Young people who have grown up with smartphones ever-present in their lives are less happy, have more symptoms of depression and are less prepared for adulthood than previous generations.
This is according to Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University, who has been researching generational differences since she was an undergraduate student.
There have always been generational changes, but usually they are gradual, taking a decade to develop, said Twenge. However, she said that with the generation born since 1995, the changes have been quick, and started to become most noticeable around the year 2000.
Professor Twenge recently presented a workshop for faculty and staff at Illinois Wesleyan University where she explained that the suicide rate for 12- to 14-year-olds has doubled since 2007 and the number of adolescents with major depressive episodes who need treatment has grown by 50% in five years.
“Cyberbullying is one of the negative effects, but that's not the whole picture,” said Twenge. Time spent on digital media takes away from other activities, such as sports, fitness and sleep, The Pentagraph quoted Twenge as saying.
“There was a decline in face to face interaction as teens spent more time communicating electronically. The research points to limiting digital media use to two hours or less of leisure time a day.”
In addition, says Twenge, parents need to see that teens spending time with each other is not a waste of time and helps them develop social and problem-solving skills, as well as better mental health.
On the academic side, there are concerns that a generation used to text messaging and Snapchat has a shorter attention span.
“They're not reading as much long-form text. Then they get to college and we hand them a 700-page textbook,” Twenge said.
Her advice to college professors dealing with this new generation in the classroom is not to give up on getting them to read.
“Reading is important to develop critical thinking skills,” she said, but a balance has to be struck,” she said.
“Online textbooks are addressing that by breaking up material into smaller sections with videos and other activities included and writing textbooks in a more conversational tone. That makes it a lot less intimidating.”