For subscribers
Smartphones and social media are destroying children’s mental health
Evidence of the catastrophic effects of increased screen time is now overwhelming
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Fighting social media addiction is hard because you can’t stop people using smartphones and apps.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: UNSPLASH
John Burn-Murdoch
Follow topic:
Something is going very wrong for teenagers. Between 1994 and 2010, the share of British teens who do not consider themselves likeable fell slightly from 6 per cent to 4 per cent; since 2010, it has more than doubled. The share who think of themselves as a failure, who worry a lot, and who are dissatisfied with their lives also kicked up sharply.
The same trends are visible across the Atlantic. The number of US high school students who say their life often feels meaningless has rocketed in the past 12 years. And it is not just the Anglosphere. In France, rates of depression among 15- to 24-year-olds have quadrupled in the past decade.
