{"id":14917,"date":"2024-06-21T17:37:58","date_gmt":"2024-06-21T15:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/21\/smartphones-are-not-the-biggest-problem-facing-teenagers-letters\/"},"modified":"2024-06-21T17:37:58","modified_gmt":"2024-06-21T15:37:58","slug":"smartphones-are-not-the-biggest-problem-facing-teenagers-letters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/21\/smartphones-are-not-the-biggest-problem-facing-teenagers-letters\/","title":{"rendered":"Smartphones are not the biggest problem facing teenagers | Letters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Focusing on phones and social media allows adults to ignore the real fears of adolescents, writes Dr Helen Care. <\/strong>Plus letters from Jo Johnson, Alison Watson <\/strong>and Arnold Brown<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lucy Foulkes makes an important point, having interviewed adults about their own past experiences: \u201cadolescence is bewildering to live through\u201d and smartphones are only \u201cone piece of a large and complicated puzzle\u201d (I\u2019m an expert on adolescence: here\u2019s why a smartphone ban isn\u2019t the answer, and what we should do instead, 15 June<\/a>). I work with teenagers, and they are fed up with the narrative that smartphones and social media are the cause of their mental health issues. It lets us adults off the hook.<\/p>\n

How much easier it is to blame phones and social media than to acknowledge the harm we do by taking away creative outlets in school such as art, music or sport, and focusing only on targets and rote learning. And how much easier it is not to take responsibility for fixing the other aspects of their lives that bring anxiety: the climate crisis; the lack of affordable housing; the cost of living crisis. Smartphones are a distraction from the real issue facing adolescents \u2013 they are fearful for their futures. Despite this, many of the young people I work with are hopeful, determined and courageous. Let\u2019s celebrate them and ask them what would help, instead of looking for an easy answer and taking their phones away.
Dr Helen Care<\/strong>
Clinical psychologist, Woodstock, Oxfordshire<\/em><\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nFocusing on phones and social media allows adults to ignore the real fears of adolescents, writes Dr Helen Care. Plus letters from Jo Johnson, Alison Watson and Arnold Brown
\nLucy Foulkes makes an important point, having interviewed adults about their own past experiences: \u201cadolescence is bewildering to live through\u201d and smartphones are only \u201cone piece of a large and complicated puzzle\u201d (I\u2019m an expert on adolescence: here\u2019s why a smartphone ban isn\u2019t the answer, and what we should do instead, 15 June). I work with teenagers, and they are fed up with the narrative that smartphones and social media are the cause of their mental health issues. It lets us adults off the hook.
\nHow much easier it is to blame phones and social media than to acknowledge the harm we do by taking away creative outlets in school such as art, music or sport, and focusing only on targets and rote learning. And how much easier it is not to take responsibility for fixing the other aspects of their lives that bring anxiety: the climate crisis; the lack of affordable housing; the cost of living crisis. Smartphones are a distraction from the real issue facing adolescents \u2013 they are fearful for their futures. Despite this, many of the young people I work with are hopeful, determined and courageous. Let\u2019s celebrate them and ask them what would help, instead of looking for an easy answer and taking their phones away.Dr Helen CareClinical psychologist, Woodstock, Oxfordshire Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Focusing on phones and social media allows adults to ignore the real fears of adolescents, writes Dr Helen Care. Plus letters from Jo Johnson, Alison Watson and Arnold Brown Lucy Foulkes makes an important point, having interviewed adults about their own past experiences: \u201cadolescence is bewildering to live through\u201d and smartphones are only \u201cone piece …<\/p>\n

Smartphones are not the biggest problem facing teenagers | Letters<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":14918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14917"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}