Subtitle: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
Published by Penguin Press, 2024
We are all aware that computers, the Internet and smartphones have changed our lives considerably. This is independent on how much you actually use them, but everyone is expected to have a smartphone, filled with apps, both useful and not so useful. We have had computers in our household since the 1980s and it is a crisis when there is no access to the Internet.
But what is this doing to young people, those who are still growing and developing and learning to be adults? We can all see the headlines, no matter where we live, about how teens in particular are suffering more mental ill-health and this ill-health is affecting how young people are transitioning from childhood to adulthood. The author is particularly concerned with the generation born after 1995, often called Gen Z.
I’m finding reading this book a bit tedious as the author goes into a lot of detail and repeats himself a lot. I am not enjoying his writing style and haven’t actually finished the last few chapters. It seems like it is written as an academic book, but trying to appeal to the general reading public. The purpose of my blog is to save you from having to read the book by making a short summary of the main ideas in the book, though I am also interpreting what the author has written. If you have the book, my opinion is that once you have read the Introduction (which is 15 pages on my digital edition), you have gotten the basics. The rest of the book is just giving the details and the evidence of the author’s main ideas.
The Internet and Smartphones
By the year 2000, the Internet was becoming both available and used by many people, both at work, at school and for leisure activities. What had become a useful tool for sharing information, especially over large distances, became a tool for large companies to make money. New products soon developed and this book is particularly concerned with the smartphone, the small-sized computer that fits in your pocket and has access to the Internet almost anywhere. Not only the development of the hardware that fits in your pocket, but the software it contains became addictive. Software developers learned how to make it almost impossible to put down your phone as they put in an endless scroll mechanism.
If you think you got hooked easily, think how easily it became to get children and teenagers hooked. Children always use the argument “everyone else has one” to get their way, even though the initial argument isn’t necessarily true. But what damage is being done to our children and teenagers when their time is spent on a small box in their pocket? What are they not doing, that we who are older, perhaps did at their age?
Free play
When I was young, children were expected to fill in their free-time themselves. In the wet winter months, we played indoors at each others’ houses, using our toys and games to create our own imaginative worlds. In the warmer, drier summer months, we spent a lot of time outdoors, running around, playing outdoor games, perhaps climbing trees, etc. As we got older, we roamed farther from our homes, being allowed to go to shopping areas on our own, perhaps by bicycle. Some parents did a lot for their children, but most parents expected their children to fill in their after-school hours themselves. There would be some organized activities which for me were music lessons, choir practice and Brownies/Guides. But there was still a lot of time to decide for myself what I would do.
Play is how children learn. Small challenges are overcome. New challenges encourage learning new skills. Learning how to interact with others is an important part of learning as well. Learning what risks one is willing to take is very individual. As a child goes through elementary school, there are new boundaries to explore and to push outwards, both physically and mentally.
But according to the author, free play began to decline in the 1980s (partly depending on where you live. In Norway, there was still a lot of play in the mid-1990s.) Adults became overprotective. The expression “helicopter” parents was common where we live. Children were no longer allowed to explore on their own and test their own limits. Limits were set by adults. Organized activities were all that were allowed outside the home. In some places, children taking buses on their own were considered “neglected” and the parents could be punished. I remember in Grade 3, at about 8 years of age, taking the bus with a friend to the local ice rink to go skating, about 2 km away. No problem. We were learning how to become independent, a necessary step for all children. One small step at a time.
Phone-based childhood
Once smart-phones became common, even for children and teenagers, their use expanded very quickly. They were easy to take to one’s own room. One could use them at any time of day or night. Access to the Internet was rarely restricted. Large companies may have had rules as to how old users had to be, but it was no problem for children to learn how to lie about their age and get access to adult websites.
Now social interaction came through apps on the computer or phone. Young people spent much less time interacting face-to-face with others either their own age or with a variety of ages. Making eye contact with the person you were talking to was seldom. Getting likes became important, but was much more impersonal. Girls became hooked on social media, such as Facebook, while boys became hooked on games and pornography.
While in the real physical world, there were all sorts of restrictions to what children and teenagers were exposed to, in the virtual world there were very few restrictions and young people had access to websites and apps that were meant for adults. Heading online was fun and addictive. But children and teenagers are not learning the social skills that they need to function in the adult world of independence, supporting themselves economically, and finding someone to share their life with on a more permanent basis.
Guidelines for a healthier childhood
These four guidelines are suggested by the author. Most of them require groups of people to work together to be able to enforce them. Some need government regulation.
- Before children are about 14 years of age, they should only have a basic phone, not a smartphone. No unlimited access to the Internet.
- No social media before 16 years of age
- Phone-free schools – lock them away during school hours
- More unsupervised play and childhood independence
The author has children and is concerned for their development, so his suggestions are based on what he feels suitable. These are not guidelines that parents can enforce individually, but ones which the community, either locally or nationally, have to be agreed on to be able to restrict their usage.
Whether you are a parent, grandparent, or an otherwise concerned adult, I suggest you look at your own use of smartphones, computers and other digital devices. Are you in charge? Are the devices running your life? Only you can know the answer to that. What adults do, influences what children learn to do. If you want children to stay off the Internet and smartphones, then you will also have to restrict your use of them. Thus, I’m going to finish this blog and go outside to “play”. We have lots of snow now, so there are things to do away from screens. Have a good day!