What happens when we overprotect, overschedule, and overlook the focus on technology?
In this episode of Life's Next Lesson Plan podcast, we delve into Jonathan Haidt's compelling
exploration of rising mental health challenges among Generation Z and Millennials, as detailed
in his book, The Anxious Generation.
Haidt uncovers how parenting styles, societal shifts, and technology are reshaping the mental
resilience of today's youth.
Together, we unpack his five key topics and discuss actionable steps to foster healthier,
happier environments for teens.
Hello and welcome back to Life's Next Lesson Plan podcast.
Today's episode is for educators, parents, and anyone concerned by the effect phones
are having on our brains.
You may have noticed that on previous episodes when I've asked former teachers about changes
they see in education, they have commented about phones or the increased use of technology,
and it's a fact that they've seen on students and the classrooms.
It is for this reason that the school I've been teaching at actually studied the book,
The Anxious Generation, and held book discussions with teachers, trying to create action steps
for how we can combat the effect this is having on students' attention spans and ability
to persevere through challenges.
This episode will explore the increasing mental health challenges faced by Gen Z and Millennials
outlined in the book The Anxious Generation.
This book is a call to action for parents, educators, and society to create environments
that promote healthy development and mental resilience.
At the end of the episode, I offer six action steps for parents, educators, and society
in general as support in this rapidly growing issue.
The book covers five key topics.
The first one involves overprotective parenting.
I know this one is often a tough pill to swallow for parents who walk that fine line
of helping and hovering.
In his book, Height discusses the impact of what he calls safetyism, where children are
overly shielded from challenges and risks, reducing their resilience and problem-solving
abilities.
Allowing children to take on manageable risks is crucial for their independence and mental
well-being.
We will reflect on this idea and the upcoming topics later in the episode.
The second topic that Height outlines is the decline of free play.
This is often seen in younger children, where modern structured activities and screen time
have replaced unstructured, peer-led play.
When students we talk to today mention their childhood, you might hear things like play
dates, or organized trips to the museum, or the zoo.
I know in my generation, people who grew up in the 70s and 80s, we were who knows where
until the street lights came on or our curfew told us we had to show up at home to eat some
food.
In his book, Height emphasizes that such play, being able to have unstructured time,
is vital for developing creativity, as well as learning social skills with peer groups
and forming emotional resilience.
His third topic is a huge one.
It has to do with technology and mental health.
The rise of smartphones and social media has created the four foundational harms.
Social deprivation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, and behavioral addiction.
These harms disrupt face-to-face interactions, quality sleep and focus, and amplify anxiety,
particularly in adolescent girls who faced heightened pressure from online social comparison.
According to recent CDC data, a significant rise in teen mental health issues has occurred,
with statistics showing that around 40% of high school students reported persistent feelings
of sadness or hopelessness, while 20% seriously considered attempting suicide, and nearly 10%
attempted suicide in 2023.
This trend highlights a concerning increase in adolescent mental health concerns.
The COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated mental health concerns among teens, with a
notable increase in reported poor mental health during that period.
I can say personally, in my own experience observing teens in the classroom, there has
been a marked shift, especially in the last five years, but definitely with the advent
of phones.
The fourth topic that Height examines in his book is rights of passage.
The book suggests that the lack of clear rights of passage into adulthood has left many young
people feeling adrift.
Height proposes reviving meaningful cultural or community-based rituals to guide adolescents
into adulthood.
Today students are feeling pressures to grow up much sooner because of the influence of
social media, and these sort of artificial rights of passage are not shared experiences,
but rather pressure from unknown people to fit in or abide by society standards.
And the last topic that he examines is education system pressure.
Height's book critiques the increasing academic pressure and lack of attention to emotional
well-being in schools.
He calls for a more balanced approach, including emotional regulation, resilience training,
and creative outlets.
I know again, in my experience in over three decades of observing the changes that have
happened with college admissions requirements and especially watching it with my own daughter
this year, colleges have never been more competitive to get into.
And again, with the changes after COVID that have occurred with testing and attention issues
and perseverance, this just compounds the problem.
So that's a lot of information to digest and some pretty heavy topics.
