Gen Z’s mental-health struggles are closely tied to going through puberty while on smartphones and social media, a stage when the brain is intensely rewiring and highly sensitive to stress. Millennials avoided many of these effects because they got these technologies after puberty. Early exposure can heighten anxiety, depression, self-harm risk, and disrupt healthy identity development, which is why protecting kids during late elementary and puberty years matters so much.
Do you have your phone close by? Can you open it to where you get your podcasts? Hopefully, you will see The Screenagers Podcast there. If not, please search for it and consider pressing the “follow” button if you are on Apple Podcasts or "subscribe" if you get your podcasts elsewhere.
And voila, you should see the episode we dropped yesterday, “Jonathan Haidt Explains the Youth Mental Health Crisis”
Social Psychologist Jonathan Haidt's latest book, “The Anxious Generation,” is on the New York Times best-seller list right now and has featured extensively across the media, as focus on this important topic increases.
Jonathan is a New York University professor, co-author of The Coddling Mind and other books, and co-founder of Let Grow, an organization dedicated to promoting childhood independence — an initiative I wholeheartedly support. Furthermore, he is a big advocate for Away For The Day school phone policies.
I recommend tuning into the podcast episode (just over 20 minutes long) with your tweens and teens. Jonathan and I get to the core of why social media, smartphones, and screen time, in general, have been significant drivers of the worsening mental health of today’s young people.
Listen Here: Apple Podcasts // Spotify // YouTube // Website.
Learn more about showing our movies in your school or community!
Join Screenagers filmmaker Delaney Ruston MD for our latest Podcast
Learn more about our Screen-Free Sleep campaign at the website!
Our movie made for parents and educators of younger kids
Learn more about showing our movies in your school or community!
For today’s blog, I have chosen a section of the podcast to share with you. So check this out, but remember, there is a lot more gold in the podcast!
Haidt discusses the difference in mental health between Gen Z and millennials. In 2012, Gen Z were in their preteen and early teen years when the mental illness indicators began rising, while millennials were in their later teens and 20s. (I’ve done some slight editing from the podcast transcript for clarity.)
“What I've found, and here this is following up on the work of Jean Twenge and her book iGen, is that if you got smartphones and social media in puberty, especially early puberty, Gen Z is defined by the fact that they went through this crucial period of brain rewiring. As you go through puberty, the brain remodels itself from the back to the front to move into the adult configuration.”
“If you went through that on social media, you came out different. There are exceptions but on average, you came out more anxious, more depressed, more likely to self-harm than if you didn't get it till college.”
“A really significant aspect of the data is that when you look at millennials, that is, those who were born from 1981 to 1995, they are fine. They didn't get social media and smartphones until they were in college — for the most part, late high school. In other words, they were basically through puberty when they plunged into this virtual world.”
“That's why in the book, I focus so much on puberty and also late elementary school, that whole period when kids are not just changing their brains, they're also developing their sense of identity and they're developing their understanding of what kind of cultural creature they are. How do I become a good person in my culture?”
“We got it as adults. It doesn't go backward and rewire our brains. But the fact that we're letting kids go through brain rewiring on these technologies, I think, was a huge mistake, and we've got to stop it now.”
Learn more about showing our movies in your school or community!
Join Screenagers filmmaker Delaney Ruston MD for our latest Podcast
Learn more about our Screen-Free Sleep campaign at the website!
Our movie made for parents and educators of younger kids
Join Screenagers filmmaker Delaney Ruston MD for our latest Podcast
Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel! With new ones added regularly, you'll find over 100 videos covering parenting advice, guidance, podcasts, movie clips and more. Here's our latest!
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Do you have your phone close by? Can you open it to where you get your podcasts? Hopefully, you will see The Screenagers Podcast there. If not, please search for it and consider pressing the “follow” button if you are on Apple Podcasts or "subscribe" if you get your podcasts elsewhere.
And voila, you should see the episode we dropped yesterday, “Jonathan Haidt Explains the Youth Mental Health Crisis”
Social Psychologist Jonathan Haidt's latest book, “The Anxious Generation,” is on the New York Times best-seller list right now and has featured extensively across the media, as focus on this important topic increases.
Jonathan is a New York University professor, co-author of The Coddling Mind and other books, and co-founder of Let Grow, an organization dedicated to promoting childhood independence — an initiative I wholeheartedly support. Furthermore, he is a big advocate for Away For The Day school phone policies.
