The American social psychologist Jonathan Haidt (strictly: social psychologist at New York University’s Stern School of Business) has a new book out: “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.
That’s where you’d need to control for at least one of the variables - perhaps outside time, which you would think is possible. But maybe when kids have phones they spend less time outside because they’re on their phones..
Wow, if there was ever an example of the idea "The technology you grow up with normal; the technology after you're adult is the downfall of society", it's this: "Well, watching television, though our parents complained about it, when you look back on it, my recollection was that it was usually social.". Does he have any idea of how much television was decried as "The Plug-In Drug"? That it corrupted the youth, was destroying their thinking ability, oh woe, it would be the downfall of civilization. But he remembers it differently. The doomsayers then were wrong. However, the doomsayers now are right - the real corruption of youth, destroying their thinking ability, etc, etc. is the newfangled stuff. Decades from now, his successor is going to be saying something like "Yes, back then the smartphone was The Threat. Yet my recollection was that it was usually social - you were connected to the entire world-wide-web. Those fears were wrong. But now we're right, the real threat is the horrible damage wrought by the neural-link, which obliterates the boundary between the self and the crowd. It can literally destroy the delicate developing mind of a child, it's that bad."
I suppose nobody reads comic books nowadays, so they can't be blamed.
From the coverage I've seen, a big question that seems to be missing from the public discourse is about phone use, as in, not how long are they using their phones for, but what are they using their phones for.
A kid using their phone to have fun with friends, co-work doing homework, feel secure knowing they can call their parents if they need to when out is going to be in a very different space to a kid who's suffering bullying via social media or private messaging, or whose being harassed by men on social media, or who's delving into the darker corners of the web to prop up a damaging interest or self-identity.
I also think that there are too many confounding factors to put the blame for a worsening of childhood mental health at the feet of one cause. Off the top of my head, there's loss of independent outdoors time (which I think is a direct result of the stupid 'stranger danger' campaigns we grew up with), loss of third places for kids/teens to go, increased poverty, increased awareness of global catastrophe, etc etc. It seems foolish, with all that going on as well, to put everything on to the phone.
I realize this is from months ago but as a mom to three children, two of whom are in middle school, smartphones are expected. Teachers communicate via apps. Clubs, sports and other extracurriculars have group chats or apps where they post important information. Many assignments are completed and submitted online. This is great because it means nobody can lose papers between school and home (which is what happened to any papers my teachers sent home with me).
Anyway, my kids prefer to spend time in person with their friends, but we live in an area with no public transportation unless you're going downtown and the usual metro traffic congestion. One of my children has friends in our neighborhood. But meeting up with friends outside of our neighborhood is an ordeal. Extracurriculars help somewhat, but they'd see friends more if it meant just walking over to someone's house and seeing if they're home.
So the oldest one is on the phone with her friends a lot. They do video-call study sessions. Sometimes her friends walk her through simple recipes that she would never allow me to teach her. So I'm cool with that. She doesn't have TikTok or IG or anything that's usually mentioned as a social media site, though. Those aren't good for me, either, and not because of the usual reasons discussed (the social comparison and sexualization and whatever) but because I'm a neurotic nerd whose hobbies are writing terrible fiction and drawing and all the other people in my hobbies are also neurotic; when we congregate on social media we amplify one another's anxiety. There's nothing like being told "not only are you completely right to be worried, but you're not worried enough. Also, here are 238954235235 other topics you must be upset about. Also, here are 385935353580 gofundmes. Not enough people are donating, do you all hate X type of people?! If you didn't, this would have met its funding goal." So exhausting.
Also, as someone who was highly online for my millennial peers, I read a study - I'll have to see if I can find it. It was about MMO usage and mental health, and it concluded that the MMO users with the worst mental health weren't the ones who were on the most frequently, but the roleplayers. And as a former roleplayer, that checks out. But in that case, I'd say with confidence that mental illness comes first and roleplaying is a means of avoiding reality (it can also be a great way of working through personal issues, but usually it's reality avoidance.)
OH also, I should have added that pre-internet, I used books for the same purpose of avoiding reality. Switching to the internet increased how much socializing I engaged in, personally. In my case, it was sensory processing related - it's hard to hold offline conversations if you're slow at processing what the other person said.
IMO, if parents are concerned about their child's screen time they should reflect on what purpose it's serving.
Is it difficult for the child to get together with friends in person? Should they perhaps be given more explicit instruction on specific social skills instead of everyone assuming they'll pick them up through trial and error? Do they have a psychiatric disorder that interferes with maintaining relationships? Is it because online is where they're best able to achieve goals/recognition/respect (whether through sharing selfies or leading MMO raids or shit posting on social media)? Do they fundamentally dislike aspects of themselves and are using the relative anonymity of the internet to try out being more assertive or cracking jokes instead of being neurotic (it's harder to do this with people who already know you in the role you're trying to break out of.)
Without understanding why someone is turning to the internet (or gaming), you can't help them get those needs met offline, and if their needs aren't being met offline then convincing them to touch grass is going to be a losing battle.
That’s where you’d need to control for at least one of the variables - perhaps outside time, which you would think is possible. But maybe when kids have phones they spend less time outside because they’re on their phones..
