Smartphones Aren’t Making Your Children Smarter
With schools beginning to ban phones and legislation being passed prohibiting them, many parents are wondering if smartphones are good for their children.
unbranded – Lifestyle
- Concerns are growing over the negative effects of smartphone usage on children’s mental health and development.
- Author Clare Morell suggests families try a “tech detox” to reset children’s brains and reduce screen addiction.
- Morell’s ‘FEAST’ strategy offers families a long-term plan for managing technology after a digital fast.
I see them every weekday morning during my daybreak walks around my apartment complex — schoolkids waiting at bus stops.
First come the high schoolers. Stone-faced and blasé, they seem to unconsciously “social-distance” from one another. Nobody interacts because virtually all are scrolling on their phones.
Next are the elementary schoolers — most of whom appear to be accompanied by a parent. The elementary schoolers — especially the younger ones — are animated and engaged. Their millennial and Gen Z parents, on the other hand, are a mixed bag of behavior modeling. Some are casually chit-chatting with their child and/or other parents. But an equal — and often greater — number are glued to their phones and not engaging with their child. I silently plead with the latter parents to put away their phones.
And finally come the middle schoolers — with the scene usually mimicking the behavior of the high schoolers, especially for the kids who have smartphones.
My anecdotal observations have been mirrored so extensively throughout the country — and so alarmed parents of all socioeconomic and political backgrounds — that a recent Politico article on the topic declared in a headline “There’s Only One True Bipartisan Issue Left.”
Trying to limit the damage
Politico reported that there are now 39 states (including Florida) that have restrictions on cellphone usage during the school day, and 18 states outright ban their usage the entire day.
The concerns about how cellphone usage is affecting kids is not new — but it is gaining traction.
Since the publication of his 2024 book “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness,” New York Times best-selling author and New York University social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has become a go-to expert on how, when and why this started happening — and what collective actions society can take to mitigate it.
His four simple recommendations:
1. No smartphones before high school.
2. No social media before age 16.
3. All schools need to be phone-free.
4. All younger children need to play more and experience real-world independence and responsibility.
As much as Haidt’s book began to change the paradigm around how to address this issue, a new book published earlier this year — “The Tech Exit: A Practical Guide to Freeing Kids and Teens from Smartphones” by Clare Morell — is poised to make perhaps even a bigger impact in undoing the effects that copious daily smartphone usage has had on youngsters.
Detoxing from all devices
Morell, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and director of its Technology and Human Flourishing Project, is a married mother of three. She explains that she wrote the book because she wanted to convince other parents that, based on her extensive research, smartphone (and other screentime) mitigation strategies simply don’t work.
Among the reasons why: Young developing brains receiving the regular dopamine hits that social media “likes” provide often turn children into smartphone “addicts” — and that’s why she advocates for families to take device detoxes as a first step.
The summer is probably the best time to do a full 30-day detox — but even a week or two during the school year can have positive effects.
“It sounds daunting but detoxes work,” she writes. “In one recent study, adults who blocked internet access on their phones for just two weeks reported significant improvements. In fact, 91% felt better afterward. They found they had better mental health, better subjective well-being and better sustained attention. Another study of young adults found that a two-week detox from social media resulted in ‘improved smartphone and social media addiction, as well as sleep, satisfaction with life, stress, perceived wellness, and supportive relationships.’”
Morell believes that excessive screentime in today’s digital world is doing untold damage to children — and that they’re the ones most in need of intervention.
“It turns out that screens cost children more than just their time,” says Morell. “They also cause them to lose their appetite for things of the real world. A child conditioned to the ever-changing, always-exciting ‘adventures’ of the digital world never learns how to find joy in the simple moments that make up most of life.”
From a phone ‘fast’ to a ‘FEAST’ of phone-free strategies
The Tech Exit is split into four parts. In Part I, she explains in detail why the only way to protect your children from smartphone harm is by going cold turkey. The idea of “harm reduction” with childhood smartphone usage is like letting an alcoholic have a few beers every so often.
Part II walks you through how to implement a family “smartphone fast” and Part IV includes collective societal solutions such as better legislation and prohibiting smartphones from schools.
But it’s Part III — in which she explains how to implement her “FEAST” strategy — that has garnered the most attention.
She explains that because a fast eventually needs to end, here’s how families can FEAST in their new realities — and ensure that the changes are long-lasting.
Here’s what FEAST stands for:
F: Find other families so you won’t be alone.
E: Explain, educate and exemplify because that’s the best way to ensure buy-in from your kids and will help you model screen-free behavior.
A: Adopt alternatives because there will be times when school activities, friendships, etc. will be impacted by living a smartphone-free life.
S: Set up digital accountability and family screen rules so everyone knows what the expectations are — especially if the household still has some digital screens.
T: Trade screens for real-life responsibilities and pursuits — in other words, help your kids take an old-school analog-era approach to life.
Morell notes that the FEAST approach will look different for every family — and that’s part of what she believes has made it so effective for so many folks. She’s also certain that it’s never too late to change course when it comes to your kids’ smartphone usage and overall screen time.
“I’ve written this book to show you that another way is possible,” she explains. “Despite real challenges, your family can break out of the screen-time trap. I hope to convince you that digital technologies need not be an inevitable part of childhood. A different future is possible.”
Steve Dorfman is a journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. He writes about all aspects of health, fitness and wellness. If you have news tips, please send them to [email protected]. Help support our local journalism, subscribe today.
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