I recommend tuning into the podcast episode (just over 20 minutes long) with your tweens and teens. Jonathan and I get to the core of why social media, smartphones, and screen time, in general, have been significant drivers of the worsening mental health of today’s young people.
Listen Here: Apple Podcasts // Spotify // YouTube // Website.
For today’s blog, I have chosen a section of the podcast to share with you. So check this out, but remember, there is a lot more gold in the podcast!
Haidt discusses the difference in mental health between Gen Z and millennials. In 2012, Gen Z were in their preteen and early teen years when the mental illness indicators began rising, while millennials were in their later teens and 20s. (I’ve done some slight editing from the podcast transcript for clarity.)
“What I've found, and here this is following up on the work of Jean Twenge and her book iGen, is that if you got smartphones and social media in puberty, especially early puberty, Gen Z is defined by the fact that they went through this crucial period of brain rewiring. As you go through puberty, the brain remodels itself from the back to the front to move into the adult configuration.”
“If you went through that on social media, you came out different. There are exceptions but on average, you came out more anxious, more depressed, more likely to self-harm than if you didn't get it till college.”
“A really significant aspect of the data is that when you look at millennials, that is, those who were born from 1981 to 1995, they are fine. They didn't get social media and smartphones until they were in college — for the most part, late high school. In other words, they were basically through puberty when they plunged into this virtual world.”
“That's why in the book, I focus so much on puberty and also late elementary school, that whole period when kids are not just changing their brains, they're also developing their sense of identity and they're developing their understanding of what kind of cultural creature they are. How do I become a good person in my culture?”
“We got it as adults. It doesn't go backward and rewire our brains. But the fact that we're letting kids go through brain rewiring on these technologies, I think, was a huge mistake, and we've got to stop it now.”
Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel! With new ones added regularly, you'll find over 100 videos covering parenting advice, guidance, podcasts, movie clips and more. Here's our latest!
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Do you have your phone close by? Can you open it to where you get your podcasts? Hopefully, you will see The Screenagers Podcast there. If not, please search for it and consider pressing the “follow” button if you are on Apple Podcasts or "subscribe" if you get your podcasts elsewhere.
And voila, you should see the episode we dropped yesterday, “Jonathan Haidt Explains the Youth Mental Health Crisis”
Social Psychologist Jonathan Haidt's latest book, “The Anxious Generation,” is on the New York Times best-seller list right now and has featured extensively across the media, as focus on this important topic increases.
Jonathan is a New York University professor, co-author of The Coddling Mind and other books, and co-founder of Let Grow, an organization dedicated to promoting childhood independence — an initiative I wholeheartedly support. Furthermore, he is a big advocate for Away For The Day school phone policies.
I recommend tuning into the podcast episode (just over 20 minutes long) with your tweens and teens. Jonathan and I get to the core of why social media, smartphones, and screen time, in general, have been significant drivers of the worsening mental health of today’s young people.
Listen Here: Apple Podcasts // Spotify // YouTube // Website.
Many adults keep their phones by the bed — it feels harmless, even necessary. But what if that habit is quietly affecting our sleep and the example we set for our kids? In this week’s blog, Dr. Ruston shares two key things every parent should know about sleeping next to a phone, and how small nighttime tech changes can make a big difference for the whole family.
READ MORE >
From Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto to violence and gunfire in movies and shows, aggression is a constant backdrop in boys’ media diets. And with various influencers and online personalities framing success through the lens of strength, competition, dominance and winning, boys are being handed a narrow script for masculinity. As parents, one of the most important things we can do is offer a counterweight. We can help boys strengthen empathy, compassion, and respect as core traits of masculinity, so they have a broader, healthier vision of who they can become.
READ MORE >
Last week we introduced you to our Screen-Free Sleep campaign! Since then, we’ve been flooded with emails and calls, and most are asking the same question: How can we get this spreading in our school? Today’s blog has the answers.
READ MORE >for more like this, DR. DELANEY RUSTON'S NEW BOOK, PARENTING IN THE SCREEN AGE, IS THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE FOR TODAY’S PARENTS. WITH INSIGHTS ON SCREEN TIME FROM RESEARCHERS, INPUT FROM KIDS & TEENS, THIS BOOK IS PACKED WITH SOLUTIONS FOR HOW TO START AND SUSTAIN PRODUCTIVE FAMILY TALKS ABOUT TECHNOLOGY AND IT’S IMPACT ON OUR MENTAL WELLBEING.
