Do the Kids Think They’re Alright?

We think social media has changed childhood and adolescence for the worse, so much so that it constitutes a “great rewiring of childhood.” Beginning in the 1990s, a childhood based heavily on outdoor play began to fade away and was replaced by a phone-based childhood in the early 2010s, when teens traded in their flip phones for smartphones.

Can we

In sum, our efforts to find and elicit the views of Gen Z largely confirm our initial concerns while also suggesting additional avenues for investigation. The kids are not alright, and the combination of smartphones and social media is a major reason why