Smartphones are destroying kids — but where are the parents?By Kirsten Fleming
May 15, 2023
Over Mother’s Day dinner on Sunday, my college-aged niece ribbed my mother for constantly misplacing her iPhone.
My mom, who is in her seventh decade, cracked, “Unlike you, I was not born with a cellphone in my hand, so it’s not an appendage for me.”
It was good-natured family banter.
But sitting between a Boomer and a Zoomer, I, a young Gen Xer, could see the full spectrum and development of our smartphone habits.
Generally speaking, Millennials and younger Generation Xers are the ones now raising kids. We’re old enough to remember the virtues of our device-free childhoods — and to appreciate how technology has made our lives both better and worse as adults.
And having seen both sides, I can’t help but feel we need a more conservative approach to the lingering debate over when kids should be allowed smartphones.
Then this morning, more evidence for this arrived in my inbox.
A new study from nonprofit research organization Sapien Labs reports that the younger kids are when they’re first given smartphones or tablets, the worse their mental health as adults. To no surprise, this connection is more intense in females.
* * *
Source:
https://nypost.com/2023/05/15/smartphones-are-destroying-kids-but-where-are-parents/
