According to Jonathan Haidt鈥檚 bestselling book The Anxious Generation, the proliferation of smartphones and subsequent exposure to social media among children and young people has harmed mental well-being, resulting in an 鈥渁nxious generation鈥�. Hence Haidt鈥檚 title.
However, a closer look at the data reveals that such thinking is aimed in the wrong direction. The meaning and causes of increased rates of anxiety in young people remain complex and unclear. But simply put, when it comes to phones and modern tech, it is often parents who are the overly anxious ones, not their children.
Advertisement
So much of the current discourse about phones and young people stems from concerned parents, to the point where legislation is being introduced to quell their fears by restricting young people鈥檚 access to the technology.
The problem is, even the most in-depth studies have any significant association between phone use and mental health issues in young people. And even when a link is identified, it is .
Ultimately, the amount of effort parents invest in reducing the dangers of smartphones for young people is out of proportion to the evidence that such 鈥渄angers鈥� even exist in the first place.
Given that anxiety disorders can be described as 鈥� that cause fear, dread and other symptoms that are out of proportion to the situation鈥�, it could well be argued that, rather than in teens, phones are causing excess anxiety in parents.
This manifests in other ways too. There is a belief that children should be encouraged to put their phones down and go outside more, because that is clearly the healthier thing to do. There are about this. But, yet again, this mindset doesn鈥檛 fit with the actual evidence.
For one, the idea that young people can either use their phones or go outside is obviously flawed. No such dichotomy exists. Many people still refer to them as mobile phones! Portability is clearly a key feature of this technology.
But a deeper dive into the research shows a surprising trend. The time children spend outdoors, and the distances they wander from home, have been , long before smartphones became ubiquitous.
There are many factors behind this, such as urban development of once-empty spaces, or how there are ever more cars on the roads, presenting a danger to an unsupervised, meandering child.
But one significant factor in this decline is changing parental attitudes. Parents have grown for their children鈥檚 safety over the decades, being ever more likely to restrict them from unsupervised free play outdoors as a result. While this may have been for valid reasons, restricting a child鈥檚 freedom and movement leads to more health problems in the long term.
Ultimately, the anxieties of many modern parents regarding their children鈥檚 safety directly harm their children鈥檚 health. It is quite the conundrum.
This situation becomes even more surreal when you learn that this trend of increasingly keeping children indoors has gone into reverse in recent years. Why? The most obvious answer is Children having their own phone means parents can check in on them at any time, meaning they are to let young people out of their sight. So, isn鈥檛 it irrational to then blame phones for children not going outside enough? Yes, it is.
And yet, as with many factors that affect the parent-teen dynamic, if there is a genuine problem regarding phone use (and this does happen), an open dialogue is the most helpful approach. It certainly beats trying to control a teenager鈥檚 behaviour based on gut feelings, suspicions or anxieties.
Dean Burnett is author of聽
