Yesterday I attended an extraordinary lecture by Jonathan Haidt ( pronounced height) a US social psychologist revealing extremely worrying trends following the invention of smart phones on kids education’s prospects.

It showed both in the UK and the US that educational attainment – far from rising – is dropping and that issues like mental illness and self harm are rising.

His research can precisely connect the emergence of the ubiquitous smart phone and a dramatic change in attainment in schools, increased loneliness among teenagers, who then become vulnerable prey to malevolent influencers or in the most extreme cases tricked by criminals and paedophiles.

We are all aware of teenagers being glued to their phones – even when walking down the streets – and might have thought this is a passing phrase with nothing to worry about. This research suggests otherwise.

Situation in UK worse since Covid lockdown

Part of the increase in isolation comes from this present generation’s experience of the Covid pandemic and lockdown. One might then expect to see some bounce back when life returned to normal. But his research shows the opposite, the situation in the UK and US is worse post Covid.

The main players in this are undoubtedly short videos on Tik Tok, Snapchat and Instagram – which provide addictive instant distraction and gratification for teenagers, and make more detailed lessons studying books or complicated maths formula seem boring. Add this to the distractions of X Box computer games and kids can – and sometime do – have 24 hours glued to screens only to be tired and irritable the next day.

Jonathan Haidt pointed out in his lecture that puberty is also the time when the brain develops new connections allowing teenagers to understand more complex concepts and ideas as well as emotional development. But fed on a permanent diet of addictive videos and porn is not helping the brain to develop and probably damaging it.

Given the power of Big Tech to influence politicians – brilliantly illustrated recently when a victorious Donald Trump was surrounded by billionaire tech barons- can we do anything about it?

The answer according to him is yes. Schools can play a big role in curbing the rot by banning the use of phones while teenagers are learning. My daughter, who teaches at a private school in Luton dealing exclusively with kids who have been expelled from other mainstream schools, all phones have to be handed in at the beginning of the day and returned when they leave. Even the staff are restricted from using phones so as not to set a bad example to the kids there.

Schools – and there are by no means enough of them – that have done this according to his research have seen a dramatic increase in educational attainment in English, maths and science and a dramatic decrease in disrupted lessons making it easier for teachers to do their job.

Sir Keir Starmer should be concerned

The government ought to be concerned about this. Sir Keir Starmer, has set great store on increasing the skills of a new generation so he can get the growth needed to boost jobs and the economy. But it is being undermined by this trend where the latest generation are being continually distracted by what they see on their smart phone. Employers are not keen to take on people whose spend time exclusively on their phones and as a result have worse literacy and mathematical skills.

For those who want to follow this up you should go to Jonathan Haidt’s website https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/ where his research team has all the details you need to know about this trend and its implications seem to have passed us all by.

Mass use of phones