Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?
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In this widely discussed September 2017 Atlantic cover essay, adapted from iGen, Jean Twenge lays out the generational survey data behind her argument that smartphones are associated with a marked change in American teen life beginning around 2012. She reports that teens who spend more hours a day on phones and social media are more likely to describe themselves as unhappy, to report a risk factor for suicide such as making a plan, and to sleep less than lighter users, while those spending more time with friends in person or playing sports report fewer such risk factors. The essay also documents declining in-person socializing, dating, and paid work among teens over the same period, and notes today's teens are physically safer than prior generations even as she argues they face a worsening mental-health picture. TechKids Foundation cites this as the most influential public statement of the smartphone-generation argument.
Per the article, eighth-graders who spent 10+ hours a week on social media were 56% more likely to say they were unhappy than lighter users; 6–9 hours a week was linked to a 47% higher rate of reported unhappiness.
The article reports that teens who spent 3+ hours a day on electronic devices were 35% more likely to report at least one risk factor for suicide, such as making a plan, than teens who used devices less — presented in the article as an association tied to device time, not a single proven cause.
Twenge reports that from 2012 to 2015, boys' self-reported depressive symptoms rose 21% while girls' rose 50% — a gender gap she links to social media's differing effect on girls' lives, particularly exclusion and appearance-related comparison.
Twenge, Jean M. "Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?" The Atlantic, September 2017 print issue (published online August 3, 2017). https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/