The Anxious Generation- how the great re-wiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness

[shadylane]

I’ve been listening to this book on Spotify- I rather regret not having waited to get my children smartphones- they both got them at 11- despite them being restricted. I think this book is a clear and un-scaremongering guide on why it is insane that smartphone use in children has been largely ignored and entirely unregulated and I highly recommend it to all parents!

Thanks for the recommendation. You might also enjoy Bad Therapy by Abigail Shrier which is about the over-diagnosis of mental health issues in children. I listened to this on audible and found it very insightful.

You can have a huge influence on your children with smart phones and internet access. You can lead by example and talk to them.

It's a difficult argument because they also need to be tech literate and no one wants to be the only one without. A lot of the cultural references they tap about are online.

The smartphone itself isn't bad. But handing one over with little input, discussion or monitoring is foolish.

I'm not sure it's all because of he smartphones rather than the child being sedentary staring at a screen.
Gaming constantly can also be detrimental.

What the issue is, is what it's replaced.
Children really, really, really need to be active. Too many people don't realise this.
When kids are playing amongst themselves and being outdoors, they're learning many skills, resilience being one.
They need to use their bodies and burn off energy. They need to be in nature to bring calm and different energy.
This regulates them.

They also need to read and listen to good stories. Stories pass down wisdom and teach kids empathy and resilience.
It doesn't have to be from books, although reading is extremely valuable as a pass time, it can be films as well but kids aren't doing this. When a child tells me they watched tv, what they usually mean these days is YouTube.

Yes- in this instance a ‘phone based childhood’ refers to one which is spent largely on any hand held device. Of course there are positives to smartphones, but generally not when given to 11 year olds, and the data shows- explained very well in the book- that they do far more harm than good, and social media and interactive gaming cause many disorders.