Give Gen Z some Credit
A couple of weeks ago, I sat in a parents’ meeting listening to my son’s teacher talk about the upcoming school year. Toward the end of the meeting a father behind me raised his hand and asked the teacher if she had a guess as to how many students in the class had phones. She hesitated but eventually estimated that all or nearly all did. Interestingly, that set off a bit of a flurry when several parents began chiming in, “Not my son; not my daughter.” In the end, probably 5 of us, myself included, affirmed that their 7th graders do not have a phone of their own.
This brief experience clarified several things in my mind. Firstly, this is a high-priority issue for every parent and every educator. Secondly, while it may feel to us (and to our children) that absolutely all of their peers have the latest smart phone and that they absolutely cannot live without one, that is not necessarily true.
Jonathan Haidt tackles this important issue in a book that, by his own admission, he didn’t set out to write. He originally began to write about social media’s disastrous effects on American democracy, but the data he was compiling on adolescent mental health was so compelling that he pivoted.[1] And I’m so glad he did. The Anxious Generation has become a seminal work and has advanced the wider conversation around adolescent phone and social media use. He suggests four best practices that he argues will correct The Great Rewiring of children born since 1995.
- No smartphones before high school
- No social media before 16
- Phone-free schools
- Far more unsupervised play and childhood independence[2]
His meta-analysis of numerous studies shows these four steps can effectively combat the range of risks associated with adolescents’ overuse of smart phones and social media: In a related article he says, “We’re talking about a range of documented risks that affect heavy users, including sleep deprivation, body image distortion, depression, anxiety, exposure to content promoting suicide and eating disorders, sexual predation and sextortion, and “problematic use,” which is the term psychologists use to describe compulsive overuse that interferes with success in other areas of life.”[3]
Going beyond the overwhelming data and Haidt’s suggested best practices, there is an aspect of this debate that I find even more fascinating. Kids, even many of the same kids are more or less addicted to their phones, are pushing back against social media. My older son is 14, and he complains when his friends have their noses glued to their phones, as he puts it. He’s not complaining because he feels left out. He’s complaining because they’re not hanging out in any meaningful way. And my son isn’t the only one. In a recent New York Times article, Haidt shares data showing that many kids “wished these products had never been invented: Instagram (34 percent), Facebook (37 percent), Snapchat (43 percent), and the most regretted platforms of all: TikTok (47 percent) and X/Twitter (50 percent).”[4]
I think this means the tide is turning. I believe in Gen Z and Gen Alpha after them; they are smart and capable and they are beginning to recognize how detrimental screen addiction is. I love that Haidt concludes his book by encouraging kids to take a courageous stand and to advocate for themselves. He writes, “If you are a member of Gen Z, society urgently needs your voice. Your words will be the most powerful of all.”[5] He even recommends an organization, Design It For Us, founded by members of Gen Z to work for change in this area. You can bet this is a conversation I’m going to have with my two sons as soon as possible. This topic is too urgent to put off and too important to ignore.
[1] Haidt, Jonathan. The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. London: Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books, 2024. 289.
[2] Ibid., 290.
[3] Jonathan Haidt and Will Johnson, “Gen Z Has Regrets,” New York Times, September 17, 2024. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/17/opinion/social-media-smartphones-harm-regret.html?smid=url-share.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Haidt, Jonathan. The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. London: Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books, 2024. 289.
[5] Ibid., 292.
About the Author
Kim Sanford
10 responses to “Give Gen Z some Credit”
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Hi Kim,
I really appreciate that you highlighted the point (and your experience) that not all kids are on their phones and that they have a powerful voice among their peers. I also wonder it they don’t have a powerful voice among the adults in their lives. I liked Jonathon Haidt’s best practices as well. How can parents (and grandparents) band together? How does this book and topic impact your NPO project?
Very nice post! Thank you!
You are so right that parents (and grandparents) need to band together on this issue. I think Haidt talked about it, either in this book or in another article I ran across, and he suggested that like-minded parents form a sort of “pact” to wait until high school to give smart phones to their kids. The obvious advantage is that no one kid in the class, friend group, etc. will be the only one without a smart phone. That’s essentially what has happened for my older son, albeit unintentionally. Most of his classmates have phones, but he doesn’t care that he doesn’t because his 2 closest friends don’t either. This definitely has a bearing on my NPO; the topic works its way into many of the examples I bring up in my workshops and may be an area for future discussion as I develop the work beyond the doctoral project.
