It's in the data.
Recently, Emily sat at the nail salon getting a manicure while admiring (coveting) the fluorescent green and purple acrylic nails that the teenage girl next to her was getting in preparation for a big birthday party. She would not only be celebrating her birthday, she readily explained, but also her return to high school after a 4-month absence due to a severe anxiety disorder that had recently come to light. “The important thing is to have the right mindset,” the girl explained, before detailing the experiences that she’d had leading up to her medical leave. Most of it included bullying by her peers, both on social media and in real life. Her classmates gave her cruel nicknames and made lists of potential romantic couples through some app that Emily had never heard of, pairing the young teen with the unlikeliest of people. Emily’s nail buddy said that she has since sworn off social media, calling it “evil.”
This week, a new study made a splash that most of you probably read about on social media like we did. Sapien Labs studied 27,969 young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 and found a connection between mental well-being and the age that a child gets their first smartphone. Spoiler: social media is “evil.” Just kidding, what the study found is that the later in life a kid gets their first smartphone, the better their mental well-being. Specifically, the “percentage of females experiencing mental health challenges decreased from 74% for those who received their first smartphone at age 6, to 46% for those who received it at age 18. For males, the percentage declined from 42% at age 6 to 36% at age 18.” We know, you probably thought the study found that it was better to get that kid on Instagram from the first hint of pregnancy. Sorry to disappoint you.
Do we need studies to tell us not to attach our kids to smartphones and get them social media accounts at a young age? Actually, yes, it seems like we do. Even though it’s fairly intuitive to believe that it’s not great to raise little screen addicts, these studies help us bolster our resolve in saying no to early social media accounts, and perhaps more importantly, they can inspire voters to push politicians to enact legislation that regulates social media and protects its youngest users. The two of us are more resolved than ever to hold off on smartphones and social media accounts for our kids for as long as possible.
But while we heed these consequential, evidence-based findings, let’s also be specific about what we are talking about so that we don’t have to panic about our kids potentially having panic disorders. When we say that smartphones have negative consequences when it comes to mental well-being - especially, according to the study, for girls – most of what this study talks about is social media and internet content that spreads disinformation or harmful messages. In other words, ebooks and word games are probably not the crux of the problem.
Kate Winslet recently received a BAFTA award for her new series, I am Ruth, in which she plays a mother of a teen grappling with mental health issues after viewing damaging content on social media. In her acceptance speech, Winslet said, “For young people who have become addicted to social media and its darker sides, this does not need to be your life. To people in power, and to people who can make change, please, criminalise harmful content.” Well said, Kate the Great.
Every generation has its ills. The glory days of our childhoods that we love to wax nostalgic about included Emily rolling balls of actual mercury from a broken thermometer in her hand, never wearing sunblock, and playing a lot of Mario Brothers. Meanwhile, Alexina learned that being skinny was the same as being healthy and that women should be strong but also smile a lot so no one is uncomfortable. Though one thing was better: our many bad choices and embarrassing opinions are lost to the past like they should be, not memorialized on the internet forever.
We love the positive role that social media has played in countless ways, and we are both avid social media users. But if we know anything about parenting, we know that toddlers need boundaries. And if we know anything about humanity, we know that most of us don’t evolve much after toddlerhood. So set your boundaries and hold firm to them. If your kids ask you why, tell them “Because the scientists said so.” It’s in the data.