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

Yellow tree 118 said:

But it’s impossible to say the world has improved overall over the last 30 years.

Sorry, but that’s just not true.

People live much longer lives, crime is much lower, there is vastly less poverty, the economy is massively larger, living conditions are massively better for the vast majority.

"Duck and cover." We were all waiting for the other shoe.

www.youtube.com/watch

But then.. the adults got totally distracted with the shiny new "credit cards" and the 2.5 kid count. Consumerism distracted them, expecting such great expectations till the bills came due.

I grew up in a one bedroom tenement, no phone, no central heating, no double glazing, ice inside the windows when it was cold. Didn’t have a TV until I was around 8 years old. This wasn’t at all unusual back then - the late 70s/early 80s, not exactly a million years ago.

Yeh I’m sorry to hear that but I don’t think it’s a competition of who had it hardest. Your story is valid too. But it’s impossible to say the world has improved overall over the last 30 years. Some areas might have improved but I mean unless you live under a rock and don’t look at the world around you it would be impossible to say the world is in a better place than it was 30 years ago. I mean I’m saying that and I wasn’t even alive then because I have had to live through the system that previous generations left for me which nearly broke me.

Amerantin (former member) said:

When I was growing up everyone absolutely *knew* we were going to die in a nuclear war. It wasn’t a threat or an abstract possibility, it was an absolute expectation. 

Yes.  I was an active member of CND.

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.

in many US States, the legal drinking age is 21 

Yellow tree 118 said:

I mean todays youth have to deal with the threat of WW3 which would blow both WW1 and WW2 out of the water in terms of severity.

When I was growing up everyone absolutely *knew* we were going to die in a nuclear war. It wasn’t a threat or an abstract possibility, it was an absolute expectation. 

In the 1980s there was a film called Threads about a nuclear attack on Sheffield and the aftermath of the war. It was utterly sickening and horrifying, precisely because we had the absolute expectation it was going to happen.

m.imdb.com/.../

We need to go back to traditional family and moral values and reverse all of the changes made since the 1960’s - the traditional Catholic faith is the only solution - I once embraced tech and modernity and leftism in my teens in the 1980’s against the warnings and predictions of my grandparents before they passed, but much later on, once out of the confusion of my teens, I came to realise that it was not the way and that the best way was the Catholic traditions of my childhood and this is especially true since Covid, given all that has been revealed to us since then - I firmly believe and maintain that rolling back all of the changes since the 1960’s and returning to tradition is the only way out of our current situation and returning the age back up to 21 for everything is an important part of that - notice how, even in the 5-10 years before Covid, there was much fewer teenage pregnancies 

Yellow tree 118 said:

I feel kinda sorry for the upcoming generation I mean they have it so hard compared to the older generations who had it relatively easy in comparison. I know older generations had their struggles also but I think todays youth still have it way harder.

I think that needs another thread!

I could give you so much detail of how hard our lives were when we were young, how much true deprivation there was and even more so for our parents.

How many gadgets and time saving devices didn't exist, how expensive goods were and how hard it was to make meals without supermarket ready meals (or supermarkets when I was really young).

How we walked everywhere because we couldn't afford cars.

How we had to make our own clothes because we couldn't afford new.

How I had to wear my sisters' and mothers' hand-me-downs and was relentlessly bullied because of this.

Womens lives have been transformed in the decades I've been alive, and hugely improved with opportunities.

However, the WW3 thing is a real threat.

I can’t talk about anybody. I am a young guy and am currently addicted to my phone. I wonder how the coming generation will handle the world. I feel kinda sorry for the upcoming generation I mean they have it so hard compared to the older generations who had it relatively easy in comparison. I know older generations had their struggles also but I think todays youth still have it way harder. I mean todays youth have to deal with the threat of WW3 which would blow both WW1 and WW2 out of the water in terms of severity. I mean we’re dealing with nuclear weapons here and cyber robots with guns that can sense your movements and breathe from a mile away. Real scary stuff. Ever watched black mirror that tv series scared me at the time it came out in 2016 because it portrayed the future and the dark side of technology and now it’s practically here everything they showed us in the tv series it’s here. Terminators are real now how scary is that? 

