Rickter Scale: Kids are getting the wrong number

Sometimes the biggest challenge parents face dealing with a problem that plagues their children is how long it takes to recognize what the problem is.

Kids today are dialled into their devices to a degree of dependency no one would have imagined a generation ago because, in part, advances in technology are happening at a speed outpacing any time in our history.

By 2007, the majority of people owned that rudimentary handheld communication device we fondly recall as the flip phone. We evolved at warp speed from the convenience of a phone you could carry in your pocket to a machine that by 2012 was connecting eight of every 10 people to more functions than some of us know how to operate.

Unfortunately, some of those bell-and-whistle improvements opened doors that can plunge us into deep, dark, disturbing labyrinths filled with detours that take children and adolescents to places they’re woefully not prepared to handle.

That’s a huge part of why depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harming, and suicide rates for teenagers increased between 2012 and 2019, says Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University, and someone well worth a listen. The situation has only worsened, with teen depression pretty much doubling since 2014.

Twenge is also the author of more than 150 scientific publications and six books, including Generation Me published in 2006 and updated in 2014. It takes a deep dive into why young Americans are “more assertive, entitled and more miserable than ever before.” iGen arrived in 2017 and examines “Why these super-connected kids are growing up less rebellious, more tolerant and completely unprepared for adulthood.”

There’s much to chew on between those two covers, including the parallels Twenge draws between troubled youth and the techno world they live in, steeped in years of research dating back to the 1970s.

The concerns she raises, including peer pressure through social media, should concern any parent who cares about what their kids are up to when they’re alone with their phone.

The guard rails for kids speeding along the social media freeway are few and far between.

One piece of advice Twenge, also a mother of teenagers, passed along recently that stands out and sticks is simply common sense.

When your kids go to bed, cut off access to devices.

There’s a lot to be said for improving mental and physical well-being through something as simple as a good night’s sleep. And that’s true whether your kid is happy and well adjusted, or sinking slowly and silently under the weight of the secrets hidden within their smartphone.

Rick Stiebel is a semi-retired local journalist.

Columns are the opinion of the writer and do not represent the viewpoints of the paper or Black Press Media.

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