The smartphone has radically changed every aspect of teens’ lives, from the nature of their social interactions to their mental health, says Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University and author of "Generation Me" and “iGen,” in the September issue of The Atlantic.
More comfortable in their bedrooms than in a car or at a party, today’s teens are physically safer than teens ever have been, she says.
Psychologically, though, the generation she calls iGen is more vulnerable than Millennials were: Rates of teen depression and suicide have skyrocketed since 2011.
"It’s not an exaggeration to describe iGen as being on the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades,” Twenge says. "Much of this deterioration can be traced to their phones.”
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, says Twenge. Twelfth-graders in 2015 were going out less often than eighth-graders did as recently as 2009.
In a variety of behaviors — drinking, dating, spending time unsupervised — 18-year-olds now act more like 15-year-olds used to, and 15-year-olds more like 13-year-olds, she says.
Why are teens waiting longer to take on the responsibilities and the pleasures of adulthood? In an information economy that rewards higher education more than early work history, parents may be inclined to encourage their kids to stay home and study rather than to get a part-time job, says Twenge. Teens seem to be content with this homebody arrangement — not because they’re so studious, but because their social life is lived on their phone, she says.
Teens who spend more time than average on screen activities are more likely to be unhappy than those who spend less time, and those who spend more time than average on nonscreen activities are more likely to be happy, Twenge says, citing The Monitoring the Future survey, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Despite all their power to link kids day and night, social media also exacerbate the age-old teen concern about being left out, says Twenge.
"The correlations between depression and smartphone use are strong enough to suggest that more parents should be telling their kids to put down their phone,” Twenge says.
And, given the increasing addiction to smartphones among people of every age, I imagine a likely response from teens would be to suggest that their parents put down their own phones.