Kids with smartphones have better mental health, study finds
A big new long-term study from the University of South Florida has found that kids with smartphones report higher wellbeing than those without smartphones.
This is in line with an overwhelming amount of previous reporting on this issue, which shows that not only is there no actual link between smartphone use and poor mental health (despite what moral panic political actors like Jonathan Haidt like to claim), but smartphone use keeps kids connected and happy.
Of course, this study got almost zero media coverage because it doesn’t feed the debunked pseudoscience that people in power and groups like the Heritage Foundation are pushing related to smartphones and social media. As I’ve reported, the media and political class has spent much of the past few years pushing a complete moral panic about kids and tech, claiming nonsense like smartphones and social media are “poisoning kids minds” in order to pass censorship bills that restrict civil liberties online.
Pretty much every single top researcher who actually studies this topic has come out and said this is total BS. But their attempts to inject reason and factual information into these debates have been unsuccessful.
The irony is that the authors of this latest study admit that they wanted to find harm. Yet the data irrefutably debunked their preconceived notion that smartphones were harming children.
“We went into this study expecting to find what many researchers, teachers and other observers assume: smartphone ownership is harmful to children. Not only was that not the case, most of the time we found the opposite – that owning a smartphone was associated with positive outcomes,” said Justin D. Martin, lead researcher on the project and the Eleanor Poynter Jamison Chair in Media Ethics and Press Policy as USF.
The study was led by a team of researchers at the University of South Florida who surveyed more than 1,500 11-to-13-year-olds in the state. The findings will inform a 25-year national study that is tracking young people’s digital media use and wellbeing into adulthood.
I want to pull out some key findings, because I think they’re really important. The study found that:
- Kids with smartphones report greater well-being than kids who don’t have smartphones.
- Kids with smartphones are more likely to hang out with friends.
- Kids with smartphones are more likely to exercise.
- Kids with smartphones also more likely to feel good about themselves.
- Kids with smartphones are more likely to seek help when they need it.
- Kids with smartphones also less likely to use phrases such as “life often feels meaningless” or “I get very angry and often lose my temper.”
- Kids with smartphones score better when it comes to self-esteem.
- Kids with smartphones are less likely to be cyberbullied.
There are very clear reasons why reactionaries like Haidt and others are attempting to cut kids off from the internet. Lawmakers such as Martha Blackburn, co-sponsor of the Kids Online Safety Act, a terrible censorship bill dressed up as “protecting kids” said that we need to restrict kids access from the internet and social media to protect them from the “transgender in society.”
Jonathan Haidt has promoted conspiracy theories about trans youth. I’m linking a good read on Haidt and the moral panic he’s profiting from below. Ezra Klein had Haidt on his podcast this week and allowed him to spew a whole bunch of nonsense unfortunately.
“A recent study of mental health outcomes and internet access in 202 countries — which is, yes, basically all of them — found no consistent correlations between screen time and negative mental effects. On top of that, suicide rates among teenagers are down despite going up for all other demographics, and longitudinal surveys show no decline in life satisfaction among teenagers since 2012. Which is a bit of a problem for Haidt’s thesis because social media and smartphones did not vanish by 2013,” journalist Greg Fish writes.
Based on their findings, the research team from University of South Florida, as well as a researcher from the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, provided a few recommendations for parents. The one negative effect smartphones were found to have on children was on sleep. Like a lot of us, kids will stay up too late using their smartphones in bed. Here are some of the experts’ recommendations:
- Allowing children as young as 11 to have their own smartphone is likely fine and may be beneficial.
- Don’t let kids sleep with their smartphones. One in four kids surveyed sleep with a smartphone in their hand or in bed. Children who keep their phones in their bed don’t get enough sleep compared to those who sleep with phones in another room (8.6 vs. 9.3 hours on average).
I’ll continue to cover this topic, but I hope this study can help counter the very well funded, extremely dangerous moral panic that is being pushed about kids and smartphones. Don’t fall for it!!
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The rise of isolationist masculinity
Ever since Ashton Hall’s morning routine went viral last week, I’ve been fascinated by the world of what Garbage Day’s Ryan Broderick described as, “an infinitely expanding universe of musclemen who want to convince you that everything in your life can be fixed if you start waking up at 4 AM to journal, buy those puffy running shoes, live in a barely furnished Miami penthouse, have no real connections in your life — especially with women — and, of course, as Hall tells his followers often on Instagram, buy their course or ebook or seminar or whatever to learn the real secrets to success.”
