Suicide rate is a strange metric to choose here. I believe smartphones are exceptionally damaging to teens, but the biggest effect is around their attention span and motivation.
The biggest mental health effect is the ADHD epidemic it's bringing on.
The biggest mental health effect is the ADHD epidemic it's bringing on.
It is well known that nicotine, as a stimulant, improves several ADHD symptoms (ex. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009130570...). It also improves negative symptoms in schizophrenia which is why they tend to smoke much more than the average population. Since smoking is very uncommon nowadays I feel like the people who would have self-medicated (i.e. a pack of cigs a day) in the past don't exist anymore. How many high schoolers have you met who smoke a pack of cigs?
The only time I have ever seen Tiktok videos is from dating someone younger and watching them engage with Tiktok over their shoulder out of curiosity.
To me, it felt like my brain was being scrambled. The worst part was I could tell they were addicted to that same feeling.
It is not really fair if a person is addicted to having their brain scrambled while I found the experience absolutely horrendous.
If I engage with Tolstoy/Dostoevsky audiobooks in my free time instead of having my brain scrambled, there is obviously going to be huge carry over to all sorts of other activities. Focusing at work is just one of them.