(Notice: I’m sharing 4 articles this month based mostly on my upcoming e-book, The Anxious Technology Goes to Church. These articles focus particularly on the hurt smartphones do to our younger folks. All knowledge and statistics in these articles are supported within the e-book. On this second article, I summarize the devastation smartphones have inflicted on the psychological well being of our younger folks. My e-book shall be launched from Tyndale on August 19, 2025.)
While you hear that despair amongst teenage women has elevated by 145% and that suicide makes an attempt have risen by 188%, it does greater than catch your consideration—it grips your soul. These aren’t dry statistics. These are lives. Little children. Grandchildren. College students. Members of our church buildings.
What occurred?
The reply, partly, is as shut as your pocket. The smartphone.
In 2007, Apple launched the primary iPhone. By 2010, selfies have been a factor. And by 2013, the smartphone was within the majority of American houses. Round that very same time, we began seeing an alarming spike in psychological well being points amongst adolescents—notably women.
That timeline isn’t incidental.
Jonathan Haidt, in his sobering e-book The Anxious Technology, calls it “the good rewiring of childhood.” I consider he’s proper. The very nature of rising up has modified. And the smartphone is a major driver of that change.
Let’s be clear: correlation doesn’t all the time equal causation. However when charges of despair, anxiousness, self-harm, and suicide all started to rise dramatically after the smartphone grew to become mainstream, we’re not coping with coincidence—we’re observing causality within the face.
So what precisely are smartphones doing to our youngsters?
1. They’re Making a Disaster of Comparability
Youngsters immediately are consistently related—however chronically lonely. By way of apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, they’re bombarded with curated, filtered variations of different folks’s lives. They examine their unfiltered actuality to everybody else’s spotlight reel. They usually all the time come up brief.
Self-worth has change into a numbers sport: What number of likes? What number of followers? What number of views? The telephone turns into a mirror—and the reflection is rarely adequate.
This cycle is particularly dangerous for younger women, who’re developmentally extra weak to appearance-based comparability. The stress to look good on-line results in anxiousness, physique picture points, and a haunting sense of inadequacy.
2. They’re Disrupting Sleep—and Well being
Youngsters want sleep. Plenty of it. However smartphones are stealing it.
The blue gentle emitted from screens suppresses melatonin, the hormone answerable for sleep. Add to that the dopamine-driven dependancy of limitless scrolling, and lots of teenagers are staying up properly previous midnight. They’re wired, exhausted, and emotionally uncooked.
Sleep deprivation doesn’t simply make teenagers grumpy. It impairs reminiscence, weakens emotional regulation, and fuels despair. It’s arduous to struggle anxiousness when your physique and mind are working on empty.
3. They’ve Made Bullying Inescapable
Years in the past, bullying ended when the college bell rang. Not anymore.
Right this moment, a toddler will be harassed 24/7 by means of their smartphone. The insults don’t cease after they get residence. They comply with them into their bed room and into the evening.
Cyberbullying is relentless, usually nameless, and deeply dangerous. Victims are at a better threat for despair, anxiousness, and suicide. And fogeys are sometimes unaware it’s occurring—till the harm is finished.
Let’s not sugarcoat this. The smartphone has turned many bedrooms into battlegrounds.
4. They’ve Contributed to a Youth Suicide Surge
It’s one of the vital tragic realities of our time: suicide charges amongst kids and teenagers are rising.
Amongst women ages 10–14, suicide elevated by 167% from 2010 to 2020. Amongst boys, it rose by 91%.
Sure, a few of this could possibly be attributed to higher reporting and a lower in stigma. However that doesn’t clarify the rise in emergency room visits for self-harm—up 48% for boys and a staggering 188% for ladies in that very same decade.
One thing actual is occurring. And one thing devastating.
5. They’ve Amplified Isolation
Regardless of their skill to “join,” smartphones have made many younger folks really feel extra remoted than ever.
