“It’s because you’re always on that damn phone!”
I’m sure a lot of college students remember hearing that back in high school after forgetting to do their chores or earning a bad grade on a test. As outrageous as that response may sound, it may be true that your phone is affecting your life in more ways than you realize.
NATHAN VILLASEÑOR / DAILY NEXUS
I recently attended a UC Santa Barbara Arts & Lectures event at Arlington Theatre on Feb. 20 featuring psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt, who has been studying what he calls “the great rewiring,” the time period approximately between 2010-15 when many children and teenagers gained access to social media and smartphones. Afterward, I started to wonder how a “phone-based childhood,” as described by Haidt, is impacting Gen Z’s ability to learn, socially interact and engage in psychological development.
Alongside an uptick in social media and phone usage in the early 2010s, the prevalence of loneliness has increased sharply among U.S. adolescents. Self-harm and suicide have also spiked, with five times more 10-14 year old girls admitted to the ER for self-harm in 2022 than 2009 and suicide rates nearly doubling in younger teens since 2010.
Students also seem to be experiencing more alienation at school since the early 2010s, a trend not limited to the United States. In a survey of 15- and 16-year-olds across 37 countries, self-reported loneliness at school increased from 2012 to 2018 in 36 out of 37 countries. The same survey found that nearly twice as many adolescents in 2018 (versus 2012) had elevated levels of school loneliness worldwide.
Academic performance of students has also taken a notable hit since the early 2010s. Since 2012, average mathematics and reading scores of 13-year-old students in the United States have experienced a downward trend, with the lowest 25th percentile taking the hardest hit. This trend has remained consistent on an international scale, as scores for the Program for International Student Assessment, an international assessment of math and literacy, have also exhibited a dramatic decline since 2012.
The hit on academic performance has also been exhibited in the college student population. We’ve all seen UCSB lecture halls filled with students passing time by text messaging friends, online shopping or playing video games. Researchers consistently report that over 90% of college students use cellphones in class each week, with the evidence suggesting that this time spent off-task may be tanking our grades. In a study of 218 college students enrolled at Southeastern University across 2 semesters and 6 different courses, cell phone use was found to be significantly associated with lower test scores.
In addition to taking a toll on our academics, phones may also be negatively affecting our social experience at UCSB by disrupting the quality of our social interactions. In a UC Berkeley interview with MIT professor Sherry Turkle about her book, “Reclaiming Conversation,” Turkle revealed that 89% of “Americans say that during their last social interaction, they took out a phone, and 82 percent said that it deteriorated the conversation they were in.” Turkle argues that cell phone use during a social interaction weakens the overall conversation content and “decreases the empathic connection that people feel toward each other.”
Phones may also be stripping us of time to explore spirituality and creativity. Before his interest in the phone-based childhood, Haidt wrote “The Happiness Hypothesis,” exploring how ancient wisdom, such as philosophies from ancient thinkers like Aristotle and Plato and teachings from historical figures like Confucius and Buddha can educate us on how to flourish in modern times when paired with modern psychological research.
Since writing that book, Haidt explained how he realized “our phone-based life is every way opposite of what ancient wisdom and philosophical traditions urge us to do.” Haidt explained how ancient wisdom often emphasizes meditation and seeking moments of silence to connect to the internal experience and external environment, which he refers to as “interstitial time.” Walking home from class, standing in the shower and waiting for the elevator are all instances of interstitial time when one could just think, instead of being constantly flooded with new content. Haidt argues that the lack of interstitial time resulting from phone usage has kept us from having any genuine time to reflect. A wandering mind is a creative mind, and when we are stripped of this opportunity to mull, we lose our opportunity for creativity and a reflective mindset.
As we expanded our time scrolling and restricted our time in interstitial thought, it also became increasingly clear that social media has contributed to a transition from an appreciation of inventors, philosophers and authors to a societal prioritization of social media influencers. With trends ranging from the 2015 “Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge” to TikTok microtrends that fade after a few hours of scrolling, an endless amount of shallow content seems to be exploding across social media platforms, reflecting this shift in appreciation of virality over value.
Although social media has made us more short-sighted, both figuratively and literally — as our eyes are now physically adapted to looking at short-distance screens opposed to the farther distance vision required for outdoor activities — many people, including a number of my peers at UCSB see that there is a problem at hand and want to take action. Maybe next time you’re waiting for class to start or in line at The Arbor, try to sit in the moment and notice what thoughts or ideas surface. When you meet up with your friends, suggest leaving your phones inside to play a game of Spikeball at Sands Beach instead. Or, rather than posting your attempt at the newest TikTok challenge, challenge yourself to go a week without social media. Together, we can confront this challenge and make a conscious effort to “rewire” our lives.
