Over the last two decades, smart phones have exploded in popularity. Now, the vast majority of teens and adults have one, and many children are getting them at earlier ages. As the prevalence of these devices has increased, though, more and more research has revealed the harms that cell phones are causing, especially for children.
This week on Family Policy Matters, host Traci DeVette Griggs welcomes Clare Morell, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, to discuss the benefits of phone-free environments for children.
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Family Policy Matters
Free From Smartphones: Part 1 (with Clare Morell)
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS: Thanks for joining us this week for Family Policy Matters. The conversation surrounding younger generations’ relationship with technology has been gaining momentum as data continues to find that many of the individual and social ills that young people are experiencing may be closely linked to their use of technology. Today, we’re joined by one of the country’s foremost researchers on this topic. Clare Morell is a fellow at Ethics and Public Policy Center in the Bioethics, Technology, and Human Flourishing Program. Her new book, The Tech Exit: A Practical Guide to Freeing Kids and Teens from Smartphones, is an important and valuable resource for all of us who have or work with children and teens. Clare Morell, welcome back to Family Policy Matters.
CLARE MORELL: Thanks so much for having me.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS: All right. Well, first of all, we talked to you in April, and the subject at that time was getting phones out of schools, and I’m amazed at how much traction that idea has gotten here in North Carolina. But are you seeing this idea of phone free schools being adopted around the country as well?
CLARE MORELL: Yes, I think it has actually only been growing. So, 18 states and the District of Columbia now have bell to bell phone bans in place that’s statewide, and bell to bell is kind of a critical distinction to make in that they’re saying no phones throughout the entire school day. So not just classroom time, but also in passing periods, lunch, recess, those times between classes. So, it’s really protecting both a student’s learning environment but also their social environment. And then many other states beyond those with the bell-to-bell ban have adopted more strict policies around restricting phone use during class time. I think that this trend is only going to continue, mainly because the states and schools that have implemented the policy are seeing such positive results. They’re seeing increased social interaction among students, reduced discipline issues, less bullying, less problematic behavior during the school day that was instigated a lot by the phones, more respect for teachers by the students, and then also improved learning outcomes, seeing higher test scores, GPAs and things like that. And especially, they’re seeing the most academic improvement among the lowest performing students. So that bottom quartile of students, they’ve seen the most improvements in their academic outcomes from that group in particular. So, this is a very successful policy, not just for everyone, but especially for helping reduce some of that academic achievement gap. And so, I expect that trend to continue. And I will say the other positive is that students and parents who were initially resistant or hesitant to these policies, there’s been many, many news articles and stories now sharing how students’ perspectives really changed, like once the phones were gone, they realized they could pay attention more in class, that they felt like they were freer to be themselves. They didn’t have to kind of perform for this culture where anything could be recorded on a smartphone at any time. And then parents, too, just saw such improvements in their students that, although they may have been initially hesitant or skeptical, the changes really won them over. And so, I hope that that message then spreads to other school districts and other states where parents may still be uncertain about it, that these policies really work and they improve the outcomes, both academically and socially for students. So yeah, I hope this trend will continue. Some of the results, some school districts in Florida were early adopters of these policies, and so they were reporting some of these results, as well as some early adopting schools in New York State and then also internationally. The US has also gleaned just good, valuable data from international studies that have been done. So, countries like Norway, school districts in London early removed phones from the school day, kind of prior to the United States, and they did several studies on kind of the results of those bans. And so, their data has also been helpful in, I think, explaining to schools why these policies work, and especially the kind of ideal types of policies that like, the further away the phone is from the student, the better the improvements. And so that has been helpful, too, in guiding school districts, but yes, especially some early adopters in the United States, I can think of stories Connecticut, Florida, New York have been helpful in encouraging other states to adopt similar policies.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS: So that’s a great lead in to this book that you’ve just written. And of course, the name of it is The Tech Exit: A Practical Guide to Freeing Kids and Teens from Smartphones. And first of all, I’d like to say, you know, you’re quite young to have already written a book. And the only reason I point that out is sometimes I think we might get discouraged by some young people and think, what is the next generation going to be like? And I’m always encouraged when I see young people like you that are intelligent and really experts. I do want to talk about this book. So, what made you decide that this kind of a guide, which sounds like it is aimed at parents, grandparents, teachers, why was this a necessary addition to this public discussion about this topic?
CLARE MORELL: In my public policy research, I became convinced, based on the harms, that a smartphone-free childhood, a social media-free childhood, was necessary. I was staring at the data, the research studies, the stories just showing how screen time limits and parental controls, the main methods being sold to parents by the tech companies, were really falling short of the harms and leaving parents feeling very frustrated because they are doing everything they can to protect their kid, and they feel like it’s not working, and they feel exhausted by trying to manage basically a second full time job of overseeing their child’s smartphone and online behavior. And so, I would be asked by parents for my professional advice, based on my policy research, what they should do, and I would say I would not give a smartphone or social media to a child even through the teen years. But I would get a lot of pushback, okay, well, you know, do you have teenagers? Have you navigated this? Because there’s a lot of pressures towards giving the smartphone, and they were desperate for a resource. They were like, Do you have a book to recommend of how a family could successfully do this to raise a kid free of a smartphone. So, I scoured books, and I really couldn’t find one. And so, I also set out on this journey to prove not just to myself, but to parents like that this was actually possible. So, I had my hypothesis. I knew a smartphone free childhood from my research was necessary. But was it actually possible for parents to do this? But there was no book arguing for that, saying it’s a good thing to raise your children free of smartphones, and it’s possible. It’s the best thing that you can do for your kids. And so that was my process of writing the book. I interviewed dozens of families, especially families with teens who had successfully launched kids to college. Because I was a young mom, my kids were all under the age of five at the time, so I knew I had an experience gap in trying to help explain to parents how you navigate this through the teen years. And so that’s the book, is the culmination of all those interviews I did and the principles that these families had in common to offer parents a step-by-step guide to say it’s actually possible to raise kids and teens free of smartphones, this is how to do it. And, to the parent that might be a little bit unconvinced about that, the opening chapters of the book lay out a brief case from the research for why the screen time limits and parental controls are not enough and kind of encouraging parents to opt out instead. So that is the book in a nutshell.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS: Start off, then, give us a summary of where things currently stand with regard to the relationship young people have with technology today. Define the problem for us.
