I received a deluge of testimonies following my Sunday column on the wall of scientific studies which show that growing up on screens is far from healthy1.
I was echoing a wonderful article in the magazine The Atlantic where Jonathan Haidt revealed a preview of his book on recalibrating the brains of young people who have not known childhood without mobile internet2.
Supporting studies and statistics, Haidt shows that at the end of the 2000s and the beginning of the 2010s, when the smartphone took off – including in the lives of minors – we accelerated radical changes in the way childhood is experienced.
More studies will be needed. But among young people, from anxiety disorders to self-harm to suicide, all these indicators are on the rise in the United States.3 and elsewhere, with the omnipresence of screens.
What worries experts is that the time spent online has led to a reduction in time spent in real life, face to face, which has greatly decreased among young people. However, reality has always given little humans tools that guide their development and well-being.
Cut to that time spent in 3D with other humans, and you’re playing with neural circuits shaped by thousands of years of evolution.
I quote Jonathan Haidt on how screens and social media became ingrained in the lives of Western children about 15 years ago: “We had no idea what we were doing. »
Véronique is a teacher in the greater Montreal area. She asked for anonymity to speak freely and not draw attention to her class.
Recently, she had to intervene with parents to ask them to think about the impact of TikTok and Snapchat in the lives of their children… and her class.
The teacher told parents how the virtual world was overflowing into her class. She told them that on these platforms, photos are circulating, insults, scathing comments. Behind their screen, Véronique explained to the parents, children do not think. They say things they wouldn’t say in 3D.
All these virtual frustrations spill over into school, where arguments break out in reality: “It harms the children’s self-esteem,” the teacher told me, “some are very hurt, there are comments about their appearance, threats, insults. »
A photo story on TikTok has created something of a crisis among the students in the class. Some spent an hour in the office of the special education technician to talk and unravel the chicanery created in digital technology which continued at school.
The teacher: “Their TikTok group is a space where disrespectful comments are made. They have in their hands a tool that exceeds their capacity for judgment. Children are impulsive by nature. They find themselves having sent messages without thinking, messages whose significance they do not appreciate. »
I forgot one detail: we are talking here about students of 5e year, so… 10, 11 years.
Véronique’s communication with parents bore fruit. A discussion started. Parents have testified to the impact of screens and virtual worlds on the mood of their children.
One parent said he felt a feeling in his child’s soul since he was allowed to go on TikTok, to be part of the virtual lives of his classmates. From a happy child, he had become sad. So the parent opened their child’s account to see what was happening…
And he made frightening discoveries: vulgar language, degrading remarks. Children that this parent knew, very respectful in real life, said things they would never have said in person, face to face.
The parent decided to close their child’s TikTok account. Result: he confided to Véronique that he had found his child from before social networks.
Another parent also cut off their child’s TikTok, who had become anxious because of what he was experiencing in the virtual world. Today, says Véronique, this child is doing better.
In Quebec, the legal age to use TikTok is 14, it’s 13 for Snapchat.
Several parents have written to me to tell me about the impact of social networks on their children, on their adolescents. We are at the beginning of a movement to awaken the effects on the mood and emotional and social development of young people for whom screens and social networks have always been part of their lives.4.
In spring 2023, the director of the United States Public Health Service (surgeon general) issued a warning about the effect of screens on young brains5. Citing rising rates of depression and anxiety among adolescents, Vivek H. Murthy said: “It is no longer possible to ignore the potential contribution of social media to the pain felt by millions of children and their families6. »
The director of the United States Public Health Service notes that 40% of Americans aged 8 to 12 still use social networks, although the minimum age to register is generally 13 years old.
For Mr. Murthy, the minimum age of 13 to be able to register on a social network is far too low.
He’s not the only one, I’ll come back to that soon.
1. Read the column “Our children, the telephone and the virtual”
2. Read the article by The Atlantic (in English)
3. Read an article from New York Times (in English)
4. Read “Child Protection: Mark Zuckerberg Apologizes to US Senate”
5. Read the warning from the director of the United States Public Health Service (in English)
6. Read an article from Washington Post (in English)