Kim,
I can’t thank you enough for using an education context to share your concern about this issue. It is huge!!! I have witness settings where students (K-5th) are bring cell phones and apple watches to school, texting parents during the day and recording things that should not be recorded. It is alarming. Not too mention the distraction of notifications going off during a lesson while a teaching is teaching and the notification getting the whole group off task. Kuddos to you for taking a stand. In my school setting there has been push back (from parents) about limiting cell phone/apple watch use. (more apple watch use than cell phones)
Interesting, I hadn’t even thought about apple watches but of course they’re even more intrusive in terms of concentration. I do not envy teachers who have to deal with this every day and, I would imagine, often feel powerless to set the boundaries that they know are best for the students. Have you seen any really creative solutions to tackle this ongoing problem?
Kim, I’m glad you shared the experience about the parents’ meeting you attended — I do wonder if that number 5 (the 5 of you with children who do not have smartphones in the classroom) will go up in the next few years, and I wonder how much of that will be driven not only by the parents by peer pressure from other students…peer pressure to NOT have a smart device. It does seem that there is some pushback among Gen Z, but those examples among young people (and older people, for that matter) seem to be exceptions. I’d love to learn about other examples where members of Gen Z (or even Gen Alpha) are going in another direction when it comes to smart phones / mobile devices. Have you come across any data in your research?
Hmm, interesting question. I have not seen any research or reporting on trends, but I suspect your hunch is right – we may see some pushback on how ubiquitous smart phones have become especially in schools. This topic hasn’t featured prominently in my NPO workshops, but I think it will become part of my “next steps” to develop more support for parents around this topic.
Kim, I love that you pointed out, “I think this means the tide is turning. I believe in Gen Z and Gen Alpha after them; they are smart and capable and they are beginning to recognize how detrimental screen addiction is.”
While my kids are as addicted to screens as any average kid out there – they are able to put them down (regularly haha) and do other productive things, like school work, sports, socializing, etc. My daughter recently got a phone (as in, she got one last week). She is in 7th grade and I was going to hold out until high school but found it was impossible to manage rides and other logistics without a phone for her. (She had a watch before but it broke and was going to cost more to replace the watch than to get her a basic phone.) Anyway, I have found with her, she does not want social media. I don’t know if this will last but for the time-being I am celebrating that small win. I will not cave on social media – at least until high school.
I appreciated hearing that you are experiencing the same issues around phones and seventh graders in France as we are in Oregon!
Kim, great post.
Let me encourage you to keep being encouraged. You saw my post which was the dark side of the coin, but I do believe there is still hope for those with younger kids.
As a warning, I did all 4 of those things Haidt suggested. Our kids didn’t have smartphones until 9th grade, no social media until 16, weren’t allowed to use them in school, and we attempted to release them to unsupervised play.
For us the perfect storm was they were all ‘old enough’ for phones during the 18 months we were locked down for Covid and it was how they connected with their friends. You won’t have the Covid problem, but I urge you and other parents in your stage, to not just hand the phones over at 14 and have unlimited access to social media at 16 but to continue careful supervision and accountability (I’m not a gun guy, but I imagine if I was and was giving my kid their first gun I’d make super sure there was safety and accountability built in)
Sorry if I’m giving unasked for advice. But this hits home for me and I’m hopeful you and others like you will do better armed with better information.
Thanks for your post Kim, as you know, we have young kids as well so this is a very relevant topic for us. Our oldest does have a phone, with high restrictions and guidelines, but he has one, so he can call, or we can. We stay in conversation about this topic so your posts is helpful. The only thing that never changes is things will keep changing!
Yes Kim!! My son’s middle school has banned phone use at school. Meaning they can bring them but once in school they are muted and put away, even at lunch. I heard a few complaints from him, but I think it’s been a great situation! He is more engaged in the world, he hangs out with his friends after school (as long as he tells us first). He was one of the only ones had to wait for a smart phone, and even then, it was an old one. We buy our kiddos a smart phone for 13 th birthday, but any upgrades, or new phones or purchases for it are their responsibility. It means, none of them have the “latest” anything. I don’t think we had the age right, I wish we had waited until later, but i do love having control. If they want to play longer on anything longer than 2 hours they have to ask us to unlock it. I appreciate that aspect of smart phones a lot.