Actual conversations have been changed with emojis. Eye contact has been changed with display time. Youngsters are lonelier, extra disconnected, and extra anxious—even whereas being extra “plugged in.”
Smartphones have been speculated to unite us. However for a lot of younger folks, they’ve change into a jail with no partitions and no curfew.
As a grandfather, I’m heartbroken. As a church chief, I’m burdened. And as a follower of Christ, I’m hopeful—however provided that we act.
Dad and mom, we can’t be passive. Pastors, we can’t be silent. Church buildings should step into this second, not with condemnation, however with compassion and knowledge.
Let’s create smartphone-free zones. Let’s invite youngsters into actual conversations, face-to-face neighborhood, and unfiltered love. Let’s preach the gospel to a era whose screens have taught them they’re not sufficient—and remind them that in Christ, they’re totally recognized and totally beloved.
The psychological well being of our younger folks is at stake. And the church should not look away.
Posted on June 9, 2025
With practically 40 years of ministry expertise, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime dedicated to the expansion and well being of native church buildings throughout North America.
Extra from Thom
(Notice: I’m sharing 4 articles this month based mostly on my upcoming e-book, The Anxious Technology Goes to Church. These articles focus particularly on the hurt smartphones do to our younger folks. All knowledge and statistics in these articles are supported within the e-book. On this second article, I summarize the devastation smartphones have inflicted on the psychological well being of our younger folks. My e-book shall be launched from Tyndale on August 19, 2025.)
While you hear that despair amongst teenage women has elevated by 145% and that suicide makes an attempt have risen by 188%, it does greater than catch your consideration—it grips your soul. These aren’t dry statistics. These are lives. Little children. Grandchildren. College students. Members of our church buildings.
What occurred?
The reply, partly, is as shut as your pocket. The smartphone.
In 2007, Apple launched the primary iPhone. By 2010, selfies have been a factor. And by 2013, the smartphone was within the majority of American houses. Round that very same time, we began seeing an alarming spike in psychological well being points amongst adolescents—notably women.
That timeline isn’t incidental.
Jonathan Haidt, in his sobering e-book The Anxious Technology, calls it “the good rewiring of childhood.” I consider he’s proper. The very nature of rising up has modified. And the smartphone is a major driver of that change.
Let’s be clear: correlation doesn’t all the time equal causation. However when charges of despair, anxiousness, self-harm, and suicide all started to rise dramatically after the smartphone grew to become mainstream, we’re not coping with coincidence—we’re observing causality within the face.
So what precisely are smartphones doing to our youngsters?
1. They’re Making a Disaster of Comparability
Youngsters immediately are consistently related—however chronically lonely. By way of apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, they’re bombarded with curated, filtered variations of different folks’s lives. They examine their unfiltered actuality to everybody else’s spotlight reel. They usually all the time come up brief.
Self-worth has change into a numbers sport: What number of likes? What number of followers? What number of views? The telephone turns into a mirror—and the reflection is rarely adequate.
This cycle is particularly dangerous for younger women, who’re developmentally extra weak to appearance-based comparability. The stress to look good on-line results in anxiousness, physique picture points, and a haunting sense of inadequacy.
2. They’re Disrupting Sleep—and Well being
Youngsters want sleep. Plenty of it. However smartphones are stealing it.
The blue gentle emitted from screens suppresses melatonin, the hormone answerable for sleep. Add to that the dopamine-driven dependancy of limitless scrolling, and lots of teenagers are staying up properly previous midnight. They’re wired, exhausted, and emotionally uncooked.
Sleep deprivation doesn’t simply make teenagers grumpy. It impairs reminiscence, weakens emotional regulation, and fuels despair. It’s arduous to struggle anxiousness when your physique and mind are working on empty.
3. They’ve Made Bullying Inescapable
Years in the past, bullying ended when the college bell rang. Not anymore.
Right this moment, a toddler will be harassed 24/7 by means of their smartphone. The insults don’t cease after they get residence. They comply with them into their bed room and into the evening.
