On January 9, 2007, when Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone and announced that he was going to “reinvent the telephone,” the world of communications changed forever. But that day, according to the American psychologist Jonathan Haidt, another sinister and unexpected change occurred: it was the starting signal for the great mental health crisis that grips young people and adolescents today, with rates of anxiety and depression never seen before.
This is the daring thesis of his new book, The anxious generation, which will be published in Spanish at the end of May and in which it focuses on the supposed “mental rewiring” that the so-called generation Z experienced due to new technologies and the “like” button. “I argue that this vast rewiring of childhood is the primary reason for the tidal wave of adolescent mental illness that began in the early 2010s,” Haidt writes.
The author also defends that the parents of these children made the mistake of overprotecting them in the real world, while we left them defenseless in the virtual world whose dangers were unknown, as if we had sent them to the planet Mars without previously knowing the conditions. “These are the main reasons why children born after 1995 became the anxious generation“, summarizes.
“It is not supported by science”
The book has already received a response from well-known scientists who study the issue. Psychologist Candice L. Odgers of the University of California, Irvine, refuted Haidt’s arguments in the magazine Nature and accused him of establishing a false causal relationship between two factors that coincide in time. He also anticipates that the book will sell many copies because of its tabloid approach “which many parents are willing to believe,” although his central thesis “is not supported by science.”
“An analysis carried out in 72 countries does not show consistent or measurable associations between well-being and the deployment of social networks globally,” the expert wrote. “Furthermore, the findings of the study Adolescent Brain Cognitive Developmentthe largest long-term study of adolescent brain development in the United States, found no evidence of dramatic changes associated with digital technology use.”
Haidt defended himself with a wealth of data in his popular newsletter, in which he admits that this fear that young people are becoming “perverted” is a generational tic that has been repeated since ancient times. “So far, the skeptics have been right most of the time, and when they are right, they earn the right to call alarmists to those who fostered an unfounded moral panic,” he writes. But, as happened before with tobacco, alcohol or violence on television, skeptics are not always right, she warns. As in the story of Peter and the wolfsuggests, “the question we have to ask ourselves is this: are the skeptics right… or “Did the wolf really arrive around 2012 and since then it has been attacking young people through their smartphones and social media accounts?”
Separate the wheat from the chaff
To have a well-founded and complete vision of the problem, it is advisable to first recognize the facts that Haidt collects that are incontestable. Throughout his book, the psychologist shows tables with the evolution of depression and anxiety rates in the United States and other countries, and the same trend is repeated in all of them. Since 2010, mental health problems have skyrocketed in Western societies in all age groups, but among adolescents and young people, increases of up to 134% in anxiety and 104% in depression are observed, with a special impact on women. women.
“What Haidt postulates is that we already have studies that talk about causality and not just correlation,” explains Gregorio Montero, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, expert in ADHD and problems with new technologies. “And from the other side, where I include myself, it is criticized that we do not actually have longitudinal studies with a very large population that clearly demonstrate a causal relationship, because for that we need randomized clinical trials, and it is very difficult to do them, especially with large populations. The feeling among the scientific community, he summarizes, is that Haidt is letting himself be carried away by sensationalism and that his book is full of statements that are not entirely true on a scientific level, although the problem on which he focuses is serious and many of your valid recipes.
“Mom, look me in the eyes!”
“Much more has happened to this generation than the iPhone,” he says. Sara Toledano, psychologist at the Manantial Foundation. “These young people have also had parents who are just as stressed as them, dedicating all their energy to work and who are often using the networks to disconnect,” she points out. And she remembers the case of a patient who suffered a shock when her daughter said, “Mom, look me in the eyes!”
“What I see in consultation is that fathers and mothers are working more and more hours and the children are increasingly alone,” emphasizes Montero. “If a boy is alone because his parents can’t make ends meet and they have no choice but to work all day, and at the same time other boys are like him, we have the perfect cocktail,” he says. So, in general, it is not just the fact of using cell phones and networks, you have to understand the context, the same thing that happens with alcohol and other drugs. “It is very different to drink beer than to drink tequila, and to drink a wine because your team won on Saturday, than to drink a tequila at night, which is what they do [metafóricamente] adolescents.”
