Since 2007, the mental health of Aussie teens has worsened. Might smartphones & social media be to blame? I've made a short video to look at the evidence. #auspol @jonhaidt Jean Twenge (author of GENERATIONS, iGEN) The Social Dilemma Tristan Harris @humanetech_ @letgroworg

Here's a short video giving an account of the Great Rewiring, from an Australian perspective. The same thing happened there at the same time as in the USA, UK, Canada, New Zealand...

The 4 dark laws of online engagement:

1. Negativity bias drives headline clicks
2. Extreme opinions drive in-group sharing
3. Out-group animosity drives engagement
4. 'Moral-emotional' language goes viral

I discuss our research on the dark side of virality with Derek Thompson…

If you just look at the narrow question of smartphones in school as an academic and disciplinary issue it’s pretty clear they’re a huge source of distraction to students and hassles for teachers.

slowboring.com/p/smartphones-…

Here is my response to that review in Nature. It is my response to all who assert that there is 'no evidence' that social media is a substantial CAUSE of the teen mental health crisis, it's only an accidental correlate:

afterbabel.com/p/phone-based-…

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve spied pupils surreptitiously on phones& asked them to put their phones away only to be told that ‘it’s just my mum texting’ or ‘I need to answer it, it’s my dad.’ Sometimes young people even politely ask to accept or make a call. 🤷🏻‍♀️ 3/7

Parents: Does this look negligible to you? Twice as many heavy users of social media are depressed vs. non-users, 3x among girls. (From the UK Millennium Cohort Study of 15-year-olds). And yes, there are experiments showing causation as well.
thelancet.com/journals/eclin…

For the critics saying the absolute numbers of teen girl suicides are small: But the number with clinical depression is *not* small: 28%, up from 12% in 2011. That's *3.6 million* U.S. girls. But we also have to examine suicide as the critics dismiss the depression stats as…

Common fallacy: 'Because social media use and in-person socializing are positively correlated, SM can't be the cause of the decline in face-to-face socializing.' This confuses individual-level effects (social kids are social kids) and group-level effects (as SM use rose over the…

I don’t think I’ve ever delivered a more important commentary than I will offer at 9am CNN CNN International to be followed by a conversation with Jonathan Haidt. All supporting information can be found on my web site under The Mingle Project bit.ly/3TQLOuf

For the skeptics of the thesis that smartphones are “damaging our kids”, these figures from Jean Twenge (author of GENERATIONS, iGEN) National Review sure are something👇🏼
nationalreview.com/magazine/2024/…

Very unlikely, as average homework time has gone *down* among U.S. teens.
afterbabel.com/p/academic-pre…

Most people have no idea how DRAMATICALLY living conditions have improved in recent centuries.

Imagine a world with widespread food scarcity, life expectancy of 35, no indoor plumbing, dirt floors, no antibiotics, no vaccines, no anesthesia, and a lukewarm bath once a year!

Big Five traits and life outcomes.

New paper finds the percentage of women who expect to get married is plummeting. Down 14 percentage points over 10 years (2012-2022).

Source: Growing Uncertainty in Marriage Expectations among U.S. Youth, Peppin & Cohen (2024)

Been catching up on the debate around Jonathan Haidt’s new book “The Anxious Generation,” which I’ve been eager to read for months.

And I’m surprised how little of the conversation I’ve seen is coming from parents. Or rather, people speaking from the parent role. Or even, the…

Wow, this is a terrible idea ('silent lunch'). Kids & teens already don't get enough time to socialize face-to-face, and now we're going to tell them they can't talk at lunch in school?

Social media is a collective trap

Users are willing to pay $28 and $10 to have others, including themselves, deactivate #TikTok and #Instagram , respectively.

People feel socially compelled to use social media despite how awful it makes them feel:
nber.org/system/files/w…

I'm excited to unveil the 'Mingle Project' page on Smerconish.com! It's a collection of author interviews on societal disconnects, featuring my chat with Jonathan Haidt about “The Anxious Generation,” #1 non-fiction on The New York Times best sellers 📖🎧 smerconish.com/mingle-project ⬅️

New episode of Thoughtfully Mindless, featuring Jean Twenge (author of GENERATIONS, iGEN), available now on all podcast streaming platforms!

We talk all about generational differences, which are covered extensively in her latest book, Generations.

I hope you all enjoy the conversation!