Whoda thunk? Boot those kids outside if they're depressed

Are smart phones making young people—particularly teenage girls—depressed, anxious, and even suicidal? And if they are, what can be done about it?

Policymakers are considering a variety of options. Sen. Josh Hawley (R–Mo.) would go so far as to prohibit kids and teens from using social media until they turn 16.

I wonder if we are overlooking a big part of the problem, and thus a potential solution. It’s called enjoying the world.

If we stopped keeping kids in cars, classes, or on the couch all day, and if we gave them back some free time and free play, they would have an alluring alternative to the screen. When young people don’t have opportunities to hang out with their friends in real life, unsupervised, the only place they can have fun and socialize freely is online.

That’s concerning. My colleague and Let Grow co-founder Jonathan Haidt has assembled chilling data that shows childhood mental health problems increasing since 2012, the year the smart phone became ubiquitous. As Haidt testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in May: “When you compare rates in 2009—before most teens were daily users of social media—to 2019, the last full year before COVID-19 made things even worse, the increases are generally between 50 percent and 150 percent, depending on the disorder, gender, and subgroup.”

For many kids, the choice is between being on social media vs. sitting it out while everyone else is on social media. These are bad options.

If parents and policymakers want get kids off social media, we need to make the alternative even more fun. Thankfully, playtime and exploration are super attractive, when kids actually get to do them.