The family that prays together stays together 

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!

here here for all these, #4, especially. I was way under supervised too. I had to rely on myself as well. for me it was endless exploring on foot as far as I could go. I loved being in the woods among the little creatures and the trees, especially. 

Its wonderful that you could mix in with other kids, living in council housing among so many others.

Your gang was your social media.

I remember those games and songs too. I wonder if any of you younger people here have something equivalent, like call and response zoom games or other group games you play online?

"If you go out in the woods today..."

"Red Rover, Red Rover, let me come over..."  Before it morphed into a melee.

"clothes Horse"

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.

Isadora said:

This site is all the social contact I need as it's good people, nice atmosphere and we can support each other when we need to without being trolled hopefully.

Thank you for that great contribution.

Please do be very careful who you accept as friends here as they can PM you then, even if you later remove them - I suggest you get to know anyone who sends you a request here first through their posts and forum interaction.

we are so fortunate these days!

This is a really interesting thread. Thanks Debbie for making it! It's interesting seeing how different things have been for us growing up and how that's shaped us as people. We really are a diverse group of people. 

I'm of the Gen Z time but must be the exception as I've got a phone but it spends most of its time on my desk feeling unloved. Lol. I'm more in to using my PC, mostly because it doesn't ring 24-7 and I don't get loads of messages flooding me all the time. I keep it on silent so the ringing can't trigger me and notifications are silent too.

I never use social media. This site is all the social contact I need as it's good people, nice atmosphere and we can support each other when we need to without being trolled hopefully.

Whereas Facebook and the rest of the main social platforms are absolutely toxic. I don't need that in my life so I don't bother with them.

The main reason I even have a phone is for the reminders. My phone can remind me at specific intervals to eat and drink as because of my autism I really struggle with both and it's led to a lot of health complications in the past. Phone reminders have likely saved my life hundreds of times now. Easy access to the internet is also good, it means I can look up anything that may peak my interests... Which happens a lot! I'm a curious creature. Lol.

It's easy to access resources as well such as Samaritans and when I was younger I could use Childline as well. Immediate access and it was all secure on my phone. No one knew and I was able to reach out whenever I needed to.

My doctors also have an email service and that is perfect for me as I find it really difficult and uncomfortable talking on the phone. But a few taps and I've got their email and can contact them within five minutes and I'll normally have a response within the hour. 

I like the idea of phones but they're a bit of a nuisance in my opinion because a lot of people become glued to them. My brother spends all his time on his, messaging people on social media he says, but he even does it when he's watching stuff on the TV but then I think he can't really be watching it or taking what's happening in can he? My little sister uses hers all the time as well, even when she crosses the road, dangerous much?

My sister is glued to social media like most her age and she worries what other people think of her and is she popular enough, is she pretty etc...I was like that when I was at school but non digitally, I just thought it like most girls my age but phones and social media have changed things considerably to the extent they actually say it aloud online and of course you get a lot of trolling which has serious mental and emotional effects.

At my old school kids are now allowed their phones on school premises. It's their right to feel safe and have that level of contact with family etc. I think that's a mistake. I coped at school without and so did everyone else before. It was better how it used to be. I think they're cool but people take it to extremes. I use mine for banking but I try to use my PC if I can. When I'm out the phone is handy then for paying for things and for accessing Google Maps and constant reminders to eat and drink but other than that I try not to use it too much.

Best wishes,

Isadora.

School leaving age was 16 when I was at school but it was 14 for my mother.

School leaving age was 13 to begin with. My great-grandmother was educated in a workhouse school. When she was 13, relatives took her to live with them, as she was of working age. 

The age of consent was also 13 until 1885.

Ideas of adulthood have changed significantly - we would not think of a 13 year old as an adult in Britain today. On the other hand, I don't think of 21 year old people as children. 

Pegg said:

There's talk nationally of banning phones in school, as if that would be a simple fix - I'm not sure it would. 

The simplest solution would be to have a signal jammer operating in the classrooms - it would render the phones unable to connect so remove most of their attraction for that time.