Today, my eleven year old asked me if she could have Pinterest on her phone, and my immediate answer was no.
I love Pinterest myself, so why the hard no? As both a high school teacher and a parent of a teen, I’ve seen firsthand the scary effects of social media. what we think is innocuous at first often has a hidden dark side. Did you know you can find links to websites on how to hide an eating disorder on Pinterest? Disturbing and pornographic images? Neither did I, until one of my senior art students warned me not to let my pre-teen use Pinterest unsupervised after I talked about using it to find art ideas.
Recently, I came across the work of Jonathan Haidt, whose perspectives on the impact of technology on our kids' lives have been eye-opening. I highly recommend checking out his site and listening to his podcast: https://jonathanhaidt.com/anxious-generation]. His words are better than mine, so I will share the adapted quote below from Jonathan Haidt’s new book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness:
“Something went suddenly and horribly wrong for adolescents in the early 2010s. By now you’ve likely seen the statistics: Rates of depression and anxiety in the United States—fairly stable in the 2000s—rose by more than 50 percent in many studies from 2010 to 2019. The suicide rate rose 48 percent for adolescents ages 10 to 19. For girls ages 10 to 14, it rose 131 percent.
The problem was not limited to the U.S.: Similar patterns emerged around the same time in Canada, the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, the Nordic countries, and beyond. By a variety of measures and in a variety of countries, the members of Generation Z (born in and after 1996) are suffering from anxiety, depression, self-harm, and related disorders at levels higher than any other generation for which we have data.
The decline in mental health is just one of many signs that something went awry. Loneliness and friendlessness among American teens began to surge around 2012. Academic achievement went down, too. According to “The Nation’s Report Card,” scores in reading and math began to decline for U.S. students after 2012, reversing decades of slow but generally steady increase. PISA, the major international measure of educational trends, shows that declines in math, reading, and science happened globally, also beginning in the early 2010s. . .
What happened in the early 2010s that altered adolescent development and worsened mental health? Theories abound, but the fact that similar trends are found in many countries worldwide means that events and trends that are specific to the United States cannot be the main story.
I think the answer can be stated simply, although the underlying psychology is complex: Those were the years when adolescents in rich countries traded in their flip phones for smartphones and moved much more of their social lives online—particularly onto social-media platforms designed for virality and addiction. Once young people began carrying the entire internet in their pockets, available to them day and night, it altered their daily experiences and developmental pathways across the board. Friendship, dating, sexuality, exercise, sleep, academics, politics, family dynamics, identity—all were affected. Life changed rapidly for younger children, too, as they began to get access to their parents’ smartphones and, later, got their own iPads, laptops, and even smartphones during elementary school.”
As a high school teacher, I witness firsthand how social media is detrimentally affecting our kids’ mental health, social skills, and attention spans. It’s an urgent issue that demands immediate attention. Today’s kids have a powerful device with access to everything imaginable, both beneficial and harmful, constantly at their fingertips. They are as crafty, or craftier than we are at finding information, and hiding it online. They are being exposed to pornography, violence, racism, gambling, hate groups, and things we can’t even imagine. And parents just allow it. This isn’t an emergency or a talking point in politics, but it should be.
Young people may look like they are adults, but if you know about brain development, teens are controlled by the reactive amygdala and less by the logical frontal cortex. They are not always able to discern what is true and what isn’t. This is a great thing for companies, hate groups, gambling websites, anyone who wants to hook your teen. I feel like we all have that older relative who has gone down the Facebook conspiracy theory hole, how easily some people can be swayed. Think about what this kind of media onslaught does to a developing brain. Our currently polarized society owes it all to social media. AI is a whole new animal, adding more fuel to the fire and creating propaganda that is hard to distinguish from reality.
The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Consensus Study Report on Social Media and Adolescent Health includes Recommendation 6-1 which states: “Media literacy education currently suffers from scarce funding, uneven content, poorly qualified instructors, and a lack of reference standard. All four of these issues should be addressed in a comprehensive national media literacy education program prioritized for all children in grades K through 12.” Access to media literacy education for a child in 2024 is so important. I wonder why school districts don’t prioritize this?
With this inundation of information comes significant drawbacks. I see children losing their innocence, ambition, resilience, social skills, and even their mental stability due to excessive smartphone use. Despite implementing a strict no-phone policy in my classroom, I find students checking their devices up to 20 times in a single class period. Some are so engrossed in gaming that they sneak phones into the bathroom to continue playing, severely impacting their academic performance. They don’t hear me when I give directions, they really aren’t present.
In conversations with my students, they express regret about starting social media too young and believe that no one under 16 should have access to it. These are high schoolers admitting this. They also reveal that without the pressure to be constantly connected, they would prefer a phone-free school environment where they can focus on learning and socializing in person. They miss the simple joys of passing notes to crushes—a form of distraction I'd gladly welcome in my classroom!
I’ve had pushback when parents say they want their kids to have a phone at school in case of an emergency, or worse, a school shooting. When did school shootings dramatically increase? With the introduction of the smartphone. I’m not a scientist, just a teacher. Check out this link. Teachers are TRAINED to deal with emergencies, we have phones in our classrooms.
Messaging apps are truly nefarious. If your child has Discord, Telegram, Kik or Whatsapp, WeChat, Signal and even Facebook Messenger, you need to delete them now. Adults use these to send private messages to your kids, posing as peers. As a parent you would never leave your child in a room full of racist groups or pedophiles, right? These apps are recruiting grounds for hate groups looking for impressionable minds, they are hunting grounds for pedophiles.
Social media platforms are designed to be addictive, and we’re unwittingly allowing our children to fall victim to endless scrolling for dopamine hits. It immerses them in a world of unrealistic comparisons, fear of missing out, and an insatiable desire for material possessions. Snapchat uses Snapstreaks to make sure kids keep using the app and posting constantly, it doesn’t promote true friendship or connections, it just promotes posting for likes. Many social media insiders don’t let their own kids use the apps they have created or promote-
Even seemingly innocent platforms like Pinterest and TikTok have their darker sides. While my feed is filled with recipes and home décor, a teenager’s feed can expose them to inappropriate content due to algorithmic recommendations. This exposure distorts their perception of what’s normal and appropriate, robbing them of their innocence prematurely.
Parents and educators, we cannot afford to ignore this any longer. This is a call to action. Let’s collaborate to protect our children’s mental health. Below is a suggested contract to help guide your discussions with your children. Consider the consequences if we continue to overlook this growing mental health crisis.
I cannot stress more that the most important part of this post is begging parents and teachers to ban together and be consistent on cell phones- DO NOT MAKE EXCEPTIONS for your kid, or for your classroom- the only way this works is for every parent in your kids’ friend group to have the same rules, every teacher in a single school building needs to be supported by administration and have the same no phone policy.
No phones at school; teachers are equipped to handle emergencies.
Enable parental controls during school hours.
Resist the temptation to make exceptions for your child; consistency is key.
Teachers, let’s unite in advocating for phone-free classrooms to foster a better learning environment and support our students in becoming well-rounded individuals.
Let’s work together to reclaim our children’s childhoods and safeguard their futures. Thank you for joining me in this crucial conversation.
Here are some amazing resources and articles:
https://www.waituntil8th.org/
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/a-realistic-way-to-protect-kids-from-social-media-find-a-middle-ground-2/
https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/assessment-of-the-impact-of-social-media-on-the-health-and-wellbeing-of-adolescents-and-children