Cyberbullying is relentless, usually nameless, and deeply dangerous. Victims are at a better threat for despair, anxiousness, and suicide. And fogeys are sometimes unaware it’s occurring—till the harm is finished.
Let’s not sugarcoat this. The smartphone has turned many bedrooms into battlegrounds.
4. They’ve Contributed to a Youth Suicide Surge
It’s one of the vital tragic realities of our time: suicide charges amongst kids and teenagers are rising.
Amongst women ages 10–14, suicide elevated by 167% from 2010 to 2020. Amongst boys, it rose by 91%.
Sure, a few of this could possibly be attributed to higher reporting and a lower in stigma. However that doesn’t clarify the rise in emergency room visits for self-harm—up 48% for boys and a staggering 188% for ladies in that very same decade.
One thing actual is occurring. And one thing devastating.
5. They’ve Amplified Isolation
Regardless of their skill to “join,” smartphones have made many younger folks really feel extra remoted than ever.
Actual conversations have been changed with emojis. Eye contact has been changed with display time. Youngsters are lonelier, extra disconnected, and extra anxious—even whereas being extra “plugged in.”
Smartphones have been speculated to unite us. However for a lot of younger folks, they’ve change into a jail with no partitions and no curfew.
As a grandfather, I’m heartbroken. As a church chief, I’m burdened. And as a follower of Christ, I’m hopeful—however provided that we act.
Dad and mom, we can’t be passive. Pastors, we can’t be silent. Church buildings should step into this second, not with condemnation, however with compassion and knowledge.
Let’s create smartphone-free zones. Let’s invite youngsters into actual conversations, face-to-face neighborhood, and unfiltered love. Let’s preach the gospel to a era whose screens have taught them they’re not sufficient—and remind them that in Christ, they’re totally recognized and totally beloved.
The psychological well being of our younger folks is at stake. And the church should not look away.
Posted on June 9, 2025
With practically 40 years of ministry expertise, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime dedicated to the expansion and well being of native church buildings throughout North America.
Extra from Thom
(Notice: I’m sharing 4 articles this month based mostly on my upcoming e-book, The Anxious Technology Goes to Church. These articles focus particularly on the hurt smartphones do to our younger folks. All knowledge and statistics in these articles are supported within the e-book. On this second article, I summarize the devastation smartphones have inflicted on the psychological well being of our younger folks. My e-book shall be launched from Tyndale on August 19, 2025.)
While you hear that despair amongst teenage women has elevated by 145% and that suicide makes an attempt have risen by 188%, it does greater than catch your consideration—it grips your soul. These aren’t dry statistics. These are lives. Little children. Grandchildren. College students. Members of our church buildings.
What occurred?
The reply, partly, is as shut as your pocket. The smartphone.
In 2007, Apple launched the primary iPhone. By 2010, selfies have been a factor. And by 2013, the smartphone was within the majority of American houses. Round that very same time, we began seeing an alarming spike in psychological well being points amongst adolescents—notably women.
That timeline isn’t incidental.
Jonathan Haidt, in his sobering e-book The Anxious Technology, calls it “the good rewiring of childhood.” I consider he’s proper. The very nature of rising up has modified. And the smartphone is a major driver of that change.
Let’s be clear: correlation doesn’t all the time equal causation. However when charges of despair, anxiousness, self-harm, and suicide all started to rise dramatically after the smartphone grew to become mainstream, we’re not coping with coincidence—we’re observing causality within the face.
So what precisely are smartphones doing to our youngsters?
1. They’re Making a Disaster of Comparability
Youngsters immediately are consistently related—however chronically lonely. By way of apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, they’re bombarded with curated, filtered variations of different folks’s lives. They examine their unfiltered actuality to everybody else’s spotlight reel. They usually all the time come up brief.
Self-worth has change into a numbers sport: What number of likes? What number of followers? What number of views? The telephone turns into a mirror—and the reflection is rarely adequate.
