Smartphones and 'rise of individualism' lead to increased distress among teenagers – The Irish Times

Young adolescents are experiencing the results of a 'perfect storm' of too much time spent online, the lingering impact of the Covid pandemic and the 'rise of individualism', a leading child psychotherapist has warned and adolescents.

Dr Colman Noctor, a psychotherapist at St Patrick's University Hospital, Dublin, was commenting on findings that today's 13-year-olds were almost twice as 'at risk' of depressive symptoms, with girls at particular risk , than their counterparts from a decade earlier.

Drawing on data from the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) longitudinal study, the report examines findings for 13-year-olds born in 2008 with those of a cohort born in 1998.

Dr Noctor said he and his colleagues were “overwhelmed” with requests for support and treatment for children in mental and emotional distress. An upward trajectory began around 2010 — around the same time smartphone use was skyrocketing — and has accelerated since the pandemic, he said.

Today's 13- and 14-year-olds in particular, he said, were confined during the pandemic as children who had socialized at organized play dates but came out at a age when they should be organizing their own social lives, but without the skills to do so. SO.

[ Growing Up in Ireland: Young teenagers less likely to smoke or drink than counterparts a decade ago ]

Additionally, having been forced to gravitate toward the Internet for academics and social relationships, many were still spending too much time there, he said, being exposed not only to “much more adult content like Palestine and the climate crisis” than they would have been a decade earlier. , but also to “enormous levels of self-examination” and “comparison”.

“I don't think they gain enough social and emotional experience, related to just spending time with their peers, to cope with most of the experiences and content they consume online.”

He pointed to the “rise of individualism” that was happening in parallel. Referring to “constant selfies” as a symptom, he described a “loss of tribe” in the lives of this age group.

It's not limited to young teenagers, he continued: “College campuses are dead and we have 40- and 50-year-olds talking about how lonely they are,” but young teenagers were particularly vulnerable to lack of skills. to deal with it.

“I wish I could say there was a solution, but in many cases, parents themselves feel alone and depressed as they try to be the voice of optimism for their children. What we need to do is provide spaces and support for young adolescents to socialize and develop these skills.