Generation Escape
In our smartphone-based world, young people are left to their own devices and overprotected in the real world. The result is a feeling of despondency.
In his book “Generation Fear — How We Are Losing Our Children to the Virtual World and Jeopardizing Their Mental Health,“ Jonathan Haidt discusses the harmful effects of smartphones and social media on the mental health of Generation Z, i.e., young people born after 1995 who, according to Haidt, have become an anxious generation due to excessive time spent in the virtual world and overprotection. Both trends together—overprotection in the real world and underprotection in the virtual world—have turned Generation Z into the “Generation Anxiety.”
[This article posted on 9/10/2024 is translated from the German on the Internet, https://www.manova.news/artikel/generation-weltflucht.]
Jonathan Haidt’s nonfiction book is written in clear, easy-to-understand language, and the findings of brain physiology, scientific studies, and diagrams derived from them are presented in an easily comprehensible way. The book’s strength lies in its social-psychological and scientific classification of what many have long suspected about the excessive use of smartphones. However, Haidt refers mainly to middle-class families in the US; a one-to-one transfer to the German society does not seem appropriate.
Haidt argues that the use of smartphones tempts young people to spend many hours online, leaving them with little time for physical and social activities in real life. This leads to harmful rewiring of the brains of children and young people. The transition from a “play-based childhood” to a “smartphone-based childhood” began in the late 1980s. Added to this is the catastrophic overprotection of children in the real world, which can also turn into surveillance, massively restricting their autonomy in the real world.
A tidal wave
In the first part, Haidt demonstrates how the mental health of teenagers has deteriorated in the 21st century. There has been an increase in anxiety disorders, depression, and self-harm, which particularly affect girls.
The introduction of smartphones in 2007 and the rapid rise of social media channels from 2012 onwards are the most important milestones, as from then on, the internet and social media were available around the clock. According to international surveys, this was when teenagers began to suffer more from depression; the more intensive the use, the greater the suffering. Girls were particularly affected, but this trend was evident across all population groups. Haidt substantiates this in a differentiated manner using numerous empirical studies and graphs.
The ability to be online almost constantly has resulted in “a historic and unprecedented transformation of human childhood.” A generation has now grown up that spent most of its adolescence in the virtual world.
The decline of play-based childhood
In the second part, Haidt deals with growing parental anxiety and overprotection. Adolescence as a kind of “cultural apprenticeship before being regarded and treated as an adult” has had its day; instead, children are being lured into a virtual world. There is a lack of free play, physical play, and a certain amount of physical risk. Because: “Experience, not information, is the key to emotional development.” Unfortunately, smartphones serve as “experience blockers.” Between 2010 and 2015, there was a major “rewiring” of childhood from the real world to the virtual world, as physical interaction, which is a fundamental part of human evolution, was lacking, leading to a feeling of loneliness. There is a sensitive phase between the ages of nine and fifteen for cultural learning, after which the window of opportunity closes. Puberty in particular is therefore the most sensitive phase for the harmful influence of social media.
“In a sense, children are being robbed of their childhood” by being pushed more and more into a “defense mode” during a smartphone-based childhood, becoming more fearful as a result. The development of a “psychological immune system” — that is, the child’s ability to deal with frustrations and minor injuries, injustices, and conflicts — is blocked by overprotection. For healthy development and to remain in discovery mode, children also need somewhat riskier games, adventures, and thrills. This has been countered since the 1980s by “parents’ growing fear that everyone and everything is a danger to their children.” Safety has become “a sacred cow,” and a “safety cult” has developed; yet allowing a child appropriate independence is not a sign of neglect, but a sign of trust.
It is interesting to note in this context that “by the age of five, the brain has already reached 90 percent of its later size” and has many more neurons and synapses than in adulthood. This means that there is a great deal of potential, but it can only be retained if it is used; otherwise, it regresses. At the same time, the child’s brain becomes progressively more efficient as the transmission of signals accelerates. All this happens within certain time frames.
Gaining experience is therefore particularly important in childhood and adolescence, but here the cult of safety in conjunction with smartphones has created “experience blockers,” especially because electronic devices are replacing most other activities.
In addition, social media platforms, with their feedback loops for social evaluation, are “the most efficient conformity machines ever invented” — and female teenagers in particular are falling prey to them.
The rise of the smartphone-based childhood
In the third part, Haidt explains how smartphone-based childhood disrupts development through sleep deprivation, social deprivation, fragmentation of attention, and addictive behavior. He aims to empirically demonstrate that social media use not only correlates with mental illness, but also causes it. Young people are no longer able to make the transition from adolescence to a responsible adult life.
The social life of Generation Z has changed in the sense that it is now possible to connect with anyone in the world, while young people are isolating themselves from those in their immediate environment.
A lot of sleep is necessary for healthy brain development in adolescents. Unfortunately, there is a statistically proven correlation between heavy social media use and poor sleep, as well as between heavy social media use and mental health problems.