From my experience and knowledge, I can tell you that in the field of mental health we cannot establish direct causes of any problem.
“From my experience and my knowledge,” Toledano insists, “I can tell you that in the field of mental health we cannot establish direct causes of any problem, linear causality does not work.” She and her team recently led the #Rayadas report in which this issue was addressed in depth and its special incidence in younger women. In this study they tried to understand what happens on an emotional level with the population between 16 and 24 years old and the conclusion is that the cause is multifactorial, although screens have made it worse.
“In the study we asked these 2,000 kids what concerns they associated with their mental health, and they placed the climate crisis, unemployment and the absence of expectations as three very important factors that conditioned their well-being or emotional discomfort,” he recalls. “What I do believe is that social networks have meant a change in behavior, in the way of being and perceiving the world and, therefore, in the well-being or emotional discomfort of these young people, but that it has the same impact as the rest of the social context,” he says.
What we see is that the more serious the clinical condition that the young person has, the greater the attachment they have to mobile phones and social networks.
“I think it is multifactorial, but it is clear that we are facing a real-time experiment around the world,” he says. Gabriel Rubio, professor at the Complutense University (UCM) and head of the Psychiatry Service at the Doce de Octubre University Hospital. “What we do see in the consultations is that the more serious the clinical condition that the young person has, the greater the hook they have on mobile phones and social networks.” A year ago, at the UCM Faculty of Medicine, where he works, they conducted an anonymous survey in which 657 students participated, almost 70% of those enrolled. “And we found that one of the behaviors that was clearly most overrepresented was the abusive use of technologies, mobile addiction,” he says. “And this in medical students!”
Vulnerable adolescence
A possible argument against Haidt’s thesis is that this increase in mental health problems is present in all age groups, as if the cause were the great change in lifestyles, ways of relating and getting information. “But we must not forget that it is much easier to condition the personality traits of a child than that of a 35-year-old person,” explains Dr. Rubio. “When a boy has been connected to social networks since he was 11 years old, accustomed to being responded to, to being accepted, to being likesyou are conditioning their way of being, surely for the worse.”
“The reason why we are most concerned about adolescence is because of brain development,” says Rubén Baler, a health specialist at the US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). “Adolescence is a period of vulnerability and public health authorities have a greater responsibility to emphasize the message and intervene early to put these individuals on a healthier trajectory.” For Baler, visiting Spain for the World Congress of Dual Pathology in Mallorca to talk about this issue, although Haidt’s message is simplifying and not completely scientifically correct, it is better to be overly alarmist than to react late.
“It doesn’t cost that much to do something preventive,” he maintains. “I believe that those responsible should at least take it with caution, so that adolescents do not suffer the more forceful and harmful effects that, we suspect, they may have.” And remember that there are examples in history in which, although there was no conclusive evidence from longitudinal studies, it turned out that it was due to industry interests, as happened with tobacco, or the blaming of fats for the problems. cardiovascular, when what was behind it was mainly sugar.
The fact that science has not proven 100% that the cause is smartphones does not mean that we should not do anything about it or take measures.
“In medicine and psychology it is advisable to apply the principle of prudence,” agrees Montero. “That science has not proven 100% that the epidemic of mental disorders in adolescents and adults is due to social networks or smartphones, does not mean that we should not do anything about it or take action.” Although Haidt’s arguments are often inconsistent, the recommendations he makes in his book seem valid: delay the purchase of the smartphone and access to social networks, avoiding the use of digital devices in schools and supervision by parents to teach young people how to use them. “We have to teach them to drive and get behind the wheel of the cell phone, but to drive with responsibility and maturity,” he concludes.
“They have put us in a global experiment of epic magnitude, in which millions of citizens in the world are guinea pigs,” says Baler. “What we have to achieve is literacy, the first step is to educate ourselves, because the vast majority are living like sleepwalkers without realizing what is happening.” “Children must be helped from school and family to take a certain critical distance from the messages they hear, so that they can have face-to-face, relational experiences, and not only through social networks,” recommends Toledano. “We have to make the real world interesting again.”
AMR/CRM
