How a cell phone-essentially essentially based mostly childhood is having disastrous effects

A new book is sounding the alarm on the current Mental Health crisis facing youth in our country and what we can do about it in the anxious anxious generation author and social psychologist Jonathan height spells out how Jen Z those born after 1995 were the first to come of age bombarded by the alternative use of.

Social media staring them in the face 247 through their smartphones the toll this way of life has taken on their well-being has been devastating a new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation reveals roughly one in five adolescence report experiencing symptoms of anxiety or depression but height argues there are ways to fix this and he joins us now.

This is such an important book thank you for writing it um I I have kids in this category and I see through the eyes of them and many of their friends and Joe's kids exactly what you're saying I would like to add um school shootings to this which has become a way of life now for young children and I wonder if that also you.

Agree plays a role in this generation of anxiety um well thanks so much for having having me on it's a big mystery because it it's hitting all all of us and everyone has a theory about what causes it and and fear of school shootings is one that I I hear a lot and the new town shooting was 2012 but that doesn't explain why the exact same thing.

Happened a complete collapse of mental health hitting especially girls and especially young girls in Canada the UK Australia New Zealand it all starts around 2013 and that's not because of American school shootings so uh when this first broke out we weren't sure but now that we know it's International there is only one explanation there's no.

Other theory that can make sense of a of a synchronized Global collapse in mental health other than the fact that in 2010 the great majority kids had a flip phone no high-speed internet no unlimited data no Instagram and by 2015 we all have a smartphone High-Speed Internet unlimited data Instagram front-facing camera so what I'm arguing.

In the book is that childhood was rewired in those five years well and also parents teachers communities lost control of The Narrative of what children are exposed to when so if you can imagine young kids with phones with the internet exposing them to all sorts of things that were definitely not you know uh a a.

Tap Away uh before that and that would include porn that's right um and and hate and also a sense of inclusion or exclusion they knew where everybody was and the the communication and the exposure would go all night long I mean it seems so obvious and at the same time Jonathan it doesn't really feel like anything is being done about it.

Collectively I will read about a school system or a community that is trying to ban smartphones in schools that's not going to solve the problem well actually that would make an enormous enormous difference start it would start but then they pick the phones up after school okay so so M what I'm hearing from you is what I hear from most parents and.

Most teachers which is it's a hell of a problem it's ruining everything we're losing control but what are you going to do the problem's too big we never solve it it's resignation that's what I keep hearing but what I argue in the book is that we're stuck because it's a series of collective action problems that is why do you feel you have to give your.

Kid a smartphone in fifth or sixth grade because everybody else did why does she have to have Instagram in seventh grade because she's the only one who will be left out if you don't let her have it so what I'm arguing the book is once we see this we parents we're not we're not getting much help from Congress Congress created the problem they've done nothing.

Since 1998 to to regulate it um we parents and teachers we can solve this if we act together and so what I proposed in the book is four Norms that will be the foundation for a complete reform for rolling back the phone based childhood and the four Norms briefly are no smartphone till High School no social media till 16 phone free schools all day.

Long not just during class and a lot more Independence free play and responsibility in the real world if we do those four things they're hard to do as a alone person but if we do them collectively they get easy Jonathan all of this I love I love the fact that you're giving guidelines because every parent like me is looking.

For them I have an 18-year-old whose daughter she's the youngest of my four and she's completely grown up with the the smartphone but interesting ly just in the last few months she's deleted all social media apps from her phone and a group of her friends are doing the same because they're finding that it was taking up too much time it was causing.

Too much anxiety Etc and I just wonder where are we starting to see are there glimmers of those who are perhaps older than 15 16 starting to say wow this is we we have to do something about this because our parents aren't our teachers aren't our members of Congress aren't and actually they're sort of done with it.

Absolutely this is actually a big Reason for Hope j z has a lot of problems their anxiety is making them less effective in the real world they're not as ambitious they're not making as much progress but they are completely not in denial they see the situation very clearly and over and over again they say they say if we could all get rid of at the same time we.

Would do it and we are starting to see individual and clusters of friends moving to flip phones which are much less toxic than smartphones so this is the amazing thing is that almost everybody wants to change even even the teenagers they want to change um there was a review in in a British paper the reporter ended by asking her 18-year-old.

Daughter would you have liked a smartphone Bann to age 16 when you were younger and the daughter says would it apply to everyone and when the mother said yes she said yes I would have rather liked that and the mother was so sad because it was such a missed opportunity you know.

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