might be suffering mentally.