The introduction into our lives of computers and the development of ‘smart’ digital devices has been astonishing. I have vivid memories from 1995 learning how to send an email. The school I was working in at that time was an early adopter of technology and the excitement of sending an email was miraculous. This was also the time when the internet was emerging into the mainstream. Back then social media was not only not a problem, it didn’t even exist. Certainly, not in the form we know today. 

I have a love-hate relationship with social media. It can be a wonderful way to stay connected. As I write this piece my son and his fiancée are somewhere in the high Sierra mountains of California, hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. So far, they have completed 800 kilometres of the Trail. I follow their progress with regular Instagram video feeds they are creating as they walk. I am able to be a part of their journey and write comments back. This is a truly wonderful use of technology.  

On the other hand, I am bombarded daily with emails, messages, suggestions by so called influencers, ads from products I have no wish to purchase, and invites to join endless conversation streams on platforms such as Facebook, Snapchat, and WeChat.  It drives me crazy at times.  As a result, I am not a big social media user, and I am careful with whom I connect. 

For our young people, the impact of social media is more complex. The instant communication unimagined a generation ago, is having a profound impact on our young people. The unsavoury events which have taken place at two Melbourne schools over the last couple of weeks, one independent and one government school, demonstrate the power of technology and where it can cause great harm. 

I am currently reading a book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt. In The Anxious Generation, Haidt shows how smartphones, social media, and helicopter parenting have led to a decline in young people’s mental health. He offers actionable solutions to help both our kids and us become mature, emotionally stable adults. Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He provides detailed researched evidence that since 2010, there has been a 135% surge in depression amongst teenage girls and 161% for boys. This change is largely uniform regardless of region, income, and education. 

The main provocation of the book is that since the 2000s and specifically since about 2010, tech companies have effectively been conducting an uncontrolled social experiment on testing their ‘subjects’ interaction with the multitude of media platforms that now exist. Haidt suggests that tech companies are exploiting our kids’ attention and mental health for profit. “Childhood is an apprenticeship for learning the skills needed for success in one’s culture,” he adds that “millions of children are now hampered in learning those skills — because they live in their phones instead of reality.”  

Haidt argues our connections in the real world share four distinct properties: 

1. They rely on body language. 
2. They happen in sync with others. 
3. Communication happens in sequence and with a few individuals max. 
4. They happen in communities with high barriers to entry.

None of this is true about our online activities. That’s why they are often detrimental to humans flourishing. Therefore, Haidt sees a phone-based childhood leading to four foundational harms: 

1. Social deprivation. Since 2012, the time adolescents spend with friends in face-to-face settings has dropped 50% — and the pandemic only made it worse. 
2. Sleep deprivation. A lack of sleep leads to “depression, anxiety, irritability, cognitive deficits, poor learning, and lower grades” — and long-term studies have proven smartphones are making us sleep worse. 
3. Attention fragmentation. Since our phones are constantly interrupting us, our ability to focus is severely impaired. 
4. Addiction. Many kids are using their phones like dopamine slot machines, always in search of the next hit — and big tech has designed their apps to encourage this behaviour.

How can we address these harms and create healthier, more grounded lives? Haidt has some ideas for that too. 

1. No smartphones before secondary school. We should give our kids basic, text-and-call only phones until they are 14 years old. 
2. No social media before 16. When preteens are subjected to endless algorithmically chosen content and comparisons with influencers, it can damage their self-worth permanently. 
3. Phone-free schools. More than just disallowing phones during class, schools should force kids to lock them away altogether. “That is the only way to free up their attention for each other and for their teachers,” Haidt writes. 
4. Far more unsupervised play and childhood independence. Let your kids learn to “develop social skills, overcome anxiety, and become self-governing young adults, naturally,” Haidt suggests. Give them room to try, fail, and learn from it. 

At St Catherine’s we are very aware of the impact of smart phones and how dominant they are in the lives of our students. Generally, phones are absent from classrooms, certainly from our very young students up until the middle years. Occasionally, teachers of senior classes may ask students to use devices for very specific learning tasks, but this is relatively rare. 

Parents will be aware that a number of schools have banned phones in schools completely. In NSW phones are banned in all government schools. The St Catherine’s Leadership Team has been looking at this issue closely.  We have been updating policies in regard to the use of digital technologies. In our School curriculum and classes, we have a clear approach to the use of technology and our digital literacy approach has a focus on values, ethics, and conduct.  

Fundamental to everything we do is the care we have for every student. What we do at School is only part of the solution to enabling our girls to be healthy and flourishing in their lives. What happens beyond the School Gates is of vital importance. May I suggest that every parent purchase a copy of Haidt’s book The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. I guarantee it will change how you think about how you and your daughter’s use digital technologies and how we all engage with social media.