602. Is Screen Time as Poisonous as We Think?

09/12/24 • 40 min

12 Listeners

Young people have been reporting a sharp rise in anxiety and depression. This maps neatly onto the global rise of the smartphone. Some researchers are convinced that one is causing the other. But how strong is the evidence?

SOURCES:
- David Blanchflower, professor of economics at Dartmouth College.
- Lauren Oyler, novelist and cultural critic.
- Andrew Przybylski, professor of human behavior and technology at the University of Oxford.
RESOURCES:
- "The Declining Mental Health Of The Young And The Global Disappearance Of The Hump Shape In Age In Unhappiness," by David G. Blanchflower, Alex Bryson, and Xiaowei Xu (NBER Working Paper, 2024).
- "Further Evidence on the Global Decline in the Mental Health of the Young," by David G. Blanchflower, Alex Bryson, Anthony Lepinteur, and Alan Piper (NBER Working Paper, 2024).
- No Judgment: Essays, by Lauren Oyler (2024).
- "To What Extent are Trends in Teen Mental Health Driven by Changes in Reporting?" by Adriana Corredor-Waldron and Janet Currie (Journal of Human Resources, 2024).
- The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, by Jonathan Haidt (2024).
- "Global Well-Being and Mental Health in the Internet Age," by Matti Vuorre and Andrew K. Przybylski (Clinical Psychological Science, 2023).
- "Are Mental Health Awareness Efforts Contributing to the Rise in Reported Mental Health Problems? A Call to Test the Prevalence Inflation Hypothesis," by Lucy Foulkes and Jack L. Andrews (New Ideas in Psychology, 2023).
- "The Association Between Adolescent Well-Being and Digital Technology Use," by Amy Orben and Andrew K. Przybylski (Nature Human Behaviour, 2019).
- iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy — and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood — and What That Means for the Rest of Us, by Jean M. Twenge (2017).
EXTRAS:
- "Are You Caught in a Social Media Trap?" by Freakonomics Radio (2024).
- "Are We Getting Lonelier?" by No Stupid Questions (2023).
- "Is Facebook Bad for Your Mental Health?" by Freakonomics, M.D. (2022).
- "Why Is U.S. Media So Negative? (Replay)," by Freakonomics Radio (2022).

SOURCES:
- David Blanchflower, professor of economics at Dartmouth College.
- Lauren Oyler, novelist and cultural critic.
- Andrew Przybylski, professor of human behavior and technology at the University of Oxford.
RESOURCES:
- "The Declining Mental Health Of The Young And The Global Disappearance Of The Hump Shape In Age In Unhappiness," by David G. Blanchflower, Alex Bryson, and Xiaowei Xu (NBER Working Paper, 2024).
- "Further Evidence on the Global Decline in the Mental Health of the Young," by David G. Blanchflower, Alex Bryson, Anthony Lepinteur, and Alan Piper (NBER Working Paper, 2024).
- No Judgment: Essays, by Lauren Oyler (2024).
- "To What Extent are Trends in Teen Mental Health Driven by Changes in Reporting?" by Adriana Corredor-Waldron and Janet Currie (Journal of Human Resources, 2024).
- The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, by Jonathan Haidt (2024).
- "Global Well-Being and Mental Health in the Internet Age," by Matti Vuorre and Andrew K. Przybylski (Clinical Psychological Science, 2023).
- "Are Mental Health Awareness Efforts Contributing to the Rise in Reported Mental Health Problems? A Call to Test the Prevalence Inflation Hypothesis," by Lucy Foulkes and Jack L. Andrews (New Ideas in Psychology, 2023).
- "The Association Between Adolescent Well-Being and Digital Technology Use," by Amy Orben and Andrew K. Przybylski (Nature Human Behaviour, 2019).
- iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy — and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood — and What That Means for the Rest of Us, by Jean M. Twenge (2017).
EXTRAS:
- "Are You Caught in a Social Media Trap?" by Freakonomics Radio (2024).
- "Are We Getting Lonelier?" by No Stupid Questions (2023).
- "Is Facebook Bad for Your Mental Health?" by Freakonomics, M.D. (2022).
- "Why Is U.S. Media So Negative? (Replay)," by Freakonomics Radio (2022).

Previous Episode

601. Multitasking Doesn’t Work. So Why Do We Keep Trying?

Only a tiny number of “supertaskers” are capable of doing two things at once. The rest of us are just making ourselves miserable, and less productive. How can we put the — hang on a second, I've just got to get this.

Come see Stephen Dubner live!

“A Questionable Evening: A strategic interrogation from two people who ask questions for a living,” featuring Stephen Dubner and PJ Vogt from Search Engine.

Thursday, Sept. 26th, at the Bell House in Brooklyn, NY.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-questionable-evening-evening-with-stephen-dubner-and-pj-vogt-tickets-1002544747327

SOURCES:
- Olivia Grace, senior product manager at Slack.
- Gloria Mark, professor of computer science at the University of California, Irvine.
- David Strayer, professor of cognition and neural science at the University of Utah.
RESOURCES:
- "Immersion in Nature Enhances Neural Indices of Executive Attention," by Amy S. McDonnell and David L. Strayer (Nature: Scientific Reports, 2024).
- "Contribution to the Study on the ‘Right to Disconnect’ From Work. Are France and Spain Examples for Other Countries and E.U. Law?" by Loïc Lerouge and Francisco Trujillo Pons (European Labour Law Journal, 2022).
- "Task Errors by Emergency Physicians Are Associated With Interruptions, Multitasking, Fatigue and Working Memory Capacity: A Prospective, Direct Observation Study," by Johanna I. Westbrook, Magdalena Z. Raban, Scott R. Walter, and Heather Douglas (BMJ Quality & Safety, 2018).
- "Supertaskers: Profiles in Extraordinary Multitasking Ability," by Jason M. Watson and David L. Strayer (Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2010).
- "The Effects of Video Game Playing on Attention, Memory, and Executive Control," by Walter R. Boot, Arthur F. Kramer, Daniel J. Simons, Monica Fabiani, and Gabriele Gratton (Acta Psychologica, 2008).
- "'Constant, Constant, Multi-Tasking Craziness': Managing Multiple Working Spheres," by Victor M. González and Gloria Mark (Proceedings of the 2004 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI, 2004).
EXTRAS:
- "Why Is the U.S. So Good at Killing Pedestrians?" by Freakonomics Radio (2023).
- "Why Did You Marry That Person?" by Freakonomics Radio (2022).
- "How Much Should We Be Able to Customize Our World?" by No Stupid Questions (2021).

Next Episode

EXTRA: In Praise of Maintenance (Update)

1 Recommendations

We revisit an episode from 2016 that asks: Has our culture’s obsession with innovation led us to neglect the fact that things also need to be taken care of?