The Great Rewiring of Childhood: Understanding the Links Between Smartphones, Adolescent Anxiety, and School Achievement

In recent years, discussions about adolescent mental health have grown louder. A crucial aspect of these conversations is the impact of technology, especially smartphones, on young people's mental well-being. Jonathan Haidt's book, The Anxious Generation, reveals alarming trends and statistics indicating a strong link between smartphone use and rising anxiety disorders among youth. The purpose of this post is to highlight Haidt's findings, and discuss the similarities with school-based achievement.

The Shift from Play-Based to Phone-Based Childhood

Haidt highlights that the move from play-based childhoods to phone-based ones has drastically changed how children are socialised and engage with their surroundings. The launch of the iPhone 4 in June 2010 marked a historic shift. It introduced the first front-facing camera, paving the way for social media sites like Instagram. By 2012, Instagram boasted over 90 million active users. This rapid growth created intense pressure for young people to curate their online images and lives, in competition with others for the highest number of 'likes' and 'shares'.

An example of this pressure can be seen with adolescent girls who often compare their lifestyles to the polished versions of their peers displayed online. A 2019 survey noted that 60% of girls aged 12-18 felt that social media made them feel anxious about their appearance. This constant cycle of comparison fosters feelings of inadequacy and boosts anxiety, leading them to believe that everyone else is living a considerably better life.

The Impact on Adolescent Boys

While many girls flock to social media, boys often immerse themselves in multiplayer video games, online videos, or explicit content. These digital escapes can serve as distractions, but they may also foster a disconnect from important real-life interactions. Recent studies show that boys who engage heavily in gaming are 30% more likely to avoid social interactions in real-life settings.

This withdrawal can have serious ramifications. Both genders report increased feelings of isolation and disconnection. For instance, a 2021 study revealed that 40% of adolescents reported feeling lonely on a regular basis. These virtual interactions, instead of replacing genuine human connections, can worsen feelings of loneliness, potentially leading to deeper anxiety or depression.

The Great Rewiring of Childhood: 2010-2015

Haidt refers to the years between 2010 and 2015 as the "Great Rewiring of Childhood." During this period, children's social patterns, role models, emotions, physical activity, and sleep quality changed dramatically. These changes aligned with rising rates of teenage depression, self-harm, and mental health-related hospital admissions.

For example, in Australia, the number of adolescents seeking mental health support increased by 40% during these pivotal years. Similarly, data from studies across various countries indicated a spike in students reporting feelings of alienation at school, with 70% of teenagers globally citing heightened psychosocial stress. This rewiring reflects a profound societal change demanding urgent attention.

The Role of Educators and Education Systems

Educators around the world have long believed that rising anxiety levels in students that we witness daily are linked to their reliance on technology. Haidt's research and findings confirm this hunch. However, there's another data set that tells a different, but equally important story about our young people in Australia (and the world) also between 2010 and 2015.

But first, on 15 August, 2025, I had the pleasure of attending the 8th Annual Australian Islamic Conference ('AAISC8') as a panel member to share how Chevalier College, a partnership school in the University of Melbourne's New Metrics, is rethinking assessment by recognising and assessing complex competencies; the transferrable skills that our learners require in order to flourish. Delegates engaged in a collective deep dive into 'Assessing what matters'. Pasi Sahlberg opened the conference with a keynote which provoked discussion on recent data about Australian students and their pattern of decline in achievement.

The graph below on Global Trends in Education shows that student achievement took a dive around 2010, as did their wellbeing, and engagement. And we can't suggest that COVID-19, nor AI in Education were responsible for this trend. It is interesting to note, and Pasi highlighted this for us, that despite the downward trend, the cost of education per student, and educational testing and a research, increased significantly. We are clearly barking up the wrong tree.

More testing and more money hasn't addressed the problem

I am an educator, and not an EdResearcher, so this post is to highlight trends and to pose questions. With the alarming downward trend of student wellbeing, engagement and achievement, we must ponder the impact of the time our young people spend on social media sites and their capacity to flourish at school. Haidt reveals that typically, adolescents spend the equivalent amount of time of a part-time job each week on social media. Whether our young people are motivated to gain proximity to 'prestigious people' and thereby raise their own, or alternatively, as aspirants, conform to the power of others (whether questionable or not), the potential to harm our adolescents is high.

Teachers have been lamenting for more than a decade that their roles have evolved to include not just teaching and learning, but importantly, they feel they also have to act as counsellors. There is a real and present call for this in almost all schools, but I notice that it occurs especially around end of secondary school exams (e.g. NSW HSC). In Australia, we rank our students, numerically, from top to bottom, and it is only this number (ATAR) that school leavers have as proof that they have completed 13 years of formal education.

It is little wonder that students begin to negatively compare themselves to their class peers and we know that 'comparison is the thief of joy' - we've seen it in the social media domain. There is nearly always going to be a peer that got a higher number and so, with the data we have on our adolescents, do they have the resilience to handle the invariable disappointment of this comparison? However, my concern that this potential disappointment is exacerbated by the antagonists of social media. Adolescents in the period of 2010 to 2015 represent the "...first generation to have gone through puberty hunched over smartphones, and tablets, having fewer face-to-face conversations and shoulder-to-shoulder adventures with their friends...Adolescents have become more anxious, depressed, and fragile." (p. 65)

We do have an opportunity here though to disrupt the trend. At the AAISC8, Professor Mohamad Abdalla AM questioned whether we, in the pursuit of grades, do we lose our humanity? He charges us to move beyond the test and return to the soul of education, to reorient our measuring to what matters most in the world. This sentiment was again supported by Pasi Sahlberg when he reminded us to reflect on what we consider to be the purpose of education. According to the esteemed Sir Ken Robinson, (and few would argue), the purpose is generally as follows:

How can we assign a number to this?

This post is not shared to downplay any end of school examination regime. It is shared to raise awareness of the common, and concerning trends in the lives of our young people and to re-consider how we address those. At Chevalier College, we are privileged to work alongside the University of Melbourne and its first-mover partnership schools to rethink assessment by recognising, assessing, and celebrating the human competencies that our young people have, and which are transferrable across all domains of life. The New Metrics for Success celebrates every learner and provides them with the credential and the confidence to know who they are, what they can do, and the problems they want to solve. This single act (although the work is incredibly complex) could perhaps remove one of the barbs in the sides of our young people, and to offer assurance that 'we see you'. You are more than a number and have the capacity to contribute meaningfully in a rapidly changing world.