This cycle is particularly dangerous for younger women, who’re developmentally extra weak to appearance-based comparability. The stress to look good on-line results in anxiousness, physique picture points, and a haunting sense of inadequacy.
2. They’re Disrupting Sleep—and Well being
Youngsters want sleep. Plenty of it. However smartphones are stealing it.
The blue gentle emitted from screens suppresses melatonin, the hormone answerable for sleep. Add to that the dopamine-driven dependancy of limitless scrolling, and lots of teenagers are staying up properly previous midnight. They’re wired, exhausted, and emotionally uncooked.
Sleep deprivation doesn’t simply make teenagers grumpy. It impairs reminiscence, weakens emotional regulation, and fuels despair. It’s arduous to struggle anxiousness when your physique and mind are working on empty.
3. They’ve Made Bullying Inescapable
Years in the past, bullying ended when the college bell rang. Not anymore.
Right this moment, a toddler will be harassed 24/7 by means of their smartphone. The insults don’t cease after they get residence. They comply with them into their bed room and into the evening.
Cyberbullying is relentless, usually nameless, and deeply dangerous. Victims are at a better threat for despair, anxiousness, and suicide. And fogeys are sometimes unaware it’s occurring—till the harm is finished.
Let’s not sugarcoat this. The smartphone has turned many bedrooms into battlegrounds.
4. They’ve Contributed to a Youth Suicide Surge
It’s one of the vital tragic realities of our time: suicide charges amongst kids and teenagers are rising.
Amongst women ages 10–14, suicide elevated by 167% from 2010 to 2020. Amongst boys, it rose by 91%.
Sure, a few of this could possibly be attributed to higher reporting and a lower in stigma. However that doesn’t clarify the rise in emergency room visits for self-harm—up 48% for boys and a staggering 188% for ladies in that very same decade.
One thing actual is occurring. And one thing devastating.
5. They’ve Amplified Isolation
Regardless of their skill to “join,” smartphones have made many younger folks really feel extra remoted than ever.
Actual conversations have been changed with emojis. Eye contact has been changed with display time. Youngsters are lonelier, extra disconnected, and extra anxious—even whereas being extra “plugged in.”
Smartphones have been speculated to unite us. However for a lot of younger folks, they’ve change into a jail with no partitions and no curfew.
As a grandfather, I’m heartbroken. As a church chief, I’m burdened. And as a follower of Christ, I’m hopeful—however provided that we act.
Dad and mom, we can’t be passive. Pastors, we can’t be silent. Church buildings should step into this second, not with condemnation, however with compassion and knowledge.
Let’s create smartphone-free zones. Let’s invite youngsters into actual conversations, face-to-face neighborhood, and unfiltered love. Let’s preach the gospel to a era whose screens have taught them they’re not sufficient—and remind them that in Christ, they’re totally recognized and totally beloved.
The psychological well being of our younger folks is at stake. And the church should not look away.
Posted on June 9, 2025
With practically 40 years of ministry expertise, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime dedicated to the expansion and well being of native church buildings throughout North America.
Extra from Thom
(Notice: I’m sharing 4 articles this month based mostly on my upcoming e-book, The Anxious Technology Goes to Church. These articles focus particularly on the hurt smartphones do to our younger folks. All knowledge and statistics in these articles are supported within the e-book. On this second article, I summarize the devastation smartphones have inflicted on the psychological well being of our younger folks. My e-book shall be launched from Tyndale on August 19, 2025.)
While you hear that despair amongst teenage women has elevated by 145% and that suicide makes an attempt have risen by 188%, it does greater than catch your consideration—it grips your soul. These aren’t dry statistics. These are lives. Little children. Grandchildren. College students. Members of our church buildings.
What occurred?
The reply, partly, is as shut as your pocket. The smartphone.
In 2007, Apple launched the primary iPhone. By 2010, selfies have been a factor. And by 2013, the smartphone was within the majority of American houses. Round that very same time, we began seeing an alarming spike in psychological well being points amongst adolescents—notably women.
That timeline isn’t incidental.
