The New York Times’s technology section doesn’t want you to deprive your children of hours upon hours of smartphone screen time out of concern for their mental health.
“Panicking About Your Kids’ Phones? New Research Says Don’t,” a recent headline read. The New York Times's tech writer made his case against caution based on two new studies. But the argument had quite a few holes.
The studies’ authors, as the newspaper put it, are “challenging the widespread belief that screens are responsible for broad societal problems like the rising rates of anxiety and sleep deprivation among teenagers.”
“The current dominant discourse around phones and well-being is a lot of hype and a lot of fear," one author claimed.
Of course anxiety and sleep deprivation are on the rise among teenagers. Of course the massive spike in depression symptoms, especially among girls, has coincided with the massive spike in hours teenagers spend on social media and smartphones.
How do the authors account for this epidemic of anxiety and depression? Their explanations: “How about climate change? How about income inequality?”
No, it can’t be the anti-social effects of a smartphone. It can’t be the dehumanizing nature of social media and the way these apps distill teenage cruelty and inject it straight into children’s veins. It can’t be the addiction and brain-addling of brilliant, bright, always-on devices. It can’t be the unfettered access to pornography. It must be the 1.8 millimeters a year in sea-level rise.
Jean Twenge at the Institute for Family Studies responded to the New York Times piece, rejecting its implication that “a majority of researchers have concluded that technology use isn’t related to mental health.”
For instance, data on high school students from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that “twice as many heavy users of electronic devices (5+ hours a day) compared to light users (1 hour a day) have attempted suicide (12% vs. 6%).”
So, while some researchers want you to chill, most of the data confirms what parents’ own eyes are telling them: Smartphones and social media are harmful for adults and can be devastating for children.
"Smartphone" - Google News
January 24, 2020 at 11:00AM
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In (faulty) defense of the smartphone - Washington Examiner
"Smartphone" - Google News
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