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May 18, 2023 – America’s fascination with and reliance on smartphones seems endless, and if you think it’s common for kids to stare at their screens just as much as adults, you’re right. Several studies have found that more children are using smartphones and similar digital devices (such as tablets) and at younger ages.
a 2020 Pew Research Center The report found that more than a third of the 1,600 parents surveyed said their children began using a smartphone before the age of 5, and a quarter said their children’s engagement with smartphones began between the ages of 5 and 5. 8 years.
And a 2019 survey conducted by Common Sense Media found that more than half of American children have their own smartphone by the time they are 11 years old.
But is this increasing use of smartphones good for children’s mental health? TO new report by Sapien Labs, published this week, used global data from 27,969 Gen Z young adults (ages 18-24) to focus on the possible relationship between childhood smartphone use and current mental health. After all, this is “the first generation to go through their teens with this technology,” explains Tara Thiagarajan, PhD, founder and chief scientist at Sapien Labs.
The report found that mental well-being “consistently improved with advancing age from first possession of a smartphone or tablet, with a more pronounced change in women compared to men.”
In fact, the percentage of women with mental health problems dropped from 74% for those who received their first smartphone at age 6 to 46% for those who received their first smartphone at age 18. In men, the percentage dropped from the 42% who received their first smartphone. smartphone at age 6 to 36% who received it at age 18.
“The earlier you got your smartphone as a child, the more likely you are to have poorer mental well-being as an adult,” Thiagarajan said.
Path of decline in mental health
Thiagarajan said his organization was motivated to conduct the study because “they are tracking developments in the world’s mental well-being with an eye to understanding what is driving the current decline in mental well-being in younger generations.”
Its goals are to “discover the root causes so that we can identify appropriate preventative strategies that can reverse the trend.”
He noted that the “trajectory of decline that we are seeing [in mental health] tracks the advent of smartphones, and there’s quite a bit of literature linking social media and smartphones to negative outcomes, so it was high on the list of potential root causes to explore.”
He explained that Sapien Labs’ Global Mind Project is an “ongoing survey of global mental well-being, along with various factors of lifestyle and life experience.” “It acquires data using an assessment encompassing 47 items covering a wide range of symptoms and mental abilities on a life impact scale that are combined to provide an aggregate score.”
One of the categories examined is the social self, a “measure of how we see ourselves and relate to others.” It’s one of the six parts of mental function, and it improved most dramatically with advancing age from first smartphone possession in young men and women.
“For women, other dimensions such as mood and outlook and adaptability and resilience also improved considerably” in those who got their first smartphone at older ages. In particular, problems with suicidal thoughts, feelings of aggression toward others, feeling disconnected from reality, and hallucinations “decreased more steeply and significantly” with older age of first smartphone ownership. for women and also for men, but to a lesser extent. degree.
Smartphones amplify existing mental health challenges
Katerina Voci, a 17-year-old senior at St. Benedict’s Preparatory School in Newark, NJ, has struggled with mental health her entire life, particularly anxiety and depression. “I’ve been working with them and I’m very proud of the progress I’ve made,” she said.
Although she didn’t start using smartphones in early childhood (she didn’t get her first until eighth grade), she believes that smartphone use may have worsened her mental health problems since then.
“It depended on the type of media you used,” he said. “Social media was the most important aspect of my smartphone usage.”
Katerina was not surprised to learn the results of Sapien’s report. “There is a distinctive beauty standard that many people, especially women, are trying to achieve, and there is a lot of pressure to meet, and that is driven by digital devices like smartphones.”
In addition, “there is still online teasing and bullying that can affect mental health. It’s easier to engage in bullying when you’re hiding behind a screen because there’s less responsibility than if you were in person,” she said.
Katerina, who is a hands-on peer mediator and mentor to schoolmates with mental health issues, deleted her social media accounts because she felt being online was not conducive to her mental health.
Simena Carey, MA, a certified school counselor at St. Benedict’s Prep School, is a clinician who works with Katerina and other youth. “In working with the girls, I see that many of them already come with feelings of anxiety, depression and loneliness, and the phones amplify that.”
Feeling left out is common when using social media, where everyone seems to be on vacation, have perfect bodies, or have fun. Young people ask themselves: “Why don’t I do these things?” They end up being a “silent competition” with each other, Carey said. The younger they start, the more that mindset is created and reinforced.
Domino effect
Research has shown that children spend between 5 and 8 hours online a day, according to Thiagarajan. “That’s up to 2,950 hours a year! Before the smartphone, much of this time would have been spent engaging in some way with family and friends.”
She calls social behavior “complex” and notes that it “needs to be learned and practiced in order for us to be good at it and build relationships.” But today’s kids don’t have enough social practice, “so they struggle in the social world. Social activity on the internet is not the same [as in-person socializing] because it distorts reality and eliminates many of the modes of communication such as eye contact, mirroring body language, touch, and smell that are crucial to the human bond.”
Benjamin Maxwell, MD, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, and chair of behavioral health at Rady Children’s Hospital, was not surprised by the findings of the Sapien study.
“At Rady Children’s Hospital, it’s not uncommon for us to see patients struggling with mental health issues because of their relationship with their smartphone,” he said. “From severe cyberbullying to feeling left out of social events, we see these issues on a daily basis.”
She stressed the “value of in-person social connection and its impact on our psychological well-being” and said that “as more children spend time interacting virtually and asynchronously, it can have a ripple effect, leading to issues like decreased sleep, increased focus on image and popularity, and ultimately mental health issues.”
By recognizing the impact smartphones can have on mental health, “we can work to find ways to promote healthy relationships with technology and prioritize in-person social connection,” Maxwell said.
‘Guinea pig generation’
“Unfortunately, Generation Z has been a generation of guinea pigs, and the struggles they’re having are a consequence of the environment they were born into,” Thiagarajan said.
But “the human brain and mind are remarkably malleable, and we are capable of learning and changing at any age.” Thiagarajan believes that “being aware of the consequences of smartphones is a first step.”
She advises Gen Zers to “understand that they have been deprived of hours of social interaction and they must find ways to make up for it.” With practice, in-person interactions “will become easier and more enjoyable,” so “start by reaching out to more friends and family, volunteering, or joining an interest group.”
Tips for parents
TO recent history of a “heroic” seventh grader who managed to drive and stop a school bus after the driver became incapacitated is attributed to the fact that he was the only kid on the bus not on a smartphone.
Instead of looking at a screen, he had watched the driver over time, so he knew how the driver stopped the bus. And because he wasn’t concentrating on his phone, he realized that the driver could no longer operate the bus and he sprang into action.
Thiagarajan urges parents to focus on their children’s social development. “It’s fundamentally important for your mental well-being and your ability to navigate the world.”
Parents should “make sure their children spend at least a few hours a day interacting in person with family and friends without a smartphone in the way and developing the skills and relationships that will help them throughout life,” she advised.
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