Richard Kyte: Technology slows the social development of young people

Are children today growing up more slowly than children of previous generations?

That’s what Jean Twenge says. She is the author of the book "Generations," which amasses data from 39 million people going back a century. Twenge’s analysis reveals, first, that the reason each generation (Silents, Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z) has different characteristics is not so much the major events that happened during their lifetimes, it is rather the way technology has shaped their childhood and adolescence.

The overall effect of technology on the way children grow up has resulted in each generation being more individualistic than the previous generation and each generation having a slower life trajectory. In other words, Boomers grew up more slowly than Silents, Millennials grew up more slowly than Gen Xs, and Gen Zs (born 1995-2012) are growing up more slowly than Millennials.

We can see indications of increasing individualism in the fact that each generation tends to have a smaller social network than the previous one, resulting in the fact that today people have fewer close friends on average than people did 30 or 50 years ago. That’s not because people today don’t value friendship as much, it’s because technology has allowed them more freedom and control over their lives, resulting in less time spent in shared activities.

Indications of a slower life trajectory can be seen in young people living longer with their parents, being older when they start working, and getting married and having children later in life. Gen Z also drives less, drinks less alcohol and has less sex than earlier generations did at the same age. “In many ways, 18-year-olds now look like 14-year-olds in previous generations,” Twenge says.

Does this explain why teenagers today are experiencing higher rates of depression, anxiety and stress than any previous generation? It could.

We know that mental health is adversely affected by using electronic devices like smartphones, especially when long hours are spent on social media. One explanation for that effect involves opportunity cost: When children spend thousands of hours during their formative years in front of digital screens, they are not spending as much time as previous generations interacting with people in the real world, learning how to carry on conversations with strangers, reading people’s emotions, facing fears and navigating the wide variety of obstacles that the world presents each day.

Maturity is not granted to a person in virtue of their chronological age. It is earned through experience. Growing up requires facing difficulties — struggling through pain and disappointment, dealing with difficult people, overcoming danger and uncertainty. As a society becomes more prosperous and technologically advanced, parents have more means at their disposal to keep their children both safe and content.

This is generally understandable and appropriate. What parent does not want to provide a safe and happy childhood experience?

I remember being shocked when my grandmother told me about some of the things she did as a child. Growing up on a North Dakota farm, her earliest memory is staying at the homestead as her mother rode out to round up the dairy cows that kept wandering off. She was 3, and she had to look after her 1-year-old brother until her mother returned. “It wasn’t that bad,” she explained. “I just had to watch out for rattlesnakes, make sure they didn’t get in the house.”

Especially by today’s standards, my grandmother grew up fast. From a young age, she had important roles in the household economy: cooking, cleaning, washing, gardening and looking after her younger siblings. Few children today grow up with so many important daily responsibilities.

My parents also did a significant amount of work as children. That’s not to say they didn’t have playtime, but play always came after chores were done. By the time I was born in the 1960s, things were changing. The shared experience of most children in my generation was spending Saturday mornings sitting in front of a TV screen for several hours, watching Bugs Bunny, playing with Barbie or Hot Wheels, eating a bowl of Cap’n Crunch cereal.

In the decades after World War II, the experience of childhood (for most children) changed from large amounts of time doing essential chores interrupted by short periods of play, to large amounts of time spent in play interrupted by occasional chores. That is the way it remains today. The fact that children now spend an average of almost eight hours a day in front of a screen for entertainment is a sign that they have nothing essential to do. It is hard to grow up in a context without responsibility.

Every good parent is concerned that their children’s needs are being met. But it is easy to forget that learning how to take responsibility is a need, and nobody can learn responsibility without actually being responsible for something or someone. To grow up well, children need to know not just that they depend on others; they also need to know that others depend on them.