By Douglas Kruger
AT a quick pass, it seems reasonable to argue that it’s unsafe for a child not to have a phone. Especially at school. What if there’s an emergency?
But delve deeper into the topic and the opposite picture emerges. The list of things more dangerous for a child is frighteningly small. Don’t let the fact that it’s all happening quietly in the next room fool you.
A few years back, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt was curious about the impact of smartphones on young brains, and started amassing research.
Fast forward a couple of years, and the quiet-spoken man now asserts that these devices represent “the greatest destruction of human capital in history”. Haidt is concerned that Gen Z will never in their lifetimes achieve the full potential of which they might have been capable.
As the result of high usage throughout their youth, and the crucial period of puberty in which the brain is extensively rewiring itself, they have fundamentally reduced their aptitudes and abilities. Haidt hopes that the malleability of the brain might eventually overcome the damage. But first, they would have to halt the impact by ceasing to use their phones.
Haidt’s book The Anxious Generation is perhaps one of the most important clarion calls of our lifetime.
It all began around 2014-ish, when something fundamental changed in mental health. The globally sourced data points to a “great rewiring of childhood”. For the first time in the modern history of the species, developmental milestones were being missed en masse. This is because kids simply weren’t playing.
Since then, there have been gigantic rises in depression, anger, fragility and emotional instability. That’s paired with significant drops in academic ability, powers of concentration and the capacity to communicate with nuance and verbal dexterity. The whole generation displays far lower levels of initiative, resilience, and even the desire to take charge of their own lives. They are remaining juvenile much longer into adulthood.
Why?
Primarily because the phone becomes an “experience blocker”. There are critical experiences that kids must have manually and first-hand: free play, social interaction, movement in dimensional space, projects carried out gradually over time. Even “boredom”. But these are effectively culled from their lives. In their place comes mindless scrolling twinned with unprecedented levels of dopamine addiction.
It’s actively harming their brains. Plus they’re addicted to it. Plus the device itself is “learning” their habits, in order to become more addictive.
What are the specific casualties?
Mostly, a child’s “executive function”. Basically, that means their ability to use and manage their own mind. The capacity to plan, execute and then evaluate is replaced with fragmentation of attention.
In one chilling example, it turns out that if kid’s don’t master “deep reading” quite early on, specifically, prior to long exposure to flickering screens, then they probably won’t ever do so in their lifetimes. Their minds have been rewired to the extent that they can’t.
Another is that kids may never learn to appreciate beauty. In music, in nature, even in the world of noble ideals. The concept of beauty becomes unintelligible to them, because it’s not gamified or flashy enough.
Extensive screen time is like making your child’s prefrontal cortex continually punch-drunk. Instead of raising an adult, we end up raising advanced-age juveniles. This has societal implications too. It means way more fighting, way less conflict resolution and dramatically under-developed communication abilities. Haidt ties this phenomenon to the rise in shouting mobs of largely incoherent angry young people.
And online communication with friends does not make up for the lack of real-world social interaction. It impairs it. And worse. Real life, Haidt explains, is “embodied and synchronous”, not mediated and conducted at a remove. Secondly, the nature of social interaction on these phones swiftly reaches a level of ugliness that no playground has ever known before.
That leads us to the gendered effects.
Smartphones are bad for all young brains. They are monstrously bad for pubescent kids. But for young girls in particular, there has perhaps never been a more damaging invention. If you want your young daughter to experience gigantically raised anxiety and suicidal ideation, just hand her a phone. Its various applications are designed to prey on and amplify her social fears.
It’s pretty conclusive. A smart phone will lower your child’s IQ and damage their development.
All this is before we even get to the truly dangerous stuff. Specifically, the ability for perfect strangers to reach directly into the unguarded minds of our children, even as we think them safe in their bedrooms.
At what age would you like their innocence to be spoilt, and to what degree? The content they are typically able to access, our controls notwithstanding, goes way beyond the old “pin-up” magazines of yesteryear, or movie-level violence. This exposure can impact their ability to maintain healthy relationships, or a decent worldview. Or even just to feel safe.
And what of a stranger’s ability to trap and destroy your child?
Here’s a modus operandi from the UK. A young boy is tricked into sending a nude photo of himself to a scammer, believing that he is talking to a pretty young girl. The scammer then tells him they will now destroy his entire life unless he sends money within the next half hour. Children have committed suicide to escape this trap.
Please hear me, speaking from my heart as a parent. It is not worth it. We are not the sort of people who hand our children loaded guns.
So, where to from here? Do we ban all smartphones?
I don’t believe in government bans. I personally detest smoking, but I have a big issue with criminalising the act. It’s not a government’s place, and it’s an infringement on individual liberty.
The key difference here is that we’re dealing with children. These devices demonstrably harm their developing brains. Kids are also not allowed to drive, own guns, vote, or stay out all night. Tough luck. They’re under our care. Prior to and through puberty – that’s when phones are most damaging.
Schools, I believe, should absolutely ban them. They also don’t allow alcohol, drugs, or pornography onto their premises. I would be grateful for the help that such a blanket ban provides. Less social pressure on my child.
I recommend Haidt’s book. Or if you have an hour in which to frighten yourself silly, search: “Jonathan Haidt – How Screens Ruin Children.” Thereafter, consider formulating your own family’s “exit plan”.
My kid can have a phone when he’s older. For now, it’s bad for him. Incredibly bad. So instead, we’ll consider one of those old Nokia bricks with the two-month battery life. That will allow mum to send him important messages. He can even play Snake on it.
As for being uncool? I’m the parent, he’s the child, and I give not a toffee for that.
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Douglas Kruger is an author and speaker, who lives in St Helier. He is extremely grateful that schools have reopened, so he can finally get some work done.
