"Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation

Who did Jean M. Twenge (the author) call "last summer, around noon?"

Athena

At what age has Athena had her IPhone since?

11

Athena and the mall

When asked what Athena does with her friends and she replies that they go to the mall together with her mom and brothers, who she walks a little behind from. She has to check in every 30 mins to an hour

These mall trips are infrequent (about once a month), since her and her friends just spend time on their phone instead of socializing in person

How does Athena spend most of her summer

She stays in her room on her phone. She claims that "we like our phones more than we like actual people"

Line graphs about generations

Show the differences and changes in beliefs, behaviors (like individualsim) have increased slightly ("like modest hills and valleys") before Gen Z. But the line graphs have increased drastically ("like steep mountains and sheer cliffs") because these beliefs and behaviors have changed significantly with Gen Z.

Around ____ Twenge noticed abrupt shifts in teen behaviors and emotional state. In her generational data-some reaching back to the _____'s, she's never seen anything like it

2012; 1930s

teens today differ from Millenials not just in their ____, but how they ______________________

views; spend their time

What happned in 2012 to cause such dramatic shifts in behavior

It was after the Great Recession (officially lasted from 2007-2009 and had a drastic effect on Millennial trying to find a place in an unstable economy

It was exactly this time when the proportion of Americans who owned a smartphone surpassed 50%

The more Twenge talked with young people like Athena, the clearer it became that their generation is a

generation shaped by the smartphone and by the concomitant rise of social media.

What does Twenge call Gen Z?

I call them iGen (Born between 1995 and 2012, members of this generation are growing up with smartphones, have an Instagram account before they start high school, and do not remember a time before the internet)

The Millennials grew up with the web as well, but

it wasn't ever-present in their lives

iGen's oldest members were _________ ______________ when the iPhone was introduced, in 2007, and ______ ________ _________ when the iPad entered the scene, in 2010.

early adolescents when IPhone introduced in 2007; high-school students when IPad was introduced in 2010

A 2017 survey of more than 5,000 American teens found that __/4 owned an iPhone.

3/4

smartphones have radically changed every aspect of teenagers' lives, from

social interactions to mental health.

Postive generational changes

- physically safer than teens have ever been.

- less likely to get into a car accident and

- less alcohol than their predecessors

- less susceptible to drinking's attendant ills.

Negative generational changes

-more vulnerable than Millennials were

-Rates of teen depression and suicide have skyrocketed since 2011

-on the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades (which can be traced to their phones)

In the early 1970s, Bill Yates shot a series of portraits at the Sweetheart Roller Skating Rink in Tampa, Florida...

- In one, a shirtless teen stands with a large bottle of peppermint schnapps

- In another, a boy who looks no older than 12 poses with a cigarette in his mouth

- The rink was a place where kids could get away from their parents and inhabit a world of their own, a world where they could drink, smoke, and make out in the backs of their cars

- Fifteen years from the 1970s, during Twenge's own teenage years as a member of Generation X, smoking had lost some of its romance, but independence was definitely still in....

-Twenge and her friends plotted to get our driver's license as soon as we could, making DMV appointments for the day we turned 16 and using our newfound freedom to escape the confines of our suburban neighborhood. Asked by our parents, "When will you be home?," we replied, "When do I have to be?"

-But the allure of independence, so powerful to previous generations, holds less sway over today's teens, who are less likely to leave the house without their parents.

-The shift is stunning: 12th-graders in 2015 were going out less often than eighth-graders did as recently as 2009.

Today's teens are less likely to date...

-Seniors in 2015: 56 percent went out on dates

-Boomers and Gen Xers: 85 percent went out on dates

Decline in sexual activity...

-The drop is the sharpest for ninth-graders, (sexually active teens has been cut by almost 40 percent since 1991)

-The average teen now has had sex for the first time by the spring of 11th grade, a full year later than the average Gen Xer

-Fewer teens having sex =one of the most positive youth trends in recent years

-The teen birth rate hit an all-time low in 2016, down 67 percent since its modern peak, in 1991.

Driving, a symbol of adolescent freedom inscribed in American popular culture has lost its appeal for today's teens

-nearly all Boomer high-school students had their driver's license by the spring of their senior year

-more than one in four teens today still lack one at the end of high school

-For some, Mom and Dad are such good chauffeurs that there's no urgent need to drive.

But Gen Zers iGen teens aren't working (or managing their own money) as much

-In the late 1970s- 77 percent of high-school seniors worked for pay during the school year

Mid-2010s- 55 percent did.

-The number of eighth-graders who work for pay has been cut in half.

-These declines accelerated during the Great Recession, but teen employment has not bounced back, even though job availability has.

Why are today's teens waiting longer to take on both the responsibilities and the pleasures of adulthood?

Shifts in the economy, and parenting

parents may be inclined to encourage their kids to stay home and study rather than to get a part-time job. Teens seem to be content because their social life is lived on their phone. They don't need to leave home to spend time with their friends.

Eighth-, 10th-, and 12th-graders in the 2010s actually spend less time on homework than Gen X teens did in the early 1990s...

High-school seniors headed for four-year colleges spend about the same amount of time on homework as their predecessors did.)

Gen Zers have more time due to less work for pay and spend this time on their phone, alone and often distressed.

All screen activities are linked to ____ happiness, and all nonscreen activities are linked to _____ happiness.

less; more

The _____ time teens spend looking at screens, the ____ likely they are to report symptoms of depression.

more; more

Teens who spend three hours a day or more on electronic devices are ___ percent more likely to have a risk factor for suicide

35

teens document their hangouts relentlessly, so loneliness and feeling left out has been__________

increasing

______ use social media more often, giving them additional opportunities to feel excluded and lonely when they see their friends or classmates getting together without them.

Girls

______ have also borne the brunt of the rise in depressive symptoms among today's teens

Girls

The suicide rate is still higher for ______, in part because they use more-lethal methods,

Boys

Teen girls are more likely to________

Teen boys are more likely to ________ bully

cyberbully; physically

In July 2014, a 13-year-old girl in North Texas woke to the smell of something burning. Her phone had overheated and melted into the sheets. Curious, Twenge aksed her student at San Diego State Uni what they do with their phone at night and they responded

By saying that they also keep their phones extremely close

It is the last thing they see before going to sleep and the first thing they see when they wake up

Smartphones interfere with teens' sleep

Many teens now sleep less than 7 hours when they are supposed to be getting 9 hours of sleep ever night

Sleep deprivation is linked to myriad issues, like

compromised thinking and reasoning, susceptibility to illness, weight gain, and high blood pressure. It also affects mood: People who don't sleep enough are prone to depression and anxiety.

Smartphones interfere with social interactions

as teens spend less time with their friends face-to-face, they have fewer opportunities to practice them

Twenge's kids' experiences with technology

toddler swiping her way through an iPad, 6-year-old asking for her own cellphone, 9-year-old discussing the latest app to sweep the fourth grade.

The average teen spends about ___________ hours a day on electronic devices

two and a half

kids themselves, including Athena are beginning to link some of their troubles to their ever-present phone. Athena complains

That her friends don't even listen and acknowledge what she has to say, even if its important because they are too busy looking at their phones.

Athena took her phone out of her hands and I threw it at her wall

She couldn't help laughing. "You play volleyball," I said. "Do you have a pretty good arm?" "Yep," she replied.