Bring back childhood: Take action on smartphone and social media use for Iowa’s children

In May, our Surgeon General recommended requiring a warning label on social media platforms warning of the harmful effects on our children’s mental health.

The evidence demands that we open our eyes and become aware of the costs of social media and smartphones. I am a pediatrician, born and raised as a farm girl in Iowa, a mother of three daughters, and a 2014 graduate of Iowa’s Carver College of Medicine. I have witnessed how smartphones and social media are stunting our children’s development, robbing them of necessary socialization and development, and extending well beyond mental health to include social awkwardness, decreased confidence, increased sitting, fragmented attention and learning disabilities, addiction, and social withdrawal. As a community, we must establish new norms around social media and smartphones to reduce the cancer risk they pose to our children.

Facebook went mainstream in 2006 and smartphones were ubiquitous by 2012-2013. Not coincidentally, anxiety and depression among teens rose 50% between 2010 and 2019, leading to a national mental health crisis. Loneliness and friendlessness increased in 2012 and U.S. academic performance in reading and math began to decline for the first time since the 1950s. Recent data shows that teens spend an average of 4.8 hours per day on social media, with YouTube and TikTok leading the pack.

Please note that these hours do not include screen time associated with school or homework. The damage is even greater when hours of sleep, exercise, socializing, and reading are lost. Social media and gaming cause unusually high and sustained activation of dopamine neurons and reward pathways, meaning that over time, the brain adapts to these high levels and then experiences withdrawal symptoms without them, causing anxiety, insomnia, and severe irritability, leaving these kids vulnerable to addiction. At the same time, rates of childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes also continue to rise, with Americans spending an average of 93.7% of their time indoors each year. While this correlation is not 100% causal, it certainly gives me pause and explains what I’ve observed in my own pediatric practice.

You may be thinking, “Well, my child is safe because I haven’t allowed him a smartphone yet.” Kudos, but have you considered that more than 85% of the kids you spend time with are on their phones? Even if your child doesn’t have a cell phone, your child’s experience will be altered if the majority of kids are staring at a cell phone at their cafeteria table. That’s why adopting community norms and school policies is paramount. We must protect them together. And even if you don’t have kids, speak up, because it will impact our workforce and our economy for years to come.

Until recently, I was completely at a loss as to how to stop, or at least slow, this proverbial train wreck, other than educating everyone I encounter. Recently, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt published The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Creating an Epidemic of Mental Illness. With these four suggested norms, I feel empowered to make sure everyone in our community and state knows them. They are an excellent starting point for creating powerful change for our children. I strongly recommend that all parents, grandparents, teachers, coaches, and schools adopt these immediately:

No smartphones before high school.

No social media before age 16.

Phone-free schools – space in a cordoned-off area for the entire school day.

More independence, free play and responsibility in the real world.

Please implement them and talk to your school district and your community about them, not just for your child or my girls, but for the future of our world.

Dr. Padget Skogman is a graduate of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and a practicing pediatrician in Cedar Rapids.

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