Jean Twenge -- iGen: why today's super connected kids are ... =============================================================== [Ref. Jean M. Twenge: "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"] About Twenge's name for the book and the generation -- "iGen" is, of course, a play on the name of a successful line of products from the Apple corporation. It's a good identifier, and it captures something important about this generation: that they (almost?) always have a smartphone in their hands. But, it's valuable to keep several things in mind. (1) The iPhone is only one of several brands of smartphone. All of them do roughly the same thing. So, we are naming a collection after an exemplary member. (2) The Apple iPhone is a prestige item. People pay extra so that they will be seen with it and seen as owners of it. That point is especially meaningful with regard to Twenge's subjects, because much of the behavior that Twenge reports seems intended to draw attention and to promote the self (the actor). Being seen *with* an Apple iPhone is possibly important in itself. Still, we might question whether there would tend to be differences between teenage users of Apple iPhones and other brands of smartphone. Could it be that iPhone users are more concerned with self-image and are more upset or depressed when their self-image fails to live up to their hopes. See below for more on this issues of feelings of inadequacy and the depression that it leads to. The most significant claims that Twenge makes center around how much teens and "iGen'ers" use smartphones and the consequences of that heavy use. One quibble with Twenge's emphasis on the down-side of heavy smartphone and computer use (what she calls "screen time"): perhaps it is not so much the *amount* of use that affects teens attitudes, depression, anxiety, etc. Perhaps it is the *kind* of use. Heavy use that is made up of looking up information on the Internet while writing an essay or use doing data science analysis and computer programming might have a very different effect from heavy smartphone use that is made up up texting friends, posting pictures of yourself (selfies), posting likes and obsessively paying attention to likes, etc. Still, Twenge presents evidence and describes studies that report an association between heavy screen time and rates of depression. She also reports an association between high levels of smartphone or social media use and rates of suicide. Teens who visit social media sites are more likely to feel lonely, for example. It would be valuable to understand *why* heavy smartphone use leads to a higher incidence of depression, loneliness, and even suicide. That might help us learn how to alleviate those negative consequences. "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience", by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, although actually about heavy television use and it's effects, would likely be helpful with respect to heavy smartphone use, too. And, it's also possible that the teens that Twenge is reporting on are overly narcissistic, but then that's the risk of being a teenager. Most of us were that way when we were teens, and the only know cure is maturity. Twenge does report on several more specific factors that she believes lead to and cause the depression and unhappiness that she reports, including: (1) cyber bullying and (2) rejection. I suppose that the rejection is easy to do something about: do not go where you are likely to be rejected; do not use social media, after all, that's the main function and purpose of social media, namely approval and rejection. But, telling teenagers, and many others too, these days not to use social media is, I suppose, much like telling them not to have friends. Here Twenge's point is that teens would be better off if they made friends and socialized with them in person and face-to-face. And, as for cyber-bullying, I really do not have much in the way of suggestions for that, other than the obvious: stay away, don't engage with those who do it, and report it, all of which are often not practical or effective. FOMO (fear of missing out) is a big driver of heavy smartphone and social media, as is an obsession with collecting "likes". Teens who are seduced by these need help; they need to talk to someone; they need to think about what they are doing and why they do it. Well, of course, you are going to have feelings of inadequacy from using social media: you look at lots of pictures and videos of "perfect people" and then you ask others to rate and grade you. What do you expect; of course you will be depressed. And, you do it while you are a teenager and are in the process of forming your own self-image? Don't do that. Twenge suggests that teenage girls may be especially vulnerable to these feelings of inadequacy and lowered self-image and depression. Twenge also claims that there is increased use of antidepressant medicines among teens. Advice: (1) Do your homework and schoolwork. (2) Talk to your friends in person and face-to-face. (3) Stay off social media sites unless you have a task to perform. One point that Twenge makes repeatedly is that iGen'ers are doing some things later in life than previous cohorts: the are passing milestones at a later age, for example learning to drive and getting a driving license, moving out of home with their parents, dating and forming long-term relationships with a person of the opposite sex, getting a job or a part-time job, etc. Twenge makes several important points about this: (1) because they are putting off some experiences until later in life, they are not learning to deal with some types of difficulty, adversity, and challenges; (2) this safer life and the shocks that eventually show up cause iGen'ers to demand extremes of safety and freedom from danger, insult, aggression, etc. that previous cohorts (Boomers, and even xGen and Millennials) did not feel entitled to. (3) The iGen generation are demanding increased levels of safety and protection, even emotional protection that previous generations did not expect, which may explain the increased insistence of "safe zone" and demands for protection from "micro-aggressions". One interesting claim that Twenge makes is that the heavy use of smartphones that she reports is happening across multiple economic classes. That conflicts with the worries that some of us have had that children and teens from poorer economic classes will not have access to important technology, will grow up computer illiterates, and will be left behind by others in their age group, who, we believed, were online more. In one sense, it does not make sense to ask how much time iGen'ers spend with their smartphones: they are always with their smartphones. They even have their smartphones nearby when they fall asleep at night, since their smartphone is their alarm clock. Telling them to spend less time with their smartphones makes no sense to them: there are too many ways, many of them legitimate and important, in which they use their smartphones. However, from "iGen" we get the impression that teens these days spend less time using their smartphones, their tablet computers, and their desktop and laptop computers as tools to accomplish some task (for example, homework or a project of some kind) and a *lot* more time texting and communicating with friends. They also make heavy use of their devices for video games, boys more so than girls, it appears. The other heavy use of smartphones is social media and social media web sites. Twenge even claims that iGen'ers are so busy using their smartphones and social media that they have less time and are less interested in going to parties. She makes a similar claim about other kinds and styles of in-person association with their peers: they do it less. That is in line with Twenge's point that iGen'ers do not get the in-person social contact and experience that they need because of their smartphone use. Twenge believes that iGen'ers use their smartphones as a tool to help them avoid awkward or difficult social situations, for example, having to meet the parents of a friend. And, by doing so, they are missing out on gaining experience with handling those situations. Repeatedly, Twenge emphasizes that iGen'ers do not read printed material, at least not when it's printed on paper. We might suspect that this produces a short attention span and a lack of ability to focus and concentrate deeply. Perhaps, but these teenagers seem to be able to focus and concentrate when the task involves the use of social media. I think we will have to wait until they mature a bit before we'll know whether they really lack the abilities to focus and concentrate for extended periods of time. Members of the iGen generation spend much less time reading books and magazines and also less time going out to movies. That's unsurprising given that they spend so much time on their smartphones and, therefore, have relatively little time for other activities. The iGen'ers that Twenge reports on seem to believe that smoking tobacco is bad for your health but that smoking marijuana is not. They need to do a few Web searches. What they'll learn are that the benefits and negative effects are mixed, and that they should really think this through. Looking for an up-side to Twenge's reporting on iGen teens, we might consider the possibility that iGen'ers, because of their heavy use of the latest and newest social media apps, software, and social media sites, are a powerful force in driving innovation and development in those areas. Of course, we'd also need to ask whether they are driving that innovation in the direction of anything useful or beneficial. And, it's worth wondering whether teens are driving that innovation or are being driven and exploited by the products (devices and Web sites, for example) that is the result of that innovation. There is an article in "The Atlantic" adapted from this book: `Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? `_. If this topic interested you, be sure to look at "American girls: social media and the secret lives of teenagers", by Nancy Jo Sales. 04/30/2018 .. vim:ft=rst:fo+=a: