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

Can somebody take his head out of his *** and stop blaming technology? It's not the fault of the mobiles, is the fault of crappy/ non-existent parenting.

When I was a kid, good parents took their children outside or signed them up for activities. Crap parents just locked their children in the house with a TV. No wonder my generation grew up to be a bunch of TV-addicted idiots.

Now, good parents took their children outside or signed them up for activities. Crap parents just leave their children with an Ipad/Iphone as soon as they can hold them..

It's a crappy parents problem. but it is fancier and easier to just blame the evil technology. You cannot tell parents to start actually parenting their sprogs, it will be "invalidating"

JD, there have always been "bad" parents as you call them, I was never taken off to do activities by my parents there wern't as many when I was a child, just brownies and sunday school, Some people would do ballet or go riding, but most didn't, I wonder if as well as to much social media, if children arn't being over stimulated by being carted off to too many activities, do they ever get a chance to switch off? I notice lots of people who cannot entertain themselves and need noise often from multiple sources to stop them having to find out who they are, I noticed this a lot during lockdown, I think those of us who can entertain ourselves came out of it better than those who can't. Children and young people now are digital natives, how many parents actually know as much about tech as their children? It's a bit of a joke that when you can't work your'e complicated smart tv to ask a small child to show you, but this is the other side of it. Childrens brains are so maleable and seem to absorb things like a sponge, but we do need to have some idea of what they're accessing and give them some space to tell us without it feeling like an interogation, personally I think family meal times are good for this, where everybody has a chance to talk about their day. I've been told that children today wouldn't put up with that, I was told that when my children were small, but they loved it and wanted it to continue and still think it was valuable now thier adults.

JD, there have always been "bad" parents as you call them, I was never taken off to do activities by my parents there wern't as many when I was a child, just brownies and sunday school, Some people would do ballet or go riding, but most didn't, I wonder if as well as to much social media, if children arn't being over stimulated by being carted off to too many activities, do they ever get a chance to switch off? I notice lots of people who cannot entertain themselves and need noise often from multiple sources to stop them having to find out who they are, I noticed this a lot during lockdown, I think those of us who can entertain ourselves came out of it better than those who can't. Children and young people now are digital natives, how many parents actually know as much about tech as their children? It's a bit of a joke that when you can't work your'e complicated smart tv to ask a small child to show you, but this is the other side of it. Childrens brains are so maleable and seem to absorb things like a sponge, but we do need to have some idea of what they're accessing and give them some space to tell us without it feeling like an interogation, personally I think family meal times are good for this, where everybody has a chance to talk about their day. I've been told that children today wouldn't put up with that, I was told that when my children were small, but they loved it and wanted it to continue and still think it was valuable now thier adults.

JD, I will say again that there have always been parents who have done that, they just do it with ipads instead of tv's or shoving them out in the garden or street to go and "play". I'm not saying it's the fault of tech.

I think you missed the point. I worked in a school, I heard the teacher talking about the "difficult" cases. In every case, the parents just shoved an Ipad in the hands of their children to keep him busy while they drank, smoked, or watched TV. That's not the fault of the technology, it's the fault of the bad parenting. People here still blame technology instead of blaming bad parenting.

Have you got that?  

thank you for taking the duty of care and time to rear children who can look up and out at the world around them! They will be needed!