Wow, if there was ever an example of the idea "The technology you grow up with normal; the technology after you're adult is the downfall of society", it's this: "Well, watching television, though our parents complained about it, when you look back on it, my recollection was that it was usually social.". Does he have any idea of how much television was decried as "The Plug-In Drug"? That it corrupted the youth, was destroying their thinking ability, oh woe, it would be the downfall of civilization. But he remembers it differently. The doomsayers then were wrong. However, the doomsayers now are right - the real corruption of youth, destroying their thinking ability, etc, etc. is the newfangled stuff. Decades from now, his successor is going to be saying something like "Yes, back then the smartphone was The Threat. Yet my recollection was that it was usually social - you were connected to the entire world-wide-web. Those fears were wrong. But now we're right, the real threat is the horrible damage wrought by the neural-link, which obliterates the boundary between the self and the crowd. It can literally destroy the delicate developing mind of a child, it's that bad."
I suppose nobody reads comic books nowadays, so they can't be blamed.
Certainly something in that.
From the coverage I've seen, a big question that seems to be missing from the public discourse is about phone use, as in, not how long are they using their phones for, but what are they using their phones for.
A kid using their phone to have fun with friends, co-work doing homework, feel secure knowing they can call their parents if they need to when out is going to be in a very different space to a kid who's suffering bullying via social media or private messaging, or whose being harassed by men on social media, or who's delving into the darker corners of the web to prop up a damaging interest or self-identity.
I also think that there are too many confounding factors to put the blame for a worsening of childhood mental health at the feet of one cause. Off the top of my head, there's loss of independent outdoors time (which I think is a direct result of the stupid 'stranger danger' campaigns we grew up with), loss of third places for kids/teens to go, increased poverty, increased awareness of global catastrophe, etc etc. It seems foolish, with all that going on as well, to put everything on to the phone.
I realize this is from months ago but as a mom to three children, two of whom are in middle school, smartphones are expected. Teachers communicate via apps. Clubs, sports and other extracurriculars have group chats or apps where they post important information. Many assignments are completed and submitted online. This is great because it means nobody can lose papers between school and home (which is what happened to any papers my teachers sent home with me).
Anyway, my kids prefer to spend time in person with their friends, but we live in an area with no public transportation unless you're going downtown and the usual metro traffic congestion. One of my children has friends in our neighborhood. But meeting up with friends outside of our neighborhood is an ordeal. Extracurriculars help somewhat, but they'd see friends more if it meant just walking over to someone's house and seeing if they're home.
So the oldest one is on the phone with her friends a lot. They do video-call study sessions. Sometimes her friends walk her through simple recipes that she would never allow me to teach her. So I'm cool with that. She doesn't have TikTok or IG or anything that's usually mentioned as a social media site, though. Those aren't good for me, either, and not because of the usual reasons discussed (the social comparison and sexualization and whatever) but because I'm a neurotic nerd whose hobbies are writing terrible fiction and drawing and all the other people in my hobbies are also neurotic; when we congregate on social media we amplify one another's anxiety. There's nothing like being told "not only are you completely right to be worried, but you're not worried enough. Also, here are 238954235235 other topics you must be upset about. Also, here are 385935353580 gofundmes. Not enough people are donating, do you all hate X type of people?! If you didn't, this would have met its funding goal." So exhausting.
Also, as someone who was highly online for my millennial peers, I read a study - I'll have to see if I can find it. It was about MMO usage and mental health, and it concluded that the MMO users with the worst mental health weren't the ones who were on the most frequently, but the roleplayers. And as a former roleplayer, that checks out. But in that case, I'd say with confidence that mental illness comes first and roleplaying is a means of avoiding reality (it can also be a great way of working through personal issues, but usually it's reality avoidance.)
Thanks Tar - that's a fascinating contribution. Completely agree about the exhausting nature of it all!
I found the article about roleplayers vs non-roleplayers! I knew I had saved it. In case you're curious.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240285999_Behind_the_Avatar_The_Patterns_Practices_and_Functions_of_Role_Playing_in_MMOs
OH also, I should have added that pre-internet, I used books for the same purpose of avoiding reality. Switching to the internet increased how much socializing I engaged in, personally. In my case, it was sensory processing related - it's hard to hold offline conversations if you're slow at processing what the other person said.
IMO, if parents are concerned about their child's screen time they should reflect on what purpose it's serving.
Is it difficult for the child to get together with friends in person? Should they perhaps be given more explicit instruction on specific social skills instead of everyone assuming they'll pick them up through trial and error? Do they have a psychiatric disorder that interferes with maintaining relationships? Is it because online is where they're best able to achieve goals/recognition/respect (whether through sharing selfies or leading MMO raids or shit posting on social media)? Do they fundamentally dislike aspects of themselves and are using the relative anonymity of the internet to try out being more assertive or cracking jokes instead of being neurotic (it's harder to do this with people who already know you in the role you're trying to break out of.)
Without understanding why someone is turning to the internet (or gaming), you can't help them get those needs met offline, and if their needs aren't being met offline then convincing them to touch grass is going to be a losing battle.