I think its not just kids anymore, it’s adults too. Everyone is glued to their screens these days. But kids are more vulnerable to influences from “social” media and don’t have any defences to the psychological warfare going on. Of course they feel like shit.
What do you think an algorithm is?
Tbf they did say shitty, none of the ones built into Lemmy exist to feed you advertisements in the most efficient manner, as far as I know.