Prolific podcaster and influencer Matt Bernstein joined me to break down the history and evolution of modern masculinity, the allure and absurdity of the modern “alpha male” archetype, how things ended up this way, and what videos like Ashton Hall’s can tell us about the future of masculinity. Subscribe to my YouTube channel!!!
User Mag is a 100% reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, become a free or paid subscriber.
What I’m reading
The Bop House Is Giving Onlyfans Its TikTok Moment — (I wrote this!!)
The Bop House is a content house comprising seven OnlyFans stars with over 34 million collective followers. They create safe-for-work content on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube that leans heavily into viral trends and popular audios. — Passionfruit
Meet the Tech Billionaire Just as Dangerous as Elon Musk Eccentric — (I wrote this!!)
Palantir CEO Alex Karp is part of a new breed of Silicon Valley billionaires seeking to integrate their businesses with America’s military-industrial complex, while dismantling the government and championing deregulation of the economy. — Zeteo
Gen Z’s safe space
Sick of Musk and Zuckerberg, Gen Zers are flocking to Tumblr. — Business Insider
How to Find Internet Fame in 2025: Talk Tariffs
The relatively prosaic world of import duties has become a surprise social-media hit, driving millions of views for some internet personalities and trade experts. — WSJ
Asia’s Richest Man Takes Aim at Netflix, YouTube in India
More than 100 million people now subscribe to India’s largest paid video service. — Bloomberg
Is the Poppers Party Over?
A potential crackdown on a readily available party drug seems to be afoot. But don’t panic just yet. — NY Times
‘Something was wrong with my brain’: How covid leaves its mark on cognition
Five years after the pandemic began, the neurocognitive effects of long covid are numerous and troubling. And some of these cognitive losses may extend to people who quickly recovered. — Washington Post
User Mag is a 100% reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, become a free or paid subscriber.
User Mag news rundown
- As Twitch seeks to crack down on progressive content and creators critical of U.S. foreign policy, some streamers are turning to Peter Theil’s YouTube competitor, Rumble.
- Substack is rolling out a TikTok-like video feed in its app.
- Cory Booker has been bashing Trump on the Senate floor for 24 straight hours.
- Far-right influencers are hosting a $10K-per-person matchmaking weekend to repopulate the earth.
- ‘Ask Grok’ was supposed to make X better. Turns out, it’s just another tool for dunking on someone.
- Long time Forbes tech journalist Alex Konrad announced a new media company that he’s building on Substack called Upstarts Media.
- John Cena is the new face of Neutrogena.
- Kanye West’s gutted Malibu mansion has sold to a developer based in Montana.
- TikTok is full of people trading in their Teslas to the sounds of Taylor Swift.
- Keanu Reeves is coming back for John Wick 5.
- Right wing YouTubers are being boosted by a ton of money, pushing their videos to more people as sponsored content in users’ feeds.
- ESPN’s Pat McAfee and others amplified a false rumor that ‘destroyed’ a teenager’s life.
- Hooters has filed for bankruptcy.
- TikTok is shutting down its Instagram competitor, TikTok Notes, which no one ever used.
- ProPublica is using ads on a LED billboard truck to attract sources in the federal government as DOGE dismantles USAID and other agencies.
- The Daily Wire’s communications chief, Alyssa Cordova, departs as the right wing media company continues to implode.
- Newsmax Becomes a Meme Stock With 1,160% Post-IPO Surge.
- A shady, shuttered tech bootcamp may be sneaking back online after the watchdog agency that oversaw it is being dismantled.
- Roblox players are going to start getting paid to watch ads.
- Rightwing groups across U.S. are pushing new efforts to ban books in libraries and schools.
- Travel bookings from Europe to the US are down 25% this summer as European tourists start avoiding the US as ‘Unknown Territory’.
- Young women are opting out of first dates.
- Forbes released their latest billionaire list, with Elon Musk and Zuckerberg up top.
- An ‘administrative error’ sent a Maryland man to an El Salvador prison, ICE says.
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