The Anxious Generation: How The Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing An Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt contends that children are not okay. 

While older cohorts remained unaltered, anxiety and depression rates among adolescents increased significantly in many countries between 2010 and 2015 which is troubling. 

Just one-third of college students said they experienced anxiety either never or less than 50% of the time. 

Suicidal or self-harming thoughts surged too.

Smartphones Overturn Everything: A Book Review

That is in line with the age of smartphones. Being the first generation to grow up with a gateway in their pocket, Gen Z witnessed the glamorous lives of their friends and influential people who otherwise lived far away.

The book makes the case that being “forever elsewhere” is a significant alteration of human cognition and relationships. 

Pre-puberty is a crucial time for linguistic and cultural acquisition, and phones have played a mediating role in the identities, emotions, and interpersonal interactions of Generation Z. 

However, the over-protection of children by adults is also a result of this radical rewiring of childhood. 

The fall in unsupervised play coincided with the rise in popularity of personal computers in the late 1980s. 

Parenting and education were dominated by a broad conversation about stranger danger and “safetyism.”

Childhood Teaches Differently:

This limited the experiences of the kids in fundamental ways. It takes humans a long time to develop particular abilities. 

Children must be antifragile, take chances, seek thrills, and develop their ability to function in the real world. 

Play and face-to-shoulder communication acclimate children to social interaction. 

It actually takes a little acute stress for them to develop emotional resilience. 

Social Media Platforms Play Evil:

Conversely, social networking sites take advantage of young people’s need to imitate others. 

They are made to take advantage of people’s need for status and to be conformity machines. 

Different Role Models For Gen Z:

Gen Z’s social learning systems target distant influences who set unattainable and unhealthy standards. 

Girls are more interested in social media and selfies than boys are, who are more likely to be drawn to online multiplayer games, YouTube Reddit, and other objectionable stuff. 

Preteen females are especially at risk because they are more prone to perfectionism and visual comparisons. 

Parents encounter difficulties as well. 

They are aware of the negative effects of social media and online gaming, but because of the way the world is set up, parents who oppose screen time are condemning their kids to social isolation. 

Consider the lost opportunities resulting from wasting that time, such as addiction, attention fragmentation, and social and sleep deprivation.

Children Become Adults Early On the Internet With World Situations Dominate:

The age at which you can create an account on digital sites is 13, marking the beginning of internet adulthood. 

The brain’s reward regions are active during adolescence, but the frontal cortex — which controls self-control– does not fully mature until the mid-20s. 

These children are therefore insecure and susceptible to peer approval. 

Arguably, the objectively unfavourable circumstances this generation faces — wars, political unpredictability, climate change, and a precarious future are the root source of this worry and despair.

However, rather than being depressed by outside circumstances, earlier generations have been inspired to act as a group.

Content Creators Determine World Events As Such Are Shared on Phones: 

Since emotions are contagious, the emotionally charged stories that are sent through cell phones today have a different impact than news about current events. 

The Antidote?

How can this be resolved? Governments and digital corporations need to wake up to the dangers and vulnerabilities that teenagers face. 

The researchers contend that youngsters should not have smartphones before high school and that the minimum age to access these platforms should be raised to 16. 

Playtime, independence in childhood, and schools free of phones are all crucial.

Well dear reader, please put in your thoughts in the form of comments below.