It seemed like an ordinary morning for the mother in California. She woke up to the sound of her alarm and headed to the kitchen for her cup of coffee. She looked forward to the French roast she recently got from Trader Joes, put four scoops of it into the French press, and poured in the boiling water. As she waited for her coffee to steep, she headed up the stairs to make sure her 15-year-old son was up. Hoping today was the day the cycle would break, she approached the quiet room with the closed door. He wasn’t up. She sighed. It would be another day in the battle to get him out of bed—another day in a long list of days. Her son had severe anxiety and simply had been refusing to go to school for weeks.
In Massachusetts, a dad struggled with his 14 year old daughter, addicted to vaping and who had self harming and suicide attempts. And in Georgia, parents attended the funeral of their 17-year-old daughter who had transitioned 18 months earlier. She had struggled with depression and self-harming thoughts which culminated in suicide.’
These types of stories have become increasingly common, and mental health issues in youth have exploded in the last decade. There is no single cause and countless factors contribute to someone’s mental health; but research has been growing around what seems to be the concurrent rise in social media and smartphone use by children at younger ages. In fact, U.S. surgeon general Dr. Vivek H. Murthy on Tuesday issued an advisory warning of the risks posed by social media use among children advising that technology companies, researchers, policymakers, and parents take steps to protect children and teens from those risks.
It’s the latest of many studies linking increased usage of social media with a heightened risk of mental health issues. Mental health issues are on the rise as seen recently in a 2021 CDC report, 57% of adolescent girls felt seriously sad or hopeless, a 60% increase from previously. About 29% of boys had these feelings. And strikingly, suicide thoughts have also risen significantly, with 22% of high school students surveyed by the CDC in 2021 reporting that they had seriously considered suicide within the past year. And social media use has similarly exploded. An August 2022 Pew Research Center internet survey found that more than 35% of teens are on social media constantly, one-third feel they use it too much and more than 50% feel they would have a difficult time giving it up.
Recent research has found links between social media usage and mental health risk. A study looking at more than 6,500 teens published in JAMA Psychiatry found that[BH3] the more teens used social media, the more likely they were to internalize mental and emotional stressors. The age of initial smartphone use also seems to matter. A recently published study from Sapien Labs in May 2023 of over 27,000 youth found that mental health issues were related to the age of first use of a smartphone. Those who started use at a younger age were much more likely to have mental health issues reported via a standardized mental health questionnaire. Between 43 and 61% of children who received mobile devices at age 10 or younger had mental health questionnaire (MHQ) scores that were considered to be negative.
The mechanism behind this is seems to be a rewiring of the preadolescent and teen brain. “Social media platforms drive surges of dopamine to the brain to keep consumers coming back over and over again. The shares, likes and comments on these platforms trigger the brain’s reward center, resulting in a high similar to the one people feel when gambling or using drugs,” states Nancy DeAngelis[BH4], director of behavioral health at Jefferson Health System in XXXX.
How Parents Can Help Their Children
Social media and smartphones have become an integral part of teens’ and kids’ lives, but waiting to give access to these platforms is one way to help a child’s brain become somewhat more mature. The younger the brain, the greater the mental health risk. Many advocate for waiting until eighth grade, or when a child is at least 12 or 13. In fact, a nationwide movement, Wait Until 8th, started by an Austin, Texas mother of three Brooke Shannon has had increasing traction lately. The organization created a pledge that parents can sign, committing to wait until their children are in at least eighth grade before giving them smartphones. Celebrities such as Kate Winslet and Jennifer Garner have fueled this movement, making statements about the harms of early usage and early exposure to social media.
Some parents are now making a change to a different type of phone. They are opting for “dumb” phones as opposed to smartphones, which in a way is smarter, or at the very least more protective of a child’s mental wellness. A Mapleton, Utah dad of six, Lance Black, is a founder and investor in this type of phone. Gabb Wireless allows the basics—there are features for texting, calling and a GPS tracker, and that’s it.
Policies have also started changing at a state level. Montana has outlawed TikTok, and Utah has passed restrictive laws, requiring parental consent before kids under 13 are allowed certain social media platforms. California has passed strong laws set to go into effect next year around privacy for youth under 18. Other states are considering a variety of policy changes around social media exposure as well as data sharing.
Getting buy-in from other friends and family to do this together can create organic peer pressure for everyone to stay on track with these initiatives. Are there parents that will team up with you at your child’s sport activity eg soccer, drama club or church? Parents can reach out to each other and form an agreement about when their kids will get a phone, and when they can access social media.
Another way parents can help reduce use is to model it. Adults Check their phones on average 144 times a day and reach for their phones within 10 minutes of waking up. Could a parent put the phone in a different room, especially during time with the kids or meals? Could parents or caregivers have a family rule of not using the phone during carpool from school? These are simple ways to incorporate healthy behaviors around phones. And changes in the home are essential for those children and teens who already have phones. These include guidelines such as times when phones are put away, including meal times, bedtime and homework hours, allowing face-to-face connection and conversation to happen.
Lastly, it is key to make sure that there is time for the important aspects of physical, emotional and mental health. This means not only daily exercise, diet and good sleep hygiene but practicing the preventative pillars of mental wellbeing. This includes making the time and the space for connection and communication with others. As the surgeon general stated recently, there is a “loneliness epidemic.” Loneliness can result from lack of face-to-face human connection and can lead to an increased risk of mental health issues. Making the time to have conversations with family, kids and friends has become increasingly important to battle some of the untoward effects and brain rewiring caused by too much time on devices and media.
For the most part, we have the same brains and bodies as our ancestors from 100—even 1,000—years ago. Technology may have changed, but our biology is largely the same. Like our ancestors, we need the basics for our health—and that is connectedness to each other.
[BH2]
