Smartphones and the mental health problems of young people: a worrying picture

Digitization has profoundly changed our lives, especially those of those born into the new digital age. A new report published by Sapien Labs, which investigates a specific aspect of digital transformation, gives us a more detailed picture of the situation: the impact that the smartphone has had on younger people.

The report in question, called “The Deteriorating Social Self in Younger Generations” (The deterioration of the social self in the younger generations), is actually an insight into the largest report on the state of mental health in the world in 2021 (Mental State of the World Report 2021) and both can be consulted via the link placed in Sourcewhich takes you directly to the Sapien Labs latest publications page.

The picture that emerges from the report is not comfortingas it reveals how the youth of the age group 18-24 years are particularly exposed to phenomena capable of seriously harm their mental healthshowing a clear worsening of its quality compared to the past.

Lo studio at Tara Thiagarajan, Chief Scientist by Sapien Labs, indicates in the reduction of social relations real the main causes that determine a reduction of skills in different sectors, since the lack of physical contact prevents young people from learning the basics of socialization, such as the ability to interpret facial expressions, read body language, manage to precisely physical contact, staging adequate emotional responses based on the context and knowing how to manage conflict situations.

Excessive use of technology therefore arises as a filter between the self and others, eliminating the need to have to deal with the physicality of the human relationship, a fact which then directly affects the mental health of young people, as with all things, in fact, interpersonal interactions also improve with experience and the study reveals how it is precisely this that is lacking; a young man of less than 18 years of the era pre-internet – according to the study – spent about 15,000-25,000 hours of his life interacting physically with relatives and peerswhile this figure has dropped to just 1,500-5,000 in the sample examined (the analysis concerns both young people from the United States and those from 34 other countries).

Not developing these social skills, as we anticipated, has major repercussions on mental health, eventually creating phenomena of detachment from reality and even develop suicidal tendencies. The pandemic has also thought to accentuate the worsening of the phenomenon, which has considerably accelerated the process of reduction of physical human relationships, however the decline in the quality of mental health of young people is not only related to the lockdownbut it is increasingly detected ever since dal 2010or when smartphones have begun to enter everyone’s life in an increasingly pervasive way.

The presence of mental problems can be revealed by some symptoms that the report has listed in an exhaustive way, including:

• Strange, unwanted and obsessive thoughts
• Problems with self-esteem and self-confidence
• Feeling of detachment from reality
• Problems relating to others
• Suicidal thoughts
• Fear and anxiety
• Feeling of anguish, sadness and despair

This is a picture that mirrors that which emerged from several other reports published over the last few months, especially those that reflect on the potential toxicity of social platforms towards younger people, as in the case of the internal study carried out by Instagram. Thiagarajan points out that on average we spend between 7 and 10 hours a day connected to the network and this has a negative effect on the ability to better develop one’s own ioas the time for interpersonal relationships is really limited.

The suggestion given is always the same, therefore that of consult a specialist in the event that the symptoms indicated are detected, while it is much more difficult to implement an effective preventive strategy. Relying on the digital wellness systems of smartphones, for example, is not a very functional solution, as they are easily circumvented and fail to fulfill their purpose with extreme ease.

The question therefore bounces between different actors involved; we are certainly the first ourselvesas responsible for the health of our personbut it is also true that this is a topic strongly influenced by the models offered by society and family education, since it mainly concerns people who are still in a primary stage of education. Educating young people – not when they are 18-24, but when they are really young – a healthier relationship with technology is the responsibility of the familybut this is an even more complex issue to address.