The World’s Largest “Lab Rat” Study

Today’s kids are the product of the most mental health interventions, the most therapy, the most anti-anxiety meds, and the most understanding and empathetic parents in history. Yet, Generation Z (Gen Z) kids are really struggling.

So, where did we go wrong?

First, let’s clarify exactly who falls in the Gen Z category. It’s the generation that was born between 1997 and 2012. As of 2024, they are between 12 and 27 years old.

These kids are very different. Their rates of teen pregnancy are lower, they aren’t getting driver’s licenses or dying in car crashes as often, and they aren’t drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes at the same rate as their predecessors. So, they’ve got that going for them.

The Great Rewiring of Childhood

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s research sheds some light on the Gen Z kids. He is the author of The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.

Haidt unabashedly blames the smartphone for the mental health crisis. After all, the first iPhone was introduced in 2007. 

Yes, we inadvertently enrolled our children into the world’s largest lab rat study—and those studies rarely end well for the rats.

Since the release of the Apple iPhone in 2007, US kids aged 18-25 (blue line) have seen an enormous increase in Generalized Anxiety Disorder.  The prevalence and rate of increase far exceed all other demographic groups.

Rats Love “Cheese”!

According to Haidt, the mental health crisis dogging our Gen Z cohort can be tied back to a single technological advance: the two-way smartphone camera. That advancement hit the iPhone 4 in 2011, about the same time the Gen Z’ers hit puberty.

Up until 2010, most smartphone photos were of other people. But, in 2010, the selfie culture (and the duck face) was born. This one graphic below tells it all. The percentage of teens satisfied with themselves crashed, starting around 2011.

See, the second camera lens on the iPhone 4 allowed users to take a selfie. Just three years later, the Oxford Dictionary named “selfie” as the word of the year. An, the percent of teens satisfied with themselves (8th-12th grade) went straight down the toilet.

The Billion Dollar App

The year 2010 also brought about the introduction of the Instagram app, something that almost couldn’t exist without the two-way camera. Two years later, Facebook bought the Instagram app for $1 Billion. Insta had just 13 employees. (That factoid is irrelevant. I just thought it was interesting.)

It’s Instagram that is mostly to blame for demoralizing our young women. It exacerbates an already body-conscious generation through the use of carefully curated images. These images are typically run through filters and apps to make young women appear thinner, prettier, and, well, faker.

All this loneliness and uselessness among teens is leading to record levels of depression. Since 2010, girls have seen a 135% increase in depression. Nearly one-third of girls have had at least one major depressive episode in the last year. Boys experience depression less often than girls, but their rate of increase is larger.

Perhaps the reason that girls are seeing such a high rate of depression is due to the excessive amount of time they’re spending online. Today, 16% of girls spend at least 40 hours a week on social networks.

The rate of self-harm has also skyrocketed for girls aged 10-14. Today, more than 20% of teens have seriously contemplated suicide. Between 2011 and 2021, 13% of high school girls actually attempted suicide.

This chart shows the number of US teens (age 10-14) admitted to hospitals for self-harm. Don’t you think we ought to be asking why? I do.

Since it’s just you and me talking, I think we can agree that smartphones and Social Media are partially to blame.

But, we can’t go backwards. We can’t take these devices away. Or, can we?

In 1900, over 2 million children worked in mines, mills, factories, fields, and stores across the United States.

• It wasn’t until 1938 that we ended child labor in the United States.

• It wasn’t until 1968 that we required cars to have seat belts.

• It wasn’t until 1984 that we raised the drinking age to 21.

• It wasn’t until 1992 that we raised the minimum age to purchase tobacco to 18. 

And guess what? We changed all those things because kids shouldn’t work in a coal mine, while hungover and smoking unfiltered Lucky Strikes.

These were incredibly hard things to change, as they were hard-wired into society, but we persevered and did the right thing. We can do it again. We can limit the damage these devices and apps do to our children by (at least) restricting their use in public schools. It’s up to parents to do the rest.

The Big Finish

So, let’s do a quick recap and see if we can bring this little chat to the finish line. First, Gen Z kids are suffering record levels of psychological distress.

Second, since 2020, US teens have seen a 161% increase in Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

Third, Gen Z is the first generation who can’t recall a time before the smartphone existed.

Fourth, we introduced the smartphone, the front-facing camera, high-speed internet, Facebook, and Instagram at a time when our children were just coming of age.

Fifth, Since 2010, girls have seen a 135% increase in depression, and nearly one-third of girls have had at least one major depressive episode in the last year.

Sixth, since 2010, the rate of self-harm has skyrocketed for girls aged 10-14. Today, more than 20% of teens have seriously contemplated suicide. Between 2011 and 2021, 13% of high school girls actually attempted suicide.

Yes, these are tough societal changes, but if we can tackle labor, smoking, and alcohol laws, we can certainly get our arms around childhood access to smartphones and social media.

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