The Enlightenment

It really is quite funny to me what our society accepts as “normal.”

Like the fact that our food is full of crap and a third of the country is obese.

Or the fact that the average American now spends 5 and a half hours a day on their phone, a number that goes up to more than 7 hours for my generation, Gen Z.

Yet unlike obesity, it seems the reign of the smartphone goes completely unchallenged. Giving the youngest members of our society a smartphone before they hit double digits in age seems to be a given.

Well, we need to wake up. The overuse of phones is killing a generation.

You may think I sound like an outlandish Baby Boomer complaining about “The kids and their darn phone!” Far from it: I don’t oppose technology, and I certainly don’t blame all of Gen Z’s problems on phones. But anyone who denies the damage that the mass consumption of screens is causing is deluded.

Practically every negative condition you can possibly have has been documented to be made worse by the overuse of phones. It puts you at greater risk of depression, anxiety, feelings of loneliness, excessive weight gain, attention-deficit disorders, eating disorders, poor sleep, poor posture…

In addition, the overuse of phones means time is taken away from more useful pursuits, such as reading, writing, exercise, work, or…anything else, for that matter, hurting cognitive, physical, and personal development. Gen Z’s phone usage also means that they spend less time physically communicating, meaning many young people struggle with meaningful conversation.

It is no surprise, then, that members of Gen Z report having the lowest number of friends and amount of sex out of all the generations, two components essential to happiness, basic function, and dare I say, human nature.

Furthermore, the use of smartphones has supplanted a very important feeling: boredom. Boredom has been posited as the key to creativity. It forces individuals to take in their surroundings and find solutions to alleviate that boredom. 

But the use of smartphones inundates us with entertainment, meaning that Gen Z is denied access to the critical feeling of boredom. Having the solution always at your fingertips leaves a generation that is less self-reliant and independent.

Not to mention, unfettered access to phones brings with it unfettered access to the internet, where the youngest of Gen Z can be exposed to shocking, violent, and sexual content that is harmful for individuals of a young age.

Putting all these factors together, then, is it any surprise that this is the most miserable and struggling generation in American history? 

I want to emphasize that issues such as high cost of living and declining wages are more to blame for Gen Z’s state of struggle than screens. But the detrimental effects of over-the-top phone usage is not helping.

The United States Surgeon General recently issued an advisory warning about social media usage. This advisory opinion should extend to phone usage in general. The government needs to enact a public health campaign, much like it did with smoking, to discourage phone usage among young children and encourage the use of parental control apps. Schools need to ban phones and parents need to enforce limited screen time.

Phone usage has become the opium of the 21st century, and I won’t stand by as my generation languishes under the grip of this new drug.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.