Dean Burnett (that brains guy)Jan 4, 2025

What Smartphones are doing to kids' mental health is NOT terrifying (no matter what a child psychiatrist says)

https://theneuroscienceofeverydaylife.substack.com/p/what-smartphones-are-doing-to-kids

My response to the Guardian's latest 'Phones are destroying the children!!' article. As ever, it's... problematic

#Phones #screens #brains #wellbeing #kids #mentalhealth #BadScience #Misinformation

What Smartphones are doing to kids' mental health is NOT terrifying (no matter what a child psychiatrist says)

The Guardian has done another shoddy article about why smartphones are definitely bad. But what's really 'terrifying' is how many apparent experts are so keen to join in with them.

The Neuroscience of Everyday Life
Show threadMishaJan 4, 2025

@Garwboy

"Personally, I feel that heavily-emotive evidence-free claims should work against your argument when you’re literally arguing for significant government intervention into children’s lives".

However valid your appeal for careful research is, you are missing the point.

Preventing kids from having smart phones is not the "significant intervention in children's lives". The arrival of smart phones is. The burden of proof (of the absence of serious harm) is on the firms selling them.

Show threadDean Burnett (that brains guy)Jan 4, 2025
@MishaVelthuis That is categorically not what the article is saying, though. And while I totally agree that the tech companies should be on the hook for more responsibility/controls/studies, we can't now retroactively insist they do that 20+ years ago.
Show threadMisha

@Garwboy Retroactively no.

But I thought we were talking about how to (currently) raise kids?

I don't have any kids, but if I would I would totally try my best to protect them against the toxicity of much of the contemporary digital world.

This toxicity is not so much the result of the smartphone itself, but the result of the software/app ecosystem that we have allowed to grow on it.

(I appreciate your push back, btw. I'm just pushing back a bit against the push back).

Jan 4, 2025 at 1:48pmWeb
Show threadDean Burnett (that brains guy)Jan 4, 2025

@MishaVelthuis ah OK

I think we're both in agreement here, but about different points? I feel you took something from my piece that I wasn't intentionally implying? Certainly something to consider in future efforts. I do tend to want to cram as much in as possible, which opens up ample opportunity for suggesting things unwittingly

Show threadDean Burnett (that brains guy)Jan 4, 2025
@MishaVelthuis but yes, I do worry that people may take my stuff as purely binary "phones good/bad", when that's not the case. I certainly do feel the tech companies are given way too much freedom at little to no cost