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

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.

That's kind of you to say. I don't think I deserve it though.

I was curious to find out - OK- what appropriate advice might be available to young people to enable them to gain the benefits from online activities plus for them to understand how to avoid online harms? 

I came across this (aimed at 11-18 year olds).  I liked the section explaining about setting up Privacy Settings (with practical reminders such as to test your settings with a trusted friend looking at your profile before you start using a Social Media account):

www.childnet.com/.../11-18-year-olds 

If an organisation can be infiltrated by satanic and demonic influences over centuries, it obviously can never be used as a perfect guide as any direction could be coming from satanists. And if their mandate comes directly from God, it makes no sense that he would just leave it alone while his right hand on earth was in thrall to Satan. 

Many of the things against the Catholic Church was because over the centuries, the Church has been infiltrated in various ways by those who had satanic and demonic intentions and agendas to undermine and discredit the Church  and its moral and social teachings and the same people also infiltrated and discredited the gay community as well via the long March through the institutions to destroy western civilisation 

I like using maps as well. There's a handy street view feature which allows you to see the place as if you're actually standing there. It's really cool. I use this a lot to familiarise myself with a place I'm going to be visiting in the near future.

Best wishes,

Isadora.

Good to see so many Whovians on this forum.  I love your profile pictures. Tom Baker is my fave Doctor.

Best wishes,

Isadora.

I watch on my computer.

Fellow whovian!

So guess I have two points in reply. The first is that teen conceptions in 2021 in England and Wales were significantly lower  than 2011 (see graph below).

The second is that in the 1960s, homosexuality was illegal, women’s rights were much worse than now and the Catholic Church was committing all sorts of crimes that we now see old men being prosecuted for.

What place would you have in such a society?

IrishInManchesterUK said:

the traditional Catholic faith is the only solution

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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?  

That is interesting. Thanks for sharing Debbie you make the best discussions.

I have a smartphone but I wouldn't say I use it in ways that will affect me negatively, minus googling health stuff and scaring myself half to death lol! I don't do social media, I see nothing good on there...

But I do use all these:

• Reminders.
• Music app.
• YouTube, to watch Doctor Who clips  
• Health app which works with my smart watch monitoring my blood pressure, heart rate and so on = extremely useful as I've been diagnosed with breast cancer and can keep track of my health more in-depthly.
• Online banking.
• Online shopping.
• Calendar to help me keep track of dates bc I'm terrible at remembering them lol.
• Notes so I can quickly write a note then get it to remind me later on at specific times.
• Can control my home lights and use the phone to see who's at the door with the interactive video doorbell.
• Maps and GPS.
• Easy access to the internet so I can literally look up whatever is interesting me and I want to know about.

I'm not addicted to my phone but I do find it extremely useful for the stuff mentioned above.

Although I use my phone for a lot of things that I feel benefit me I draw the line at social media. I don’t feel that it would be useful to me tbh. I do understand that I’m in a minority on this and constantly get hassled by friends and family because of my refusal to indulge. 
It’s just not for me, I’m a background kind of person and don’t like being the focus of attention so I stay clear and always have. 

I recently saw it given the #1 spot on a review of the ten scariest films ever made.

Iain said:

The simplest solution would be to have a signal jammer operating in the classrooms

That would work, assuming signal jammers were allowed. 

I can remember watching 'Threads' during an English lesson at secondary school. This would have been during the late 1980s/early 1990s. A brilliantly chilling film, and I've not forgotten the profound effect that watching it had on me.

Yes. But it is also a country in which children as young as 12 are married on occasion.

Thank you x2.  

I always try to be careful online. There was a member a couple of years ago who wasn't as nice as they first seemed but I think they were banned eventually. I'm more careful now.

Best wishes,

Isadora.

That's wise advice about the need to be careful when accepting friend requests, and taking time to get to know members through the forums first.