Generation Anxiety: smartphones have created a gen Z mental health crisis – but there are ways to fix it

My phone is my world. It's a place where I don't need to mask I can be myself and I can interact with others without being socially awkward and having to face people and make eye contact.

With my phone I like how I can do everything with it. I can watch tv and movies, listen to music, do writing, I have an app that allows me to make my own music, apps that make me look beautiful, play games, take pics and I'm able to talk to my therapist digitally on my phone if I can't face going out.

It's easy to call people and my phone has a feature that allows to record phone calls but I try not to make calls if I can help it. I've only ever had to make one emergency call which was the hardest thing I've ever done!

There's a calculator which makes maths homework way easier! And the internet is only a tap away making studying easier. My mum and dad both say a lot they wished it had been like that when they'd been at school. I have social media but I don't use it much as I get bullied for being autistic on that's.

Phones have always been a part of my life. I honestly don't think I'd know what to do if I didn't have a phone. Is that bad? It sounds it but I don't mean to come across like a bad person.

I'm pretty much on my phone all the time. It's natural for me, the norm and my sisters are the same. My parents have smart phones but don't use them much. My Gran frequently says about how things like this weren't around when she was little and I find it hard to picture that world. Smart phones are such a big thing it's hard to believe they weren't always here.

My phone is my world. It's a place where I don't need to mask I can be myself and I can interact with others without being socially awkward and having to face people and make eye contact.

With my phone I like how I can do everything with it. I can watch tv and movies, listen to music, do writing, I have an app that allows me to make my own music, apps that make me look beautiful, play games, take pics and I'm able to talk to my therapist digitally on my phone if I can't face going out.

It's easy to call people and my phone has a feature that allows to record phone calls but I try not to make calls if I can help it. I've only ever had to make one emergency call which was the hardest thing I've ever done!

There's a calculator which makes maths homework way easier! And the internet is only a tap away making studying easier. My mum and dad both say a lot they wished it had been like that when they'd been at school. I have social media but I don't use it much as I get bullied for being autistic on that's.

Phones have always been a part of my life. I honestly don't think I'd know what to do if I didn't have a phone. Is that bad? It sounds it but I don't mean to come across like a bad person.

I'm pretty much on my phone all the time. It's natural for me, the norm and my sisters are the same. My parents have smart phones but don't use them much. My Gran frequently says about how things like this weren't around when she was little and I find it hard to picture that world. Smart phones are such a big thing it's hard to believe they weren't always here.

My heroes were and are research librarians. Library were huge in my world till the "series of Tubes" came along! They had it all under one roof and I thought I could find out anything there. And they were quiet, like a monastery.  It was the library that first brought the computers into town and one went there to get online in the '90s.

Later on I lingered in NYC as long as I did because of that vast, amazing library at Lincoln Center!

I don't think being attached to one's phone is all that bad as long as one can look up and engage constructively in the flesh and blood grit of taking car of each other and oneself.

Most of all - I use it as a walkman! Most of the memory of my phone is media

Its the main reason I first got a cell phone.

also for:

reminders alarm

the clock

transit tracking.

messages with friends

doing business (essential now)

phone calls with older friends far off with land lines and who are isolated otherwise.

camera fun of outings without the bulk of a an DSLR.

emails of a time sensitive nature.

Truth is I rely on my computer far more and do 90% of my work there and prefer it to the small phone screen.

Isa said:

My Gran frequently says about how things like this weren't around when she was little and I find it hard to picture that world. Smart phones are such a big thing it's hard to believe they weren't always here

I can understand how you feel that way (+ thanks for your contribution).

Phones are just mini computers and their most important component is the internet (for most).

The internet was originally referred to as the 'information superhighway'.

The information that we can glean from it now would have been from many different sources when I was young including books (often a long walk to a library for me), newspapers, (all printed matter), radio, television and other people.

Seeking out these sources of information took up vastly more time than the movement of a couple of fingers.