Screens and Youth Mental Health: A Sane Approach

I had the great pleasure of taking part in this roundtable episode of Psychologists Off the Clock - with cohosts

Debbie Sorensen

and

Emily Edlynn

along with digital health and parenting experts

Ellen Galinsky

and

Devorah Heitner, PhD

- to discuss the thorny debate about smartphones and social media and their impact on children’s mental health. It was a thoughtful and at times challenging conversation, but we agreed on some fundamental ideas I think merit more attention. For example, the alarmist messages surrounding technology use in youth are likely making things worse, not better, for both kids and parents.

In this discussion, we offer a more balanced and hopeful perspective. We draw on science, yes, but we’re also parents, and bring that to the table, too. The key idea - rigid monitoring of kids’ digital lives needs to give way to supportive mentoring, digital literacy, and healthy independence in our children.

Yes, this approach is more nuanced than ‘ban the phones!’ so it might feel harder than the fear-based approach. But as we all shared, there are truly simple and doable steps we can take that will have a bigger and better impact in the long run.

***

The episode speaks for itself, but read on if you prefer text to audio. Here are some take-aways:

1. You’ve probably read that some believe that social media has caused the youth mental health crisis. How do we know, you might ask? Because ‘science says’ it does? No, the truth is, science doesn’t tell us anything of the sort. What it tells us is that it’s complicated - the impact of digital tech and social media depends on who is using it, how they’re using it, and in what contexts and under what conditions.

2. These 2 things can be true at the same time:

   1. Digital technologies can have a negative impact on kids’ wellbeing, especially for the most vulnerable.

   2. Things other than digital technologies have a more powerful impact on kids’ wellbeing.

3. Point #2 means we have to stop letting the ‘ban the phones because they cause all our kids’ suffering’ argument suck up all the oxygen in the room. For example, Substackers like Mike Males has tried to refocus the discussion to prioritize kids’ welfare in families - where the impact is incontrovertible. Yes, we can work on the phones, too. But we have to stop deluding ourselves that the solution is that simple.

4. There’s a classic false binary about youth wellbeing and digital technology being pushed hard: it’s either the phones or it’s a moral panic. This classic error in logic presents only two options when more exist. More explanations do exist! By denying this, we create an opportunity cost for finding real, sustainable solutions.

Here’s what we know from the science¹:

• If a child is anxious or depressed, some ways of using digital tech and social media might amplify those problems. Just picking up a screen isn’t enough to destroy anyone’s wellbeing. These risky aspects include:

  • Pervasive social comparison

  • Bullying

  • Emotional avoidance

  • Sleep deprivation

  • Inactivity

  • Passive consumption (rather than active, creative use)

  • Opportunity costs for having a well-rounded life

• If a child is overweight, screens can contribute to low activity

• If a child isn’t struggling, but they’re starting to use digital in excessive & compulsive ways that disrupts their ability to work, play, and care for others (but that goes for anything)

Here’s what we need to do and understand better:

1. Measuring screen time without understanding WHAT kids do on screens is meaningless. It's like trying to understand childhood obesity by measuring how much time they spend eating (I heard Dr. Eva Tezler at UNC said this. Good one!).

2. Kids who are vulnerable in the real world are also vulnerable online. How can we identify and protect these kids?

3. Kids and adults need to build skills to safely and beneficially use digital technology, just like they learn to use other risky technologies, like driving a car.

   1. For digital tech, many of these skills are in the domains of decision making, executive functioning, attention, and emotion regulation.

4. We suspect mentoring and scaffolding kids during childhood to develop these skills is the best way to support positive development and healthy digital citizenship. But we haven’t really tested this out yet.

The guilt and pressure on parents around youth and digital technologies are immense. We need to simplify and reduce that pressure. However, just blaming the phones for everything is not an effective way to do that - and amplifies other pressures and guilts. Fortunately or unfortunately, the only way forward is to regain our sanity and start small. There are great resources out there and organizations that help people unplug and find IRL/tech balance. As I’ve written here, we can start small and have a big positive impact.

The thoughtless banning of phones will never work. What will work is trusting your gut as parents, and following the science to understand how, for whom, and under what conditions digital tech confers risk or benefit. Then we ameliorate risk and prepare kids to benefit.

1. It is extremely important to tell the truth that existing research on digital technology/social media and youth mental health is full of flaws - inaccurate or messy measurement, small sample sizes, or if there are large sample sizes, unhelpful correlational studies that don’t get at individual differences or how digital might interact with other predictors of mental health and illness - like parental mental illness, stress at home, etc.,…. We have to conduct better research and until we do, any ethically responsible scientist should be cautious about their conclusions and pronouncements. The ‘Ban The Phone’ set refuses to admit these facts, so it calls their integrity and motivations into question.