Everyone knows how much the constant popping up of notifications for new messages on smartphones disrupts concentrated attention. Repeated exposure to this leads to distraction and digression. It comes as no surprise that excessive consumption of new media can lead to dependence and addictive behavior, reinforced by the possibilities of “likes” and “sharing,” which can lead to increased dopamine release as a reward or, in its absence, to withdrawal symptoms.
From 2013 onwards, a sharp increase in mental health problems, particularly depression, anxiety disorders, and self-harm, was observed, initially among girls. Haidt suspects that this is due to unfavorable comparisons with other users of Facebook, Instagram, and similar social media sites. Girls are significantly more affected by social comparisons and perfectionism, especially when it comes to their appearance. And girls are more vulnerable to cyberbullying. Depression is “definitely more contagious than happiness or good mental health,” especially for girls. A German research team proposed the term “social media-induced mass illness” for this phenomenon. In this context, it is striking that in Generation Z, the gender ratio of people admitted to clinics for gender dysphoria—which in the past mainly affected male teenagers—has reversed.
According to Haidt, social media lured young people into a trap. Although the number of online relationships is increasing among Generation Z, the number of close friends is declining: quantity takes precedence over quality.
What is happening in the brains of boys is less well documented. Haidt suspects that boys are increasingly withdrawing from the real world to “spend their time and skills in the virtual world instead,” and are thus developing fewer skills for the real world. Data showed “that we live in a world of struggling young men today.” Boys who have lost themselves in cyberspace were “more fragile, fearful, and less risk-taking in the real world.” This leads to more and more of them saying they have no good friends, are lonely, and that their lives have no meaning or purpose. A world that is too closely monitored and offers too few risks is more serious for boys than for girls.
Boys have become well-behaved and no longer get into mischief—not necessarily to the benefit of their psychological development.
What are boys looking for on the internet? Video games and pornography are particularly noteworthy here. The latter opens the door to quick and easy gratification with perfect people, without the effort of building interpersonal relationships. Video games, on the other hand, can be useful in terms of skill, but they consume an enormous amount of time that is lacking elsewhere, and there is a risk of addiction. There is a lack of engagement with risks and dangers in the real world, making it difficult to develop personal responsibility.
“Boys and girls of Generation Z have become lonelier in the course of the Great Rewiring,” even if the two genders have taken different paths. Boys are most vulnerable to harm from social media at the age of fourteen/fifteen, girls at the age of eleven to thirteen.
Last but not least, Haidt points out that a smartphone-based life creates spiritual degradation “by blocking or inhibiting six spiritual practices: communal sense of sacredness; embodiment; pausing, silence, and focus; self-transcendence; forbearance toward others; and reverence for nature.”
Working together for a healthier childhood
The fourth part of the book deals with practical suggestions, especially for parents and schools, but these are strongly geared toward affluent middle-class families in the US and can only be applied to a limited extent to our social conditions here. The following advice from Haidt can certainly be considered useful: no smartphones before the age of 14, no social media before the age of 16, smartphone-free schools, and less surveillance of children in real life.
To end the “race to the depths of the brain stem,” Haidt also wants to hold governments and tech companies accountable.
Further information is available on Jonathan Haidt’s website: www.afterbabel.com
Jonathan Haidt is a professor of social psychology at New York University, where his research focuses on the psychological foundations of morality, moral emotions, and moral beliefs across cultures. His new book, “Generation Fear,” has become a bestseller in the US.
Conclusion
Jonathan Haidt may generalize too much in his book, pointing to trends that are emerging in a well-off, middle-class US society. For example, it seems inconceivable to us that parents would lose custody of their children because a minor travels unaccompanied. Nevertheless, what we know so far about the consequences of children and young people’s reckless use of smartphones and social media should be a wake-up call. The overprotection in real life and simultaneous digital neglect highlighted by Haidt could lead to a society of irresponsible individuals and cowards. Added to this is the constant fearmongering by politicians and the media: fear of viruses and diseases, of climate change, even of mosquito bites and hot summer days. The coronavirus pandemic has served as a turbo boost: digitization of schools and social distancing combined with fear of death.
It may be that those in power dream of a society full of isolated, fearful, and therefore easily controllable individuals. However, this plan could backfire if fear turns into panic and loneliness turns into depression.
The desired control over the behavior of people who are unable to function could not only slip away, but would also be pointless.
Editorial note: This text first appeared under the title “Generation Z: neglected in the smartphone-based world — overprotected in the real world” on gela-news.de.
Angelika Gutsche, born in 1955, is a qualified psychologist. After many years working in the film department at the Goethe Institute, she now works as a freelancer. In addition to writing travelogues, she writes a blog focusing on developments in Libya, but also on other current political and literary topics. Further information is available at gela-news.de and angelika-gutsche.de.