Older generations have the nostalgic habit of attributing the shortfalls of the latest generation to the degradation of old values. I say nostalgic because older generations have a tendency to remember the things that shaped them with a rosier light—and to wish that nostalgia on the young adults around them.
Today scientific analysis, via surveys and studies, are the latest justification for this old American habit.
It’s important to begin with that truism, as what this new study has to say is particularly disturbing without that context.
Jean M. Twenge, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at San Diego State University, has a new paper published in Clinical Psychological Science arguing that increased smartphone use with teens is leading to higher rates of depression and suicide.
“In just the five years between 2010 and 2015,” Twenge says, “the number of U.S. teens who felt useless and joyless—classic symptoms of depression—surged 33 percent in large national surveys. Teen suicide attempts increased 23 percent. Even more troubling, the number of 13- to 18-year-olds who committed suicide jumped 31 percent.”
Twenge says that they found that increases in depression and suicide occurred among teens across every background. It didn’t matter if the teens with in wealthy or poor families or what their ethnicity is. “All told, our analysis found that the generation of teens … born after 1995 is much more likely to experience mental health issues than their millennial predecessors…. After scouring several large surveys of teens for clues, I found that all of the possibilities traced back to a major change in teens' lives: the sudden ascendance of the smartphone.”
Twenge looked at many different studies of teens in the U.S. and discounted socioeconomic factors as a cause, as the increased rates of depression and suicide occurred across demographics and because, from 2010 to 2015, the U.S. mostly experienced a period of economic growth and falling unemployment. The one factor Twenge found was a constant was an increase in smartphone use.
Twenge notes that, according to the Pew Research Center, “smartphone ownership crossed the 50 percent threshold in late 2012—right when teen depression and suicide began to increase. By 2015, 73 percent of teens had access to a smartphone.”
This research paper even found that, says Twenge, “teens who spent five or more hours a day online were 71 percent more likely than those who spent only one hour a day to have at least one suicide risk factor (depression, thinking about suicide, making a suicide plan or attempting suicide). Overall, suicide risk factors rose significantly after two or more hours a day of time online.”
One of the reasons for these findings is that teens are spending less time interacting with friends in person. “Interacting with people face to face is one of the deepest wellsprings of human happiness; without it, our moods start to suffer and depression often follows,” says Twenge.
Many studies have noted that people who’re depressed or have attempted suicide feel socially isolated. Twenge points to this reduced in-person interaction as an attributing factor related to more smartphone use.
“Teens are also sleeping less,” says Twenge, “and teens who spend more time on their phones are more likely to not be getting enough sleep.”
True, but couldn’t it be that they are on their smartphones because they are not sleeping?
Twenge does note how complex this issue is by saying, “Depression and suicide have many causes: Genetic predisposition, family environments, bullying and trauma can all play a role. Some teens would experience mental health problems no matter what era they lived in.”
The conclusion is that though it “might be argued that it’s too soon to recommend less screen time, given that the research isn’t completely definitive. However, the downside to limiting screen time—say, to two hours a day or less—is minimal. In contrast, the downside to doing nothing—given the possible consequences of depression and suicide—seems, to me, quite high.”
So it seems there is something, in this case, to the nostalgic loss of what was—in this cause the latest generation needs more time outside playing sports, hiking, going to the beach … with family and peers.
Smartphones are a relatively new and incredible entranceway into the ever-expanding digital world, but as with anything new, we do need to learn how to manage and live with this new technology.
Miniter is the author of Kill Big Brother, a cyber-thriller that shows how to keep our freedom in this digital age.
