MY SONS RECENTLY returned from their sleep away camp, one that does not allow cellphones, ipads or computers. When they were younger, two to four weeks without technology was a nice-to-have. Over the last three years, I believe it has been a huge boost to their overall well-being, a boost that I am watching fade as they return home. I observe them become more twitchy as they get back on social media apps, descend back into the addictive reactions and scrolling that notifications engender. Heading back to their technology-filled lives at school in a few weeks will accelerate this backsliding.
As a