There Isn’t One Big Thing
Smartphones, common core standards, unleaded gasoline, we can't assign one factor to the teen mental health crisis
I’ve done a 180, a 360, a 720, whatever you want to call it, with my views on social media and young people.
But I am a thoughtful person. I like to read and consider the evidence before making up my mind. The challenge is when there is contradictory evidence and disputes on how to interpret the information.
This is the case with phone and kids. My original viewpoint was to let the kids do their thing. I grew up in a tech-heavy house. My dad was a computer programmer and the director of the IT department at an independent school. I had access to computers, the internet, and chatrooms from an early age.
My parents had no rules around their usage. They treated it like they treated most aspects of my young life, whether it was the music I listened to, the movies I watched, or the books I read. Experience what you want, just be careful, and keep me in the loop if something happens.
I took this mindset into my adult life and role as an educator. It’s hard, and somewhat unethical, to manage what kids want to do in their free time. I also know that the more you restrict something, the more apt they are to seek it out.
But as I saw more and more young people struggle with issues around mental health and anxiety, I began to see phones as a core part of the problem. There’s too much harmful content online to shield young people from its impacts.
My views began to be that we spend too much time in front of our screens and that young people need more exposure to analog tools. This is particularly true as AI becomes more prevalent.
I settled into this position quite comfortably. This was a challenge for me as a lifelong technologist and advocate for its use to gain access to resources, collaborate with peers, and receive effective feedback.
The Atlantic article “What if It’s Not the Phones?” and the Substack “The Importance of Critical Analyses in Examining Social Science Evidence” flipped all of this on its head.
One line from the latter article commenting on Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation really hit home:
“As a society we have almost a knee-jerk reaction to believe that the solution to any problem experienced by kids is to deprive them of yet one more freedom, and this book is helping to jerk some of those knees even further. “
Was I feeding into the mindset I was so adamantly opposed to?
On reflection, I think I was.
So where do I stand? Where should we stand? What should we do?
Like any thoughtful person, when it comes to a difficult topic, my response is, “It’s complicated.”
This is reflected in a quote from the Atlantic article by Pete Etchells, a professor of psychology and science communication at Bath Spa University, that inspired the title of this piece.
“This is a common trap that we fall into when trying to figure out what’s going on with those declines. We try to answer the question of ‘What one big thing can explain this?’ The answer, in my view, is that there isn’t one big thing.”
We’ve blamed phones, social media, teachers, schools, heck, even unleaded gasoline. I wish it were that easy.
I am writing this to encourage you to be open-minded. To read the evidence. Acknowledge your blind spots. Check your motives. Be willing to change your mind when the opportunity presents itself.
However, I do have some thoughts.
Banning things never works. We have laws in place limiting access to vapes, alcohol, and other drugs, but young people still consume them. I don’t think social media bans are the best approach. It will push all of its use underground and increase unsafe behaviors.
We need to continue exploring the best approaches to managing personal phone usage and access in schools. This is for young people and adults. We are asking young people not to use their phones in schools, yet we have open access right in front of them. This message is confusing for kids and limits their trust in our judgment.
Curriculum improvements are urgent, as is improving how we deliver it. There is too much focus on the tools. This is covered in Peter Gray’s book, coming out in September, “Restoring Childhood: How to Set Kids Free in the Age of Anxiety.” I plan on reading it to learn more about this.
So what are your thoughts? Some questions to consider:
❓Is your school’s tech policy sending mixed signals, and what are they?
❓If it’s not the phones, what do you need to change about how you teach?
❓What is your own screentime currently teaching kids?
❓Could your AI policies be pushing use underground, and what would that look like?