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The Terrible Costs of a Phone-Based Childhood (www.theatlantic.com)

submitted 8 months ago by boem@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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By a variety of measures and in a variety of countries, the members of Generation Z (born in and after 1996) are suffering from anxiety, depression, self-harm, and related disorders at levels higher than any other generation for which we have data.

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[–] koncertejo@lemmy.ml 17 points 8 months ago (4 children)

This article strikes at a very salient set of points about smartphones and social media. As someone that specifically tries to only use federated social media because it avoids some of these dark patterns, I certainly agree with. I also use my smartphone without any notifications turned on, ever.

Unfortunately the author has a few paragraphs that miss the mark and strike me as coming from more of a centrist or right-wing "kids these days are too soft" which feels very off-base and disconnected from the issue. For example:

This is why life on college campuses changed so suddenly when Gen Z arrived, beginning around 2014. Students began requesting “safe spaces” and trigger warnings. They were highly sensitive to “microaggressions” and sometimes claimed that words were “violence.”

The scare quotes around microagressions, a genuine issue faced my marginalized communities, is really uncomfortable and gives an unfortunate perspective on some of where this author is coming from.

Putting that aside, I really do feel like most of what is said here is on point. Reducing social media use is imperative. Designing smartphone UX that doesn't shove notifications at you would also be a good idea. Getting younger people involved in communities and forming friendships is incredibly important.

[–] Uranium3006@kbin.social 7 points 7 months ago

Indeed, that's why I don't trust any of these "kids these days" articles. Have they considered that the world is shit and their generation is making it worse and all the kids can do is watch isn't good for their mental health?

[–] EngineerGaming@feddit.nl 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I hear all the time about people turning their notifications off and it feels so bizarre. Do you guys keep an internet connection on at all times? That just feels so bizarre and counter-intuitive... I saw several people around me that don't ever turn off the connection and that gives me massive cognitive dissonance.

[–] blawsybogsy@lemmy.ml 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

presumably the idea is just to use/interact with the device on one's own terms, rather than being harrassed by it into engagement?

i do both, but they're different things.

[–] EngineerGaming@feddit.nl 3 points 7 months ago

Turning the internet on only when interacting with device does exactly that. That seems like the intuitive thing to do - yet I see people with it on all the time and it feels very bizarre.

[–] shortwavesurfer@monero.town 2 points 7 months ago

I use notifications, but the only apps that can send me notifications are either ones that use UnifiedPush, or have some sort of notification service of their own. So, most of the apps on my device do not send me notifications, and there are only a very few that will. Lemmy (through Thunder), Molly, and Feeder are the big ones that notifications are allowed on. Even ProtonMail doesn't support UnifiedPush so i have to check email manually.

[–] thoro@lemmy.ml 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Unfortunately the author has a few paragraphs that miss the mark and strike me as coming from more of a centrist or right-wing "kids these days are too soft" which feels very off-base and disconnected from the issue.

Welcome to The Atlantic. It's telling they think all these issues are because of phones and not other aspects of society or something like the looming, ever present threat of climate change.

It's basically The Economist lite at this point.