New book on social media and mental health sparks conversation for Stratford parents

Ginny Smith Younce — Stratford Academy alumnus and Penguin Random House senior editor for Jonathan Haidt’s “The Anxious Generation” — recently spoke about the negative effects of social media on youth and how to combat it in the second of a two-part book study hosted by Stratford Academy.

Younce, a Macon native who now lives in Nashville, talked with Stratford parents about how the concepts in Haidt’s New York Times bestselling book can be applied in schools and at home. 

At the heart of Haidt’s book is the idea of promoting independence in young children, while also putting up guardrails around technology and the media. He advocates for parents to restrict their kids from social media until 16 and not give them phones until high school.

Haidt originally set out to write a book about the effects of social media on American democracy and the strain it puts on finding a shared language, explained Younce. 

In the process of writing, she said, Haidt became stuck on the topic of the deteriorating mental health of Generation Z. Haidt argues overprotecting children and not allowing them to develop their own skills independently, combined with an underprotective approach to kid’s use of technology has led to the current mental health climate for Gen Z. 

Haidt’s research points to alarming statistics representing Gen Z’s mental health. In his book, he highlights a 145% increase in depression for teen girls in the U.S. since 2010.

“All of a sudden somebody going through a cognitive critical period of early puberty, — ie. middle school — had a super-computer engineered by the greatest minds on earth in their pocket,” Younce told Stratford parents. 

As a young girl, she recalled comparing herself to peers in her school; today, teen girls have a whole online stratosphere to compare themselves to. 

“I think this is absolutely urgent. I think we have to act right now,” she told The Melody. “My own kids are 10 and eight and I want a different world for them.”

The Stratford administration plans to meet next week to examine how to open the conversation up to parents, head of school Dr. Rachel Adams said, and how to tackle the problem differently for each grade level. 

“The way you approach this with a five-year-old, and the way a parent of a five-year-old is going to feel about it, is going to be very different from the parent of a junior,” she said. 

Currently, Stratford middle school students are required to turn in their phones for the entire school day and high school level students are permitted to have their phones on them but not visible during the school day.

“That’s what we’re wrestling with is at what age do we give them the autonomy to start making those choices,” Adams said. “So that we’re not graduating them as seniors having had no access to anything and unready for the world.”

Adams also noted the value of having parents voluntarily working together to set boundaries. 

One father of two, Charles Causey, suggested Stratford parents pledge not to allow certain apps on their childrens’ phones.

He hopes bringing awareness to technology’s negative impact on youth will bring about real change. The depression, attention and relationship issues parents have noticed in their children, Causey asserted, are being validated by studies like the ones found in Haidt’s book.

“Awareness breeds improvement,” he told The Melody.

Haidt’s emphasis on the importance of reintroducing kids to free play also struck a chord with many parents. Free play allows young folks to explore independently, experiment, learn and make mistakes on their own.

Younce shared her own experience as a parent of young kids — allowing her 10-year-old daughter to explore the mall independently. 

“She thought it was the greatest thing, she ran so fast away from me to go and just explore and be on our own. And she was so proud of herself when she came back,” Younce said. “That’s what we’re aiming for here. They don’t have to climb Everest by themselves. It was 30 minutes in the Nashville Mall.” 

The Stratford administration will begin looking at practical and easy to implement solutions, according to Adams, such as offering the opportunity for parents to drop their students off at the playground before school starts, instead of the car line. 

“The idea of free play that we experienced as children is definitely something that kids need,” Stratford father of two, Robert Betzel, said. “For me it’s going back to giving our children more freedom to explore, to engage and to be able to learn. Technology can get in the way of that.”