Jonathan Haidt, in his sobering e-book The Anxious Technology, calls it “the good rewiring of childhood.” I consider he’s proper. The very nature of rising up has modified. And the smartphone is a major driver of that change.
Let’s be clear: correlation doesn’t all the time equal causation. However when charges of despair, anxiousness, self-harm, and suicide all started to rise dramatically after the smartphone grew to become mainstream, we’re not coping with coincidence—we’re observing causality within the face.
So what precisely are smartphones doing to our youngsters?
1. They’re Making a Disaster of Comparability
Youngsters immediately are consistently related—however chronically lonely. By way of apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, they’re bombarded with curated, filtered variations of different folks’s lives. They examine their unfiltered actuality to everybody else’s spotlight reel. They usually all the time come up brief.
Self-worth has change into a numbers sport: What number of likes? What number of followers? What number of views? The telephone turns into a mirror—and the reflection is rarely adequate.
This cycle is particularly dangerous for younger women, who’re developmentally extra weak to appearance-based comparability. The stress to look good on-line results in anxiousness, physique picture points, and a haunting sense of inadequacy.
2. They’re Disrupting Sleep—and Well being
Youngsters want sleep. Plenty of it. However smartphones are stealing it.
The blue gentle emitted from screens suppresses melatonin, the hormone answerable for sleep. Add to that the dopamine-driven dependancy of limitless scrolling, and lots of teenagers are staying up properly previous midnight. They’re wired, exhausted, and emotionally uncooked.
Sleep deprivation doesn’t simply make teenagers grumpy. It impairs reminiscence, weakens emotional regulation, and fuels despair. It’s arduous to struggle anxiousness when your physique and mind are working on empty.
3. They’ve Made Bullying Inescapable
Years in the past, bullying ended when the college bell rang. Not anymore.
Right this moment, a toddler will be harassed 24/7 by means of their smartphone. The insults don’t cease after they get residence. They comply with them into their bed room and into the evening.
Cyberbullying is relentless, usually nameless, and deeply dangerous. Victims are at a better threat for despair, anxiousness, and suicide. And fogeys are sometimes unaware it’s occurring—till the harm is finished.
Let’s not sugarcoat this. The smartphone has turned many bedrooms into battlegrounds.
4. They’ve Contributed to a Youth Suicide Surge
It’s one of the vital tragic realities of our time: suicide charges amongst kids and teenagers are rising.
Amongst women ages 10–14, suicide elevated by 167% from 2010 to 2020. Amongst boys, it rose by 91%.
Sure, a few of this could possibly be attributed to higher reporting and a lower in stigma. However that doesn’t clarify the rise in emergency room visits for self-harm—up 48% for boys and a staggering 188% for ladies in that very same decade.
One thing actual is occurring. And one thing devastating.
5. They’ve Amplified Isolation
Regardless of their skill to “join,” smartphones have made many younger folks really feel extra remoted than ever.
Actual conversations have been changed with emojis. Eye contact has been changed with display time. Youngsters are lonelier, extra disconnected, and extra anxious—even whereas being extra “plugged in.”
Smartphones have been speculated to unite us. However for a lot of younger folks, they’ve change into a jail with no partitions and no curfew.
As a grandfather, I’m heartbroken. As a church chief, I’m burdened. And as a follower of Christ, I’m hopeful—however provided that we act.
Dad and mom, we can’t be passive. Pastors, we can’t be silent. Church buildings should step into this second, not with condemnation, however with compassion and knowledge.
Let’s create smartphone-free zones. Let’s invite youngsters into actual conversations, face-to-face neighborhood, and unfiltered love. Let’s preach the gospel to a era whose screens have taught them they’re not sufficient—and remind them that in Christ, they’re totally recognized and totally beloved.
The psychological well being of our younger folks is at stake. And the church should not look away.
Posted on June 9, 2025
With practically 40 years of ministry expertise, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime dedicated to the expansion and well being of native church buildings throughout North America.
Extra from Thom
