It’s those damn phones…or is it?

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Young people are beginning to use the phrase often touted by their parents: “It’s those damn phones.” 

In recent years, as concerns about technology have grown, Gen Z has developed a more negative stance towards AI and has become increasingly critical of social media. Proclaiming now that maybe it really was those damn phones. 

The phrase “phone addiction” gets thrown around constantly in daily conversation. College students and parents alike are now talking about how they wish they spent less time on their phones. Why? Because more time on screens means worse mental health. Or so that’s what we all have been told, right? 

It feels easy to blame our problems on this singular culprit: the device we have attached to our hip, the one we’re glued to from morning until night. 

Creative writing senior Daylen Motamed says her average screen time is around seven hours. 

“Is that embarrassing?” she said. “I literally feel like I’m always on my screen, for either doing schoolwork or my remote job. I feel like I have no choice.” 

In contrast, senior Lindsay Johnson, studying education, says her average is about three hours.

“I feel like I’m really busy in this season of my life, so I feel good about how much time I’m spending on screens,” she said.

Students may feel guilty about their screen time, as it’s often associated with negative feelings and a sense of wasted time. But is the narrative that screens are causing all these mental health problems actually backed by science? 

“It’s much more nuanced than most people think that it is,” psychology professor John Hunter said. 

Hunter studies how technology is designed and used, and how it affects mental, physical and social health. His research suggests tech can ultimately be used to better our well-being.

“Scientists who are getting the most media attention have this narrative that phone addiction is the cause of mental health drops that have been happening,” he said. “There’s a very clear narrative to be painted there, because everyone can see it in their own lives. However, the data does not show that.” 

Over the last 15 years, Hunter acknowledged there has been an uptick in teen depression, anxiety and suicide, alongside an uptick in phone use.

But those trends occurring at the same time do not necessarily mean one caused the other.

“Different factors influence well-being,” Hunter said. “They find, tech use – screen time – explains less than one percent in variation of well-being. It affects your well-being about as much whether or not you eat potatoes regularly,” 

Certainly that can’t be true, right? Everyone knows that guilty feeling after a two-hour doomscroll. How could mental health issues not arise from screen time? 

“Social media and screens are amplifiers,” he said. “They take these things that are existing in our lives, and they make them sometimes better, but oftentimes much worse.” 

In other words, a person who is already struggling may turn to social media, where certain experiences can amplify problems that already existed before turning to their screens.

If screen use explains only a small portion of the variation in well-being, then restricting screens cannot address every factor contributing to young people's mental health.

“There are deeper issues that need to be addressed about adult mental health, about parenting, about societal structure that have also changed a lot in the last 10–20 years,” Hunter said. “That is a lot harder to change.”

With the recent Meta lawsuit, in which the company was found liable for designing Facebook and Instagram with features intended to addict young users, the conversation of responsibility has come into play. Who or what is responsible for the rising mental health crisis?

Hunter noted, “For sure there needs to be more regulation on tech companies and less regulation on individual behavior.”

So yes, the intentionally addictive aspects of social media are actually part of the problem. However, that is not where the story ends. 

“People are going to continue to use their phones,” Hunter said. “They’re going to continue to use social media. What I want is to teach people to do it better.”

Hunter’s research looks at better ways to use technology, such as taking back agency of our feeds, using social media mindfully to foster human relationships and most importantly, teaching everyone—across all ages—digital literacy. 

He wants us to have agentic social media use. “What this means is when you are educated about how algorithms work, you control the way that your social media feed comes through because you are thoughtful about what you click on and interact with so you curate your own feed,” he said. 

Rather than taking the pessimistic view of our parents, Hunter thinks we should open ourselves to new ways of living with technology more effectively, rather than trying to avoid it altogether.

“You are not a passive victim of the social media machine,” Hunter said.

As technology continues to advance in unregulated sectors, we do need to place more regulations on tech companies. But we also need to begin looking at the bigger picture of why young people are struggling, and stop simply chalking it up to, “It’s those damn phones.”