Australian journalist investigates Gen Z’s smartphone addiction: ‘They just don’t know what to do about it’

An Australian journalist recently spoke to dozens of teens across the country about their smartphone addictions, finding that many Gen Zers are aware of their scrolling habits and dependency on their phones but are clueless how to escape.

Ros Thomas wrote for The Australian that she began talking to young people aged 10 to 19 about their social media use nine months ago after noting that depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide are up among those in this age group, and face-to-face relationships and in-person communication are down. She found that every child or teen she talked to said without hesitation that they were addicted to their phones. Many said they felt bad about themselves after spending endless hours on social media, but, as Thomas wrote, “They just don’t know what to do about it.”

Using interviews from teens who have experienced the harms of social media firsthand, Thomas illustrated how smartphone addictions create an unrealistic standard of perfection for young people to compare themselves to; how they suck teens into a “relationship” and shut out real relationships with others; and how teens have “withdrawal” symptoms after being kept away from their phones and the online world.

One 15-year-old girl told Thomas that Instagram and TikTok become competitions for admiration that can easily lead to emotional turmoil.

“It’s a rollercoaster of feelings,” she said. “Except I know the more popular you are online, the better it reflects on who you are in real life. And that’s important. Except deep down, I know it’s all fake.”

Thomas highlighted the decision that parents are forced to make regarding their children’s screen time, calling it a choice between “deactivating their child’s social media to create a playground outcast” or exposing their children “to the addiction, the self-obsession and victimisation of living online.”

“While the debate over social media bans persists, a simpler, if more drastic solution emerges – what if we take their phones out of their hands and pockets altogether?” she asked. “There is one ­obvious way to give kids a significant period of time each day when they are not distracted by their devices: the school day.”

Thomas interviewed the principal of a high school that requires students to hand in their phones at the beginning of every day. He said the reasoning behind the no-phones policy is to give the teens six addiction-free hours every day. The principal added that the hope is to “save the kids from themselves,” but continued that often, slack parenting is to blame for the teens’ overconsumption of media.

Thomas wrote that not all parents are dismissive or unaware of the problems surrounding social media and smartphone use. Across the world, parents are signing agreements to keep their children safe from phones until they reach a certain age (usually 13 or 14). One 19-year-old girl told Thomas that help from additional areas would likely influence children to stay off social media.

“The onus is not on 13-year-olds to get off their phones,” she said. “Surely the government and schools are supposed to help kids? We’ve got to start making it cool not to be on social media.”

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