So in today's reflection section of the lesson, the action steps or homework later will involve
suggestions for parents, educators, and society in general.
So through one of those lenses, which of the five areas mentioned have you seen most acutely
in your own life or in society, which area do you feel is the most in your control?
Feel free to pause at this moment to think or write more about these questions before
we get into some action steps.
Just a reminder for educators listening to the podcast that you can get 10% off at pencils.com.
Kids go through pencils like crazy and pencils.com offers a discount to teachers on pencils as
well as other products.
Educators can also save at Costco.
Get a $20 Costco Shop Card with a new membership.
And one of my favorite benefits has been my free subscription to Headspace.
Teachers receive a free subscription to the app, which has so many amazing guided meditations
and resources for mindfulness.
A very fitting topic for today's episode.
So now we have come to the portion of the lesson where it's time for homework or action
steps.
If this topic is a concern to you, I have six action steps that you can take with you
to implement in your own life or to share with others.
The first step is to encourage autonomy and manageable risks.
For parents, this might look like allowing teens to solve their own problems and face
consequences in a controlled environment.
Yes, this might mean watching your own child fail and learn a lesson.
I can't say that I'm very good at that, so this is potentially an action step I will
be continuing to work on.
Allowing for their own manageable risks help them develop independence and problem-solving
skills.
If you're an educator, you can design classroom activities that encourage critical thinking,
collaboration, and decision-making without micromanagement.
This is something I definitely learned through teacher training when I was learning to teach
capstone courses, and definitely this helped form a hands-off approach as a journalism
or publications teacher.
In other words, reminding myself that it is their work, their project, their yearbook,
and allowing them to collaborate and make the decisions without me having the final
say definitely empowered them and taught them the risks and rewards of their own choices.
Members of society can help create safe community spaces where teens can explore, socialize,
and learn without excessive restrictions.
If you're a grandparent or a church leader, this is a place where again you can empower
students to work together, explore their passions and ideas with a little bit of a safety net
and some guidance and support.
Working together, hopefully we can all help encourage more autonomy.
Our action step involves fostering more emotional well-being.
We cannot argue with the statistics that are very, very concerning.
For parents, this is a huge action step for you to try to maintain open lines of communication
without becoming overbearing.
Again, very fine line here.
I know one of the things that was suggested to me was to listen to not only that, a couple,
Parenting Podcasts, especially podcasts that talked about parenting teen girls.
Just to hear other people's approaches to this, it is important to validate your child's
emotions and to help model healthy coping strategies for stress.
Again, this is hard to role model for busy parents, especially with more and more demands
on them juggling more and more responsibilities and stress, but definitely students see what
we model at home.
For educators, we can introduce programs that teach mindfulness, emotional regulation,
and resilience skills, such as how to handle failure or resolve conflicts.
I know at the end of every school year, I had to have the talk with my yearbook staffers
before the yearbooks were released to over a thousand different students because their
homework was on display for public consumption, and usually the focus was not always on the
positive things that the students had done.
I have definitely wiped some tears and taught some resilience skills on how to handle criticism.
This will pay off as hard as it is to do in the moment.
People dealing with teens in society can help to provide or lead teens in need of help to
accessible mental health resources and normalize the idea of seeking help.
It is okay not to be okay.
We need to encourage teens to speak up if they need help and guide them to the appropriate
resources.
Number three is a hard one as well, but is to limit over-scheduling and screen time.
For parents, this is to ensure that all children, especially teens, have downtime for unstructured
activities, hobbies, and relaxation.
I was so happy to see coloring books on my daughter's Christmas list.
I'm definitely trying to encourage unplugging, taking a break as much as possible.
For educators, this is something that I have thought of the more I have watched my own child
at home.
This is to avoid excessive or unnecessary homework and test pressure.
Taking academic goals with creative outlets like physical activity, music, hobbies, art,
coloring, this can all help teach balance and avoid the incessant focus on achievement.
In society, we need to think more about how to promote screen-free initiatives and offer
alternatives like community sports, creative workshops, or other outlets that do not focus
on achievement or screen time.
The fourth action step has to do with building supportive relationships.
