With a lot of focus recently on smartphones, social media and mental health (again!) I thought I would read the latest articles and research and see where we are with it all. I hope a blog like this will reassure, and offer practical tips on a tricky and understandably worrying topic.
21st century Moral Panic?
There is no doubt that books like Jonathan Haidt’s ‘The Anxious Generation’ tend to increase parental anxiety (ironically!) as well as kick start a lot of debates and media interest of course, but what can get missed in the publicity is the multiple experts countering his arguments and over-simplification of the issues. (Professor Jean Twenge is another strong advocate for the smartphone being the cause of our young people’s ills, in her book ‘iGen’.)
Whilst it can feel a relief to assume that the answer to all our teen’s issues would therefore be to ‘ban’ smartphones as Haidt suggests, or stop children from accessing all social media as has been proposed, this is unfortunately neither evidence-based nor realistic. Teen anxiety comes from many sources, and phones/ social media form only one piece in this puzzle.
The scientific counterarguments
Excellent articles like those written by Prof Christopher Ferguson, US professor of psychology, and Jeanine Connor, psychotherapist and Editor of BACP journal Children, Young People and Families, as well as by a top team at the London School of Economics, take a good hard look at the evidence and show us that there are complex reasons for rising mental health distress in our younger generation, and that phones/ social media alone are not the culprits.
In fact, these counterarguments have now been underlined by the 5 year Commission on Youth Mental Health carried out by the Lancet, published September 2024 and authored by dozens of world experts on child and adolescent mental health.
The Commission makes several interesting reflections on smartphones and social media and their impact (or not) on the deterioration of worldwide youth mental health;
‘Although the temporal association is strong, data from longitudinal and well controlled experimental studies are scarce.’
In other words, global youth mental health may seem to have started to deteriorate at the same time as smartphone use became more common, but there is little evidence that the two trends are definitely linked.
And…
‘Haidt and Twenge contend that smartphones are the only change that can account for the timing and pattern of the youth mental health crisis and that urgent action is required on many geographical and societal levels; however, despite the evidence they have assembled, and the consensus among many political leaders and the wider public, the makeup of causes is likely to be vastly more complex. The issue risks becoming unnecessarily polarised. Smartphones and social media are likely to be merely one element, even if potent, in a wider and more pervasive set of harmful megatrends that are yet to be fully understood or tamed.’
In other words we should avoid over-simplification of the causes of global mental health deterioration, and whilst technology may be part of the issue, other causes may play an even more important role.
And personally I would add that we risk missing much more important causes, and the opportunity to address those, if we focus too much on smartphones/ social media.
The Commission does make a good recommendation about phones in its conclusions though, which is to be welcomed;
‘Developing policies to limit the harm caused to the mental health of young people by unregulated social media platforms and smartphones’.
There is no doubt that social media in particular has played a role in undermining the mental health of some young people, and relevant organisations therefore have a responsibility to protect society (and the young generation especially) from the worst aspects of negative, depressing and anxiety-inducing social media.
Practical approaches in a confusing world
So what should we as parents, navigating this confusing minefield, actually do?
Well I have written other blogs about managing phones/ social media, so do feel free to go back to those for top tips too of course, but essentially, in the face of all these new books, articles and Commissions (and as a mum to a 14year old boy who is never more than a metre from his phone) here are my thoughts;
1. It’s all about balance- phones are not going to disappear, and whilst I support ‘phone free schools’, teen social lives will remain connected via their phones for now.
2. Therefore, ensure that sleep, exercise and time outside are not lost to excessive phone/ screen time- there is no golden number for how many hours is too many hours, but as I wrote in my blog on gaming ‘…too much is ‘when it interferes with normal daily life and activities’.
3. Have conversations (when they are not actively gaming/ messaging/ online) about balance, and how they are going to stay healthy, so that they can do all the things they want and need to do. They need to stay active, eat well, meet up with friends in person, explore nature, get their vitamin D outdoors, and try new things, as well as stay connected to the online world.
4. Get them to participate in setting any boundaries or times when they will put their phone away and do something else. E.g. leave the phone downstairs/ outside the bedroom at night
5. Talk about online ‘content’ rather than ‘time’- what they look at is much more important for wellbeing than how long they are online. Avoid negative/ stressful content.
6. Get them to reflect on how they feel after specific contact or content, e.g. which apps make them feel good, which friends/ snapchat contacts make them feel down. Make changes based on these reflections.
7. Learning to manage our social media and online time and emotions is tricky, but should probably be considered a life skill, like being able to say ‘no’ to drugs/ manage alcohol with friends in social situations (stay safe/ say ‘no thank you’) rather than adults simply ‘banning’ phones or social media, which is probably an unrealistic approach (like 'banning' alcohol or drugs). Learning to say no to certain feeds/ apps or people, learning how to be safe, and what the red flags are, as well as who to speak to when they see something distressing online, is vital to reduce risk from unpleasant content.
8. Make it clear that you are there for them if they see something upsetting online, that you won’t be angry that they saw it (weird stuff strays onto our timelines too, even when we don’t seek it out etc) but that you are there to support them, talk about it, and make sure they feel safe in future. Be the safe harbour they need you to be.
In summary
The answer to my title question is therefore 'no', smartphones and social media are not the main problem for teen mental health.
Learning to live safely with smartphones and social media isn’t easy, but we can support our teens to aim for balance in their lives, to recognise what upsets or stresses them, and to know they can talk to us about ANYTHING they see online.
We can wait for the multinationals to take responsibility for content, but in the meantime we can help our teens to learn the life skills to cope with content, even if unexpected or upsetting.
Read more here about staying safe online.