As a friend notes: “Teen depression and suicide correlate (not necessarily causally) to smartphone use and time online and time away from face-to-face interactions, a new study shows. Not really a surprise, but a good reminder that our personal habits have consequences, not always good ones. Young people (and all of us) need to develop healthy, godly habits early in their (our) lives.”
With teen mental health deteriorating over five years, there’s a likely culprit
Around 2012, something started going wrong in the lives of teens. In just the five years between 2010 and 2015, the number of U.S. teens who felt useless and joyless – classic symptoms of depression – surged 33 percent in large national surveys. Teen suicide attempts increased 23 percent.