Stock photo of teens with cell phones.Photo:Getty
Getty
When NYU social psychologistJonathan Haidtlooks at the charts tracking teen mental health, hesees an undeniable truth. Beginning in 2012, five years after the introduction of the iPhone and twoyears afterInstagram debuted, “anxiety and depressive disorders go up with a sharp increase,” he says. Since then, nearlyhalf of all teenssay they are online ‘almost constantly’ (double the figure in 2015) andincidents of self-harm and suicide ratesamong teens have more than doubled.
“We’ve never seen anything like this. There’s massive evidence of harm," Haidt says. “It happened in many countries at the same time, at a specific point in time: the moment when teens traded their flip phones for smartphones. It’s as if you had a murder, and all eyewitnesses point to this suspect. There is no other explanation.”
In his latest bookThe Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, out now, Haidt examines the connection between this “great rewiring,” in which we’ve traded kids' play time for phone time, and the decline in teen mental health. Haidt talked with PEOPLE for a story in this week’s issue—and offered suggestions on how to solve the problem.
Penguin Press
What’s the connection between smartphones and kids’ mental health?Imagine there was suddenly a toy introduced which would cause children to get less sleep, less exercise, spend less time with other children. It would make them incredibly self-conscious, and it would lower their self-esteem and cause depression and anxiety. That would be horrible, right? We’ve seen a loss of the play-based childhood, which kids have always had, in favor of a phone-based childhood. Five years ago it was possible to say the link between mental health and smartphones is just correlational, but that’s not true anymore.All evidencepoints to it.
What needs to change?If Congress said, “You have to be 21 to drink, but we’re going to give immunity to the alcohol industry — it’s the parents’ job to keep their children out of bars,” that’s the situation we’re in with social media. It’s absurd. Parents can’t possibly do that. The most important thing the government can do is raise the age for social media use to 16. Right now, the law says 13, and there’s no enforcement. Once kids are on, there’s no way to make it safe. Social media isbrutal for children. It’s crucial to require social media companies to age verify. If companies were responsible for harms to underage users, they’d solve the problem quickly.
Jonathan Haidt“We’ve overprotected our children in the real world and underprotected them online,”
Jonathan Haidt
“We’ve overprotected our children in the real world and underprotected them online,”
NYU social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation.Jayne Riew
Jayne Riew
Telling your kid they can only have a flip phone can be a tough call if your kids’ friends all have smartphones!Collective action is essential, and early action is most effective. For anybody with children under 10, link up now with parents of your kids’ friends. Believe me, they’re worried about this too. Coordinate—your kids aren’t going to get phones, but theyaregoing to get a lot of time playing with each other. So it’s not “Let’s take away phones.”
Is it too late for kids who have grown up with smartphones?It’s definitely not too late. They’re still young, they can still change. I’m getting amazing results from the students in my “Flourishing” class at NYU. They’re all 19 plus or minus a year. They’re all addicted to their phones. We go through exercises to help them regain control of their attention and I work a lot with them on their morning and evening routines. Once they understand what this is doing to them and that they need to guard their attention like it’s the most precious resource, they get amazing results. They lower their screen time. They find that they can do their homework. They’re not interrupted constantly. So some simple lifestyle changes can bring about huge benefits, especially if they do it together, that’s the key thing. And there’s nobody out there in Gen Z saying, “We need our social media, don’t take it away from us.” They’re saying, “I wish we lived in a world with no social media.” A real strength of Gen Z is that they’re not in denial, they’re not defensive. They see what this is doing to them. If we can help them find a way out of this trap, they’re going to take it.
For more from Jonathan Haidt, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribehere.
source: people.com
