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Fast Forward: Are Smartphones Hurting Our Kids? BY DAN COSTA

F ast Forward is a series of conversations with tech leaders hosted by Dan Costa, PCMag’s Editor-in-Chief. Costa’s guest for this episode was Dr. Jean Twenge, who recently wrote a piece for The Atlantic called “Have

Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?”

Dan Costa: Your new book, “iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy—and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood—and What That Means for the Rest of Us,” coins yet another term: the "iGen generation." I imagine the Simon & Schuster lawyers went back and forth with Apple a little bit on this, perhaps? Apple’s very protective of that little 'i.'

Dr. Jean Twenge: Well, you can’t copyright a little ‘i.’ At least, that’s what I would guess.

FAST FORWARD WHAT’S NEW NOW

Not yet. Who is this iGen generation? I still call anybody younger than me 'millennial,' but there’s another generation that snuck in there.

That’s right. Millennials [were] born roughly 1980 to around 1994. This new generation, iGen, [was] born about 1995 to 2012. At first, we thought millennials would last a little bit longer, but then some trends showing up in the data made me think that we have a new generation born around the mid-90s.

The reason it’s a new generation is because they behave a little differently than the generation before them, and that’s how you can put the marker down. What are some of the differences between those two generations?

iGen’s the first generation to grow up with the smartphone for their whole adolescence, and that’s really had ripple effects across their behavior, their attitudes, their mental health. As one example, obviously, they spend a lot more time online, and texting, and on social media than teens did 10 years before, when it was the millennials who were the teens.

What makes the smartphone in particular any different than television or video games, or even radio, back in the day? All these technologies that were going to ruin our youth. What makes the phone different?

Well, a couple of things. The first thing is a smartphone is with you all the time, especially teens. You see them now, and it’s always there, and it can always be with you. It’s small and in reach, so I think that’s one thing that makes it different. The other thing is, I’m often asked about this: “Ah, everything is going to be ruined.” Well, it’s not quite that much. It’s more nuanced than that. People said the same thing about TV. They were sort of right about TV. Some people have concluded, you look at community groups and so on and some of those breakdowns, that’s probably because of TV. In some ways, they were right.

Behavior patterns change. I think the new technology’s definitely changed behavior patterns. The thing about the phone is that where you use the technology was completely revolutionized. The television was something you participated in at home during certain hours. There was primetime TV. The phone breaks down all those barriers, both from a time perspective and a location perspective.

So that probably has something to do with why teens and adults use it so much. Teens are using their phones six to eight hours a day, on average. Adults are probably not that far behind them, a lot of us. You’re right; you’re not doing it just at home. It’s everywhere and it’s all the time, including at night. That was another thing I found out in talking to teens is how many of them slept with their phones or at least had their phones in arm’s reach, sometimes with it on all night.

My son is 23 years old. He’s gainfully employed, thank God. Talk to me about the day in the life of an iGen teenager.

First, we can start with that time, that six to eight hours of time on the phone online and social media. That’s just in leisure time, so that means there’s not a whole lot of time left for a lot of other things that teens used to do. Getting together with your friends or going to parties, going to a mall with your friends, iGen teens do that a lot less than teens did just five or 10 years ago. This kind of fell off a cliff in terms of the number of times they’d go out without their parents and get together. That in- person social interaction is falling by the wayside more and more as the communication moves to the phone. That’s one of the biggest changes.

A lot of other things about how teens spend their time [haven’t] changed a whole lot. Many people ask me, ‘Oh, maybe they’re not getting together with their friends because they’re doing more hours of homework.’ They’re doing actually fewer hours of homework than teens were in the ‘80s and the ‘90s, and it really hasn’t changed a whole lot in the last five to 10 years. Same thing with extracurriculars. There’s a perception that there’s a lot more time spent on that. That’s also stayed about the same.

That in-person social

interaction is falling by the

wayside more and more as the communication

moves to the phone.

It’s very interesting, because in your research, you find all these different correlations saying that the iGen generation, they literally just don’t go out of the house as much as previous generations. They’re not even getting their driver’s licenses as early as older generations because there’s a lack of independence that’s manifesting itself.

This is part of a trend that was accelerated by smartphones, but started with millennials and has really deeper cultural roots. This is the trend toward teens growing up more slowly, taking on both the pleasures and the responsibilities of adulthood later than they used to. Things like driving; a lot of them are not getting their driver’s license, even by the end of senior year of high school. Going out on dates, going out without their parents, having a paid job, drinking alcohol, having sex during high school. iGen teens do those things less than teens used to.

See a video of the full interview and many more at pcmag.com/podcasts/fast-forward.

They’re doing

actually fewer hours

of homework than teens were in the

‘80s and the ‘90s.

PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I OCTOBER 2017

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