For parents, it is important to be actively involved in your teen's lives while respecting
their privacy.
Never consistent support to them without trying to overstep or overprotect.
For educators, we can work to create a positive school culture where students feel valued
and supported by staff and peers.
I know the biggest suggestion that upperclassmen always have when asked to give advice to freshmen
is to get involved, whether that be a club, any sort of sport or other co- or extracurricular,
where students can feel valued and supported and create important connections.
In society, we can foster more mentorship programs to connect teens with positive role
models, talk to them about their hopes and dreams, and just talk to them.
Just ask them about their lives, ask them about their plans, ask them about who they
are and what their interests are.
Tip five is to help them prioritize physical health.
Students as well as adults are busier now more than ever.
For parents, we need to try to encourage regular exercise, provide nutritious meals, and make
sure students are getting sufficient sleep.
Again, modeling these habits at home, going for walks together, preparing or planning
meals together, and setting consistent bedtimes can make a huge difference on students' physical
and mental health.
For educators, I know especially in long classes, incorporating movement breaks, and physical
education into school routines, encouraging fresh air, mindfulness, or reflection periods
can go a long way.
And in society, we need to ensure that we have access to safe outdoor areas, sports facilities,
and healthy food options.
This can be difficult when students get older and have their own transportation and their
own money.
Having a conversation with them about making good choices definitely can help them realize
the impact that what they put in their body and how they move their body affects how they
feel.
And lastly, the sixth action step is to focus on students' strengths and interests.
For parents, we can help teens discover and pursue their passions, whether this is academics,
arts, sports, or community service.
Again, having conversations with them about things that they would like to try, not what
they want to necessarily major in, but what is something that you've always wanted to
try, or what is something that we could do together that we can try to explore, different
things that you are interested in.
For educators, in the classroom, it is important to recognize and celebrate diverse talents,
avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach to achievement.
This has been a big source of contempt for me as the journalism teacher who creates
the college map.
For so many years, I wanted to get away with it, do away with it, because the message it
sends is that everybody goes to college, that is the most important and revered path for
everyone, and it is just not the case.
Teachers today look so different than they did 10 years ago.
There are jobs that did not exist.
We have a huge need for people to explore the traits.
It is so important to have these conversations and to get rid of the stigma around not going
to a four-year school.
This may be controversial, but I think it is so important to find out what teens would
like to try, what they are good at, and to not put a label on it.
In society, again, this is just assuring that we align students with resources and programs
that cater to their varied interests, maybe inviting them to job shadow or to set up a
job shadow where they can actually explore a career before people start asking them at
17 years old, what are you going to do for the rest of your life?
I hope you have found this episode helpful.
I'm going to be diving into this topic much deeper on my Patreon, because what I have
seen in the classroom and definitely working one-on-one with students in my many years
of tutoring for the ACT.
I have very, very large concerns about reading.
Attention spans ability to focus and ability to persevere.
I've asked my students in my classes this year what they see as huge differences in
their attention spans, and they have definitely admitted that they are finding it more and
more difficult to focus.
They don't have any interest in reading.
It doesn't capture their attention.
Their screens and the short form content and videos that are on TikTok are much more appealing
to their interests.
Because of this, I'm going to do an episode with more information and a deeper dive into
statistics having to do with attention spans and reading.
I'm going to include a reading guide with five key skills to building a better reader.
This is a guide that I've been putting together for a few years now, which actually has practice
ACT problems and answers and guidance in it.
Typically, when I tutor for the ACT, I charge $75 an hour as a one-on-one rate.
I have now packaged all of this information together in this reading guide that will be
available as well as all the information regarding how screen time and technology has affected
students' reading and attention spans.
You will get all that information as well as this guide for your Patreon subscription.
More to come on that later.
Thank you for joining this discussion on the anxious generation.
Jonathan Haidt's insights remind us of the collective role we play in shaping the mental
health and resilience of future generations.
Take one small step from today's action plans to make a difference in your community.
We'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic as well as strategies that have worked for
you.
Until next week, don't forget to follow the podcast and leave a rate and review.
In the next episode, I will have another guest with me to share exciting stories and to give
you tips on how to create a fulfilling life.
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