Are Smartphones the Source of Teen Loneliness and Depression?

Following the passage of a Florida law limiting children’s access to social media, voices across the spectrum are evaluating the impact of smartphones on children’s mental well-being.

“Damaging Our Kids”: A writer in the National Review (Right bias) determined that a “generational shift in how teens spent their leisure time (more time online and less time with friends in person, along with less time sleeping) coincided with a striking increase in loneliness, depression, and unhappiness.” Citing data depicting a decrease in teen socialization and sleep and an increase in depression and loneliness in the years since smartphones and social media became prominent, the writer called for legislation to raise the age of “internet adulthood,” which currently is 13, and also called for schools and parents to create more rules and limitations on children’s phone use.

“It’s The Phones”: A writer in Slate (Left bias) didn’t push for legislation limiting phone access for children but did admit to becoming “convinced” that phones were the source of increased teen loneliness and depression. The writer calls on parents to delay giving their child a smartphone and to relinquish certain technologies, such as location tracking. The writer concluded that the “minds of these parents are going to be hard to change,” but that “there is a reservoir of childhood and teenage experiences inside me, and inside many people who grew up pre-phone, that feels distant and beautiful, and that I do think helped me emerge into adulthood as a grounded, confident person.”