"RESCUING iGEN - TEENS RAISED ON SMARTPHONES NEED AN ESCAPE PLAN" - by: Eric Metaxas & G. Shane Morris, Breakpoint.org, August 22, 2017; http://breakpoint.org/2017/08/breakpoint-rescuing-igen/ [AS I SEE IT: Oh wow, do I know the truth of this article! Every chance I get, I try to place myself in the breakroom when I have my meal breaks so that I can meet with others and engage them in conversation - hopefully to introduce them to the gospel message. But it never fails that whenever I walk into the room, EVERYONE has their eyes glued to their smartphones and rarely is there any conversation going on. And this is not just the teens and young adults; I've seen those my age doing the same thing! It makes me hesitant to start a conversation because they all are so focused on their phones that I can't tell if they are engaged in something important. Yesterday, I found a college student so occupied that I finally just spoke up and apologized for interrupting her but said that I wanted to ask her a question. In the short time we had together, we had a great conversation (yes, that old thing) and I was able to pass on to her a gospel tract and challenge her to take 10 minutes to read the critical first half and let me know her thoughts the next time we met. THAT was probably the most satisfying time I've ever had at my job! And so, if you find yourself among people who are engrossed with their phones, may I challenge you to go ahead and interrupt them. YOU may get to share with them about being ready to face eternity, something definitely more important than whatever has them so occupied with their phones! (P.S. - I'm one of the last people on earth who does not have a cell phone so I have hope of never getting lost in the world of smartphones.) - Stan]
It seems like millennials are always texting, swiping, browsing, Snapchatting, Instagramming, or wasting time in some other way on a device, and dinosaurs like me have been quick to complain about it. But it turns out millennials, most of whom remember cassette tapes and graduated high school with flip phones, were old enough to ride the technological wave of the 2010s without getting sucked under.
Writing at The Atlantic, Jean Twenge points out that there’s another, younger generation that got pummeled by the smartphone revolution. Those born after 1995, typically called “generation Z,” were just entering their teen years when Steve Jobs introduced the world to the iPhone. Appropriately, Twenge dubs these young people, “iGen.”
Unlike millennials, these kids cannot remember a time before the Internet. Like laboratory mice, they’ve been the unwitting subjects of a historic experiment. What effect has this had on them? Twenge paints a bleak picture, and it goes far deeper than the typical concerns about diminished attention spans. Smartphones and other devices have shaped these teens’ worlds, from their social lives to their mental health.
Teen suicide has skyrocketed since 2011. One survey by the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that teens who spent ten hours or more a week on social media were 56 percent more likely to experience symptoms of depression. According to two national surveys, those glued to screens at least three hours a day were 28 percent more likely to suffer sleep deprivation.
It doesn’t end there. The younger generation is spending less time outside than any other crop of kids—ever. Twelfth-graders in 2015 spent fewer hours out of the house than eighth-graders did in 2009! They don’t get their driver’s licenses as early as their parents did, they’re more than twenty percent less likely to have jobs, and they aren’t even interested in spending time with friends, at least not in person. The number of teens who regularly get together socially has dropped by an astonishing forty percent since 2000.
Where are they spending all their time? Well, mostly at home, in their rooms, staring at screens. One teenager described the crater she’d left on her bed from spending all summer Snapchatting. Another admitted, “I think we like our phones more than we like actual people.”
“iGen,” Twenge concludes, “[is] on the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades.” And overuse of technology and social media is the most obvious culprit.
Well, here’s the good news, and I know you’re ready for it: Research indicates that much of this is reversible. Kids and teens who spend an above average amount of time with friends in person are 20 percent less likely to say they’re unhappy. Fewer hours spent staring at a screen correlates with better sleep. And as blogger, Andrew Sullivan, put it recently, cutting back on online time just makes you feel human again.
“If you were going to give advice for a happy adolescence…” writes Twenge, “it would be straightforward: Put down the phone, turn off the laptop, and do something—anything—that does not involve a screen.” Restricting your kids’ smartphone use may not sound like the best way to stay on their good side. And if they’re older, you’ll need to explain yourself, and reach agreements as a family about technology, not simply lay down the law. Why not show them this commentary?
You may find that your teens are more open to setting boundaries around screen time than you think. After all, their devices are not fulfilling them. Members of iGen may be in a better position than anyone to understand that there’s nothing smart about being enslaved to a phone.
[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]
RESOURCES - Studies show that we are more fulfilled when we have face-to-face, relational interaction. So encourage friends and family to take sufficient time away from screens. When technology replaces most in-person contact, it’s time to set some boundaries–and not just for the younger generations.
Screens and Teens: Connecting with Our Kids in a Wireless World- Kathy Koch | Moody Publishers | March 2015; http://www.colsoncenterstore.org/Product.asp?sku=9780802412690
"Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?" - Jean M. Twenge | The Atlantic | September 2017; https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198
"iParent: Gender Trends, Online Friends & the Soul of Your Child" - Don Pearson | Pot-Boilers.com; http://www.colsoncenterstore.org/product.asp?sku=9780578089287
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