Mental illness and suicide in children and adolescents linked to smartphones

Smartphones dangerous for children

A new book by NYU social psychologist Jonathan Haidt may confirm what many parents have already deduced and may be eye-opening to others — the harmful effects of smartphones on children and youth. His book, "The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness," is “downright alarming” according to John Sundholm writing for Your Tango. Haidt says that smartphones, social media, and helicopter parenting have altered childhood for Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha, resulting in greater mental illness, social ineptness, and declining academic achievement.

According to Today teens:

Gen Z was born between 1997 and 2012 and is considered the first generation to have largely grown up using the internet, modern technology and social media. Members of Gen Z are sometimes known as zoomers.

Alex Doyle, a 20-year-old Gen Z’er from South Carolina, says she thinks the relationship with technology is what distinguishes Gen Z from the other generations.

“I feel like it’s unique how we know the world before social media but also have seen how it can be useful, whereas the generations before us are more averse to that and Gen Alpha are iPad kids and, like, can’t read,” Doyle said.

Gen Alpha is the youngest generation to date, encompassing those born from 2011 to 2024. This generation is known for being digital natives, even more so than Gen Z, having been born into a world that is fully integrated with technology, social media and global connection.

Haidt's research, based on many studies and CDC statistics, showed that rates of depression and anxiety, which had been stable during the 2000s, increased by over 50% during the 2010s. Worse still are the rates of suicide which have increased by 48% for children from 10-19 years and by 131% for girls from 10-14 years of age. Haidt documented the increased loneliness and friendlessness among teens and plunging academic achievement. 

Gen-Z adults, he said, have more problems with mental illness and difficulty integrating into society than previous generations, as Sundholm reported:

It's well known that Gen Z adults have much higher rates of mental illness than other generations, and Haidt pointed to data showing they are also more shy and risk-averse, more socially isolated, especially with respect to dating, less confident, less successful — the list goes on and on.

In a discussion about his book on MSNBC's Morning Joe (see the video below), Haidt voiced the concerns raised by parents and teachers:

 What I hear from most parents and most teachers, which is, “It's a hell of a problem, it is ruining everything. We're losing control but what are you going to do? The problem is too big. We'll never solve it.” It is resignation. . . . 

He also offers hope:

We parents and teachers — we can solve this if we act together. . . .
 

Not exclusive to U.S.

The phenomena noted by Haidt are not exclusive to American youth but are found in countries around the world and point to two issues, he said. The first issue is the advent of smartphones and social media, “the neurological, psychological, and developmental harms of which are well established by myriad scientific studies.”

The other issue he identified as “helicopter parenting,” which began in the 1980's:

Second, the loss of independence and exploration for kids due to parenting changes since the 1980s (like so-called "helicopter parenting").

"In the 1990s, American parents began pulling their children indoors or insisting that afternoons be spent in adult-run enrichment activities," he wrote in The Atlantic. "Free play, independent exploration, and teen hangout time declined."

“The entire internet in their pockets”

Sundholm quoted Haidt, further, noting that the internet completely changed childhood:

"Once young people began carrying the entire internet in their pockets, available to them day and night, it altered their daily experiences and developmental pathways across the board," he went on to say. "Friendship, dating, sexuality, exercise, sleep, academics, politics, family dynamics, identity — all were affected."

“The Great rewiring of childhood”   

During an interview about Gen-Alpha smartphone addiction at the ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) November 2023 conference, as seen in the video below (5:06-6:40), Haidt describes some of the significant changes in childhood development brought about by smartphones, particularly the end of  in person, play-based childhood:

Childhood is about building up your brain and you do that through play. Anyone who had a puppy knows it's all about play. So we had play-based childhoods up until around 2010. . . . Kids used to actually see each other in person and once they all got phones and loaded with social media for the girls, it's video games for the boys, childhood stops being play-based, which is what a mammal brain needs to wire up properly. 

It stops being play-based, it becomes phone-based where phone includes video game consoles all the stuff that makes your social interactions virtual, often asynchronous, disembodied, transitory. So it's a complete what I'm calling it “The Great rewiring of childhood.”      

The remedy — smartphone-free children

To combat these phenomena, Haidt makes several suggestions including giving children simple flip-phones until high school just so parents can remain in contact with their children, removing phones from school, and giving children more independence and responsibility:

1. No smartphones before high school, suggesting parents opt for simple flip phones in order to remain in contact with kids.
2. No social media before the age of 16.
3. Phone-free schools, which Haidt discussed, tend to have myriad positive benefits in schools, with even some students saying they prefer a phone-free experience.
4. More independence, free play, and responsibility in the real world.
    

15-year-olds reading like 8-year olds  

Removing smartphones from children and adolescents may be what's needed to turn things around as the experience of this New Jersey high school teacher shows. She is considering quitting, as Lauren Reams reported for Your Tango. Her 10th-grade students, she realized, were reading on a second to third-grade level. 

The teacher in New Jersey shared in a Reddit post that the past couple of years have been very stressful for her, but the straw that broke the camel's back was when she realized her 10th-grade students could not read at their grade level. In fact, they could barely read at all.

She explained that instead of reading books at a high school level, these sophomores are reading 2nd and 3rd-grade books like "Charlotte's Web" and "The Bridge to Terabithia." 

Her experience is not unique, Reams wrote. Other teachers she turned to had the same experience:

In absolute shock, she turned to fellow teachers in her school for advice. As it turns out, her experience wasn't limited to her classroom, but many teachers observed that students homeschooled during the pandemic, versus students exposed to the virtual classroom, were much more advanced.

The parents are mad because the kids are failing, but there's not much she can do, especially when it comes to their behavior which she categorized as “rude, always on their phones, destructive.”