Youth and smartphones

When I was in graduate school, there was a concern that electronic calculators would profoundly harm children’s ability to do mental calculations. Then, a few decades later, the fear was that violence in video games would lead to increased violence in real life. Now, there is a concern that smartphones are rewiring the brains of children and damaging their mental health.

Anxiety on the rise

Jonathan Haidt’s 2024 best-seller The Anxious Generation argues precisely this. A social psychologist, Haidt has written many popular psychology books, including The Righteous Mind, about our moral intuitions and the cultural differences in morality between conservatives and liberals. In The Anxious Generation, he suggests digital technologies are rewiring the brains of children and youth and causing an increase in anxiety and other mental health issues. The book has sparked a heated discussion in the psychological community on whether in this case correlation means there is a causal relationship.

Child development psychologists agree that rates of depression, anxiety and suicide in youth have seen increases over the last decade, while more general medical conditions like heart issues, asthma and migraines have not increased. However, they are unclear about the causes of these increases and whether they are specific to a particular group.

Not so fast, Haidt

For example, it appears that persistent sadness in the United States has increased in girls much more than in boys. Are digital devices worse for girls? Others have pointed out that some individuals, like transgender and nonbinary youth, can actually benefit from digital devices, which help them find common communities and belonging. Other youth, maybe those with predispositions to mental health issues, may use their smartphones in ways that increase their difficulties. In short, the relationship between electronics and well-being looks more complex than the blanket view that electronics are bad.

The rapid advance of technology has been a concern for a long time. Are we still worried about electronic calculators or violence in video games? We are only beginning to contemplate the effects on our thinking and creative abilities of AI tools like ChatGPT.

Practical advice for parents

For better or worse, technology shapes us. Yet is it also nearly unavoidable. The best practical advice I see is for parents and children to have open and frank conversations about technology, and for parents to set practical, age-appropriate boundaries. In particular, getting enough sleep is critical for children and family guidelines around screen time, which can affect sleep, are imperative.

The church has long struggled to respond to our advancing technology, and the issues are often complex. The CRC is currently looking at what to think about virtual churches. We are image bearers of a creative God, and the increasing richness of our technology should not surprise us. Yet as sinful beings we must be mindful of technology’s harms. Pray for our children as they grow up in an increasingly complex world.

The Anxious Generation

By Jonathan Haidt
2024