05/11/2025
An important book for parents with GenZ children (those born after 1996) or GenZ themselves-- smartphones have drastically rewired the brain during the early adolescent period, a crucial period of frontal lobe development. The author calls for 1. the delayed introduction of smartphones (especially delay social media until age ~16- years) for children. 2. Make schools “phone-free” to reduce distraction and reclaim real-world time. 3. Encourage and restore unsupervised free play, outdoor activities, peer interaction without screens. 4. Build community norms: it’s not enough for one family to delay screens if all others don’t; there must be collective adoption of new behavioural norms around kids, devices, play. 5.
Increased responsibility on tech companies, and legislative/policy interventions (e.g., raising minimum age for certain platforms, age-verification) to address the structural side of the problem.
Technology should be treated as a tool, not to replace parents, babysitters, teachers and even companions. The smartphones, and possible future AI derivatives, are the new alcohol/ cigarette/ abused drug that gives dopamine hits and hooks people, which may lead to negative human evolution. Alternatively, encourage your teens on sports (I find running gives me dopamine hits as well), music, drama, etc.
