Don’t blame technology for teen suicides, writes Mike Males in the Washington Monthly. Rates are much higher for rural and small-town whites — teens and adults — than for urban dwellers. Smartphones and social media addiction have “destroyed a generation,” argues Jean Twenge, a San Diego State psychology professor, in the Atlantic. She cites several surveys indicating teens who use more social media also report being more depressed; depression among teens is rising, as is sui

Banning cellphones during lunch time has forced students to interact face to face, says Rebecca Gogel, principal of Corona del Mar Middle School in Newport Beach,  California. Last year, most students “were glued to their phones” and “texting people within talking distance,” reports the Los Angeles Times. #conversation #play #smartphones

The average child gets his or her first smartphone at age 10, but some parents are pledging to keep their kids smartphone-free till eighth grade, reports Kate Thayer in the Chicago Tribune. The Wait Until 8th pledge — developed earlier this year by a group of Austin, Texas, parents — allows moms and dads to “rally together” so their children can look to other smartphone-free peers throughout elementary school, said Brooke Shannon, a former Chicago resident who now lives in Au

The “super-connected,” smartphone-addicted teens of “iGen” are lonely and unhappy, writes Jean M. Twenge in The Atlantic. “Rates of teen depression and suicide have skyrocketed since 2011,” tracking the spread of smartphones and social media. The kids are not alright. Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State, has studied generational differences for 25 years, she writes. Around 2012, she noticed stark changes between Millennials and what she calls iGen. Today’s te