CLARE MORELL: From a statistical point, like most teenagers, most kids nowadays have a smartphone. I think it’s 93% of teens own a smartphone, and the average age of smartphone has kind of steadily crept down on their time to now be around 10 years old. A lot of kids say that they are constantly online or constantly on social media. Then the question is, okay, well, what effect is this kind of online, digital childhood having on our kids? And the results are not good. And so, I’m sure you know, listeners will have heard of Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation, or Jean Twenge work, showing the connection between this phone based social media childhood and mental health harms. Anxiety, depression, self-harm, suicide have all skyrocketed among our young people. In fact, the latest CDC study found one in three high school aged girls seriously considered taking her own life this past year. I mean, that’s a third of high school girls seriously considered suicide in this last year. So, there is clearly a mental health crisis happening among America’s youth. But then, on an even deeper level, there are changes just happening to the child’s brain and to their normal process of development, because these screens, especially smartphones and social media, are very addictive to our brains, even in a small amount. And so, I think that is why the screen time limit isn’t a sufficient solution, because even a short amount of time on the app creates this constant craving for more. And this is really, then, affecting to real life relationships, as these addictive, immersive online environments draw children in, and they’re replacing real life face to face interaction that we are really made for as humans. And so, kids are also not only experiencing all this artificial dopamine creating this addiction, but they’re not experiencing oxytocin, which only comes from real life interactions, eye contact, physical touch. And so, they feel lonelier than ever because they are more connected, yet they’re lonely because they’re not building those bonds of real friendship and trust. And so, I could go on, but the effects are mental health, physical health, brain development, relationship development, social skills, all of this really being undermined by the smartphones and social media children have so much access to these days.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS: I’ve heard people refer to smartphones as digital fentanyl. Is that extreme, and if it’s not, does it have physical and psychological effects similar to a drug?
CLARE MORELL: Yes, I use that phrase in my book, and I know it’s a little bit provocative, but I was trying to correct a metaphor problem that I think we’ve treated these technologies more like sugar, something that can be enjoyed in moderation, just don’t have it in excess. But the effects on the brain are more like a highly addictive drug because of the amount and speed with which dopamine is released. And it’s released constantly when a child is in one of these platforms or on a smartphone, because you’re constantly getting these notifications, this social feedback, these social rewards, and each one of those gives you a little dopamine spike. And so even if they’re only on for 10 minutes or a short amount of time, it’s very potent, because they’re experiencing a lot of artificially high levels of dopamine. And then what happens is, as soon as they get off the app or the phone, the brain actually crashes into a dopamine deficit state that creates this constant craving and urge to go back on. And so, the screen time limits don’t map on to a child’s mental or emotional time that they can be craving, wondering what’s happening in this online world long after they leave it. And so yes, in that sense, it is like a highly addictive drug by the strong craving it creates for more. And brain scans have shown that the brains of like heavy users of social media resemble the brains of people addicted to highly addictive drugs. The structural changes that happen in the brain, the way the neurons are kind of rewired together in this addiction look the same. And so obviously more research needs to be done, but I think it’s safe to say we need to treat it in a more extreme category than we do sugar, something more like an addictive drug.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS: Right. So, I know parents can understand the pull of social media. I know many that might say they are addicted with a laugh, but we’re not talking about the same thing, are we, when we’re talking about children?
CLARE MORELL: Yes, children’s brains are not yet fully developed, and, in fact, they’re in a very critical period of development from ages 10 to 12. This is actually when the brain’s dopamine receptors multiply and it’s to wire children more for external social rewards and social feedback. A normal process of development that kind of gradually helps a child turn more outward from their immediate family, to form more bonds and connections with people in their broader community. This is at the same time now when a child’s getting their first smartphone, getting access to social media, and that normal brain development is being hijacked by these artificial social rewards that social media provides that prove highly addictive. And then a child becomes extra sensitive over time that there’s a brain study that has shown that their brain development actually is divergent. It does not follow a normal path of development when they’re exposed to social media at this time in their lives, because it creates a sensitivity in the brain to these types of social rewards from social media that wouldn’t be there normally. And the other kind of key thing to note that’s different than adults is children’s prefrontal cortex, the part of our brains responsible for our impulse control, emotional regulation, self-control, our personality development, critical thinking, problem solving skills, is not fully developed until age 25. And so a child’s brain is like all gas pedal and no breaks when it comes to social media, because their brains are so wired for these social rewards at this time in their life, and yet their prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that can help them say, wait, I think we’ve been online too long, can help them exert self-control and emotional regulation is not fully developed, and so it is very dangerous to give a child whose brain has not yet reached that point of maturity access to a smartphone or social media.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS: I feel like we have a lot more to talk about, and so we will continue next week as we are talking with Clare Morell, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in the Bioethics, Technology, and Human Flourishing Program, about her new book, The Tech Exit: A Practical Guide to Freeing Kids and Teens from Smartphones. Join us again next week to hear more and thank you for joining us this week for Family Policy Matters.
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