Lucy Foulkes makes an important point, having interviewed adults about their own past experiences: “adolescence is bewildering to live through” and smartphones are only “one piece of a large and complicated puzzle” (I’m an expert on adolescence: here’s why a smartphone ban isn’t the answer, and what we should do instead, 15 June). I work with teenagers, and they are fed up with the narrative that smartphones and social media are the cause of their mental health issues. It lets us adults off the hook.
How much easier it is to blame phones and social media than to acknowledge the harm we do by taking away creative outlets in school such as art, music or sport, and focusing only on targets and rote learning. And how much easier it is not to take responsibility for fixing the other aspects of their lives that bring anxiety: the climate crisis; the lack of affordable housing; the cost of living crisis. Smartphones are a distraction from the real issue facing adolescents – they are fearful for their futures. Despite this, many of the young people I work with are hopeful, determined and courageous. Let’s celebrate them and ask them what would help, instead of looking for an easy answer and taking their phones away.
Dr Helen Care
Clinical psychologist, Woodstock, Oxfordshire
