Is Technology Harming Teenagers? - New York Times

Ben Susswein
Montclair, N.J.
The writer is a clinical psychologist.

To the Editor:

While Dr. Friedman may be agile and astute in pointing out the lack of hard clinical evidence about the effects of cellphone use on children’s brains, may I, as a 30-year veteran high school teacher, offer some anecdotal evidence to the contrary.

In the last 10 years in particular I have noted, among other things, a dramatic drop in attention spans, a decline in reading levels and an inability to stick with a difficult, even tedious, task.

This is no Luddite writing. I love my phone. The internet has given me Google Classroom, an infinitude of teaching resources that would have previously taken me several lifetimes to access. And yeah, I play solitaire while waiting for the dentist.

But I have to disagree that technology has not caused increased anxiety. There are more visits to the social worker, more running down to the nurse, more medication.

The most frightening change of all: The halls are quiet. The bell rings, and all the students whip out their phones. They make no eye contact, and the loud, raucous chatter that used to drive us all crazy is gone.

I miss it.

Ann Goethals
Skokie, Ill.

To the Editor:

Dr. Friedman is right to point out that there is no available research to prove — or disprove — the notion that an epidemic of anxiety exists among teenagers. I believe, though, that it is highly problematic to argue that some parents, teenagers and young adults simply worry too much and should recognize that our brains are “more resilient and more resistant to change than we think.”

It concerns me when I see a young mother strolling down the street with her infant while looking down at her phone rather than engaging with her newborn. It concerns me when teachers lament their inability to get their students to pay attention in the classroom. The list goes on. I do not see this as an epidemic of anxiety — rather an incursion of technology.

https://ift.tt/2MAcvyz