I was not being smug. (i) I simply suggested you are too young to make sweeping comments about education, parenting, or whether or not school work leads to depression,which frankly is silly.
(ii) School is not any different today than 60 years ago. It's actually easier. You can do research online on literally any subject.
Before the internet, trips to the library for such work was weekly or more.
(iii) Depression in teens is a recent phenomenon and largely due to internet overdosing, not lack of free time or excessive school work.
(iv) I was a student, a teacher and a parent. I speak from my experience also.
(i) In that case, I respectfully disagree. I think someone who has first hand experience is more likely to understand a difficulty or cause of a problem. And the fact that the only information you got about me before deciding that I'm too young to understand is "I go to school" is concerning, I could be 10 years old or 17 years old (which has a significant difference y'know). My assumption is that you have got this ideology that "maturity is only attained in/after college", but I've seen many surprisingly mature teenagers and many immature adults.
(ii) That is true, lot of opportunities for us that didn't exist 60 years ago. But (from my experience) does school implement them? Only in schoolwork or assignments. I've seen no one except me in my class do "out of the book" research nowadays, and school does not influence that, all teachers just teach us "how to learn X section of the chapter easier", not "do further research on this" because if it's not on the exam, why do we have to study for it? I think it's a faulty ideology, but maybe I'm too young to understand why it is only the books that matter in exam and not the concept.
(iii) If I give my opinion on this again, you will probably disagree again so I might as well link a site.
(This one reveals a lot of interesting statistics, like how 48% of adolescents in India have no form of physical activity, or how over 80% of adolescents live in a rural area so probably don't even have access to internet or good wifi)
(iv) Your experience is just as relevant as mine, and it can differ from mine because of several factors (country, age, etc), everything I've said in this comment before is based on my experience in India. I acknowledge that (and you should too) that your experience in the USA might and will differ from mine.
I would tend to think those are exceptions, like how some public school students are also uncomfortable, but I'll leave the debate on the table. We'll see how my life turns out and hopefully I won't be awkward in the workplace!