Something happened in 2010. The rate of major depression among teenage girls suddenly tripled, to 30%, and the rate of psychological disorders among college students increased five-fold, to 14%. This was not just due to increased awareness – the rate of suicide also tripled. To be sure, the suicide rate was still small – three in 100,000 – but the increase confirmed the existence of the problem.
A new book, “The Anxious Generation/ How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Creating an Epidemic of Mental Illness,” by New York University social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, places the blame on the 2010 introduction of the smartphone and social media applications. He says they are especially harmful to teenagers who are at a vulnerable developmental stage. He cites proof that teenage dissatisfaction with life increases as the number of hours spent using a smartphone increases. He discounts other potential causes for the increase. Over the same period, adult depression rates remained constant and American economic conditions improved.
If he is right, then if you want to triple the risk that your daughter will suffer from a major depression, give her a smartphone. And if you believe you may want to take that risk, you should read this book first.
Haidt likens giving a child a smartphone to sending her to Mars – a world parents have never inhabited that is full of risks. He contrasts the virtual world with the real world, and also with the spiritual world, places where normal emotional development happens. He calls social media “experience blockers” that cause harm because emotional learning comes from experience, not from information. Life in the virtual world does not equip teenagers to live in the real world, and handicaps them when they try. His conclusion suggests some steps to reduce smartphone harm.
Haidt begins by identifying 2010 as the date by which smartphones began to “engage” users with front-facing cameras, and with social media applications, like Facebook and Instagram, who added “like” or “share” or “retweet” buttons. To make money from advertisers by enticing users to spend more time on their platforms, they developed algorithms to select personalized content. They set up reward systems, or “variable ratio reinforcement schedules,” that produce a dopamine reaction in the brain not unlike the one generated by drugs. Then they added “notifications,” which can average 112 a day.
In the virtual world this created, users share information over a period of time with a potentially vast internet world. It is a fearful place. The slightest mistake is subject to attack by anonymous trolls but yet it lives forever. Apologies get mocked. Relationships are easily ended and so don’t count. Success and prestige do not depend on actual accomplishment but on the attraction of a large number of followers. Extreme points of view flourish, as do unattainable standards of beauty that leave users feeling inadequate.
Haidt compares that world to a real world in which teenagers play games, climb trees, and challenge each other, activities that foster emotional learning. In that world, they not only come to understand words, but also to read physical expressions. They deal with frustrations and confront risks that are usually small, are shared with limited number of friends, and can be forgotten. That makes them more willing to take risks. They learn to accept wins and losses and resolve conflicts in the interest of maintaining relationships. They compare themselves to their community, are encouraged to conform to real world values and appearance, and are led to respect prestige that depends on actual achievement.
Haidt also describes the way the spiritual world develops emotional maturity and the virtual world does not. In the spiritual world the participants share sacredness, perhaps by singing a song together. They worship with physical movement, such as kneeling in prayer. They block out triviality with periods of meditation. They are asked to transcend themselves, to forgive others, and to appreciate natural beauty.
Haidt puts special emphasis on the unrealistic fear of risk that social media nurtures. He blames it for the new concept of “emotional safety,” the belief in a right “not to be triggered,” and the growth of “safetyism,” which, ironically, causes children to be overprotected in the real world while they are underprotected in the virtual world.
Haidt acknowledges the difficulty of change. When 70% or more of teenagers have smartphones, the desire to conform is a powerful force. But he has some suggestions.
First, no one under the age of 16 should be able to open a social media account – the act that enables sharing and algorithm targeting. Federal law enacted in 1998 imposes a limit at 13, but Haidt says that number has no scientific basis and is not enforced. He would enforce the limit by creating independent age verification companies.
Haidt also advocates smartphone-free schools. He suggests that schools provide phone lockers or lockable pouches that prevent smartphone use during the school day.
Finally he urges parents to implement parental controls and to put limits on smartphone use at home for both teenagers and parents. And he favors almost any alternative activity, such as sports, sleep-away camps, or even playground time, which will keep teenagers off their phones.
Because the ability of smartphones to poison apparently depends on the strength of the dose, any of these measures could improve a teenager’s mental health.
Luther Munford is a Northsider.
