Do smartphones have a negative psychological effect?

Motherboard - Depression and suicide rates in teenagers have jumped in the last decade—doubling between 2007 and 2015 for girls—and the trend suspiciously coincides with when smartphones became their constant companions. A recent study places their screen time around nine hours per day.

Another study suggests that suicide and depression could be connected to the rise of smartphones, and increased screen time. Around 58 percent more girls reported depression symptoms in 2015 than in 2009, and suicide rates rose 65 percent. Smack in the middle of that window of time, smartphones gained market saturation. “Even if we call screen time a neutral and assume it doesn't help or hurt, it may still have a negative impact if it crowds out time for seeing friends in person,” lead researcher Jean Twenge, psychology professor at San Diego State University, told me in an email. “The large and sudden increase in teen mental health deserves attention, no matter what its cause.”

Still, other research suggests that using new media to communicate and connect doesn’t hurt teenagers, and can maybe, in some cases, be good for them. Are screens, and especially smartphones, really killing teenagers?

... Twenge’s work has drawn criticism from psychology peers in the past—particularly after her article “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” appeared in the September 2017 issue of The Atlantic. Psychologist and author Sarah Rose Cavanagh published her rebuttal on Medium, claiming that Twenge’s data is “cherry-picked” to reinforce preexisting biases, and that she falls into the old “correlation versus causation trap” in the conclusions she draws.

Psychologist Andrew Przybylski told NPR that teenagers today might just be more willing to admit when they’re worried or sad, or better equipped to recognize symptoms of depression within themselves.