By the time Gen Z kids reach their early 20s, many are struggling with something a little deeper than the familiar existential dread of being alive.
Some have had the harsh realization that the nagging feeling they’ve long had—that everything sucks and no one knows what the hell they’re doing—is correct. Others might suffer from hallucinations, suicidal ideation, and emotional volatility.
According to a new study, it could all be linked to one thing: the age they got their first smartphone.
When You Get Your First SmartPhone Can Determine Whether you’re An Anxious Mess Of An Adult or not
This is according to a new study published in the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, courtesy of neuroscience startup Sapien Labs.
Researchers used data from a large-scale mental health survey that tracked over 100,000 young adults, known as the Global Mind Project. They found a simple, yet disturbing trend: the earlier kids got smartphones (especially before age 13), the worse their mental health outcomes were later on.
Chief scientist Tara Thiagarajan explains that kids with early access to phones were more likely to experience aggression, emotional instability, disconnection from reality, and even hallucinations as they matured. Boys showed less emotional regulation and empathy, while girls reported significant declines in self-esteem and resilience. Smartphones were acting as babysitters; they were rewiring kids’ brains.
The reason is that no 10-year-old is built to weather the storm of social media, cyberbullying, sleep disruption, or a daily bombardment of algorithmically-driven identity-altering influences and influencers. Kids under 13 don’t yet have the neurological framework to manage the digital onslaught we’ve normalized, and that age isn’t arbitrary.
Groups like Wait Until 8th and Sapien Labs are pushing hard for 13 to become the new legal threshold for smartphone ownership, with regulation akin to alcohol and tobacco.
Thiagarajan is calling for sweeping policy changes, including restrictions on under-13 access, mandatory digital literacy classes, and corporate responsibility for the mess that Big Tech has made.
The study is just another brick in the wall for a growing scientific consensus showing that early digital exposure not only makes kids more distracted, but it may also fundamentally alter their brains, making them worse versions of who they could’ve been.
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