Where there are cell towers, there are teens living their lives on their smartphone.
Jean Twenge in the Atlantic describes the effect of smartphones on the first generation of children to grow up with them.
In the past and in the title of this blog I have extolled the virtues of the combination of humans and AI, - for example Tim Urban's description of the magic wizard hat, or the power of google translation, or simply finding out information.
There is of course a downside, and in Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?, Jean Twinge describes it well in the Atlantic.
Perhaps the most saddest thing is that the smartphone is making our children lonely and unhappy - not the future that any of us want.
“The arrival of the smartphone has radically changed every aspect of teenagers’ lives, from the nature of their social interactions to their mental health. These changes have affected young people in every corner of the nation and in every type of household. The trends appear among teens poor and rich; of every ethnic background; in cities, suburbs, and small towns. Where there are cell towers, there are teens living their lives on their smartphone.”
“the allure of independence, so powerful to previous generations, holds less sway over today’s teens, who are less likely to leave the house without their parents. The shift is stunning: 12th-graders in 2015 were going out less often than eighth-graders did as recently as 2009.”
“... The decline in dating tracks with a decline in sexual activity. The drop is the sharpest for ninth-graders, among whom the number of sexually active teens has been cut by almost 40 percent since 1991. The average teen now has had sex for the first time by the spring of 11th grade, a full year later than the average Gen Xer. Fewer teens having sex has contributed to what many see as one of the most positive youth trends in recent years: The teen birth rate hit an all-time low in 2016, down 67 percent since its modern peak, in 1991.”
“So what are they doing with all that time? They are on their phone, in their room, alone and often distressed.”
“Teens who spend more time than average on screen activities are more likely to be unhappy, and those who spend more time than average on nonscreen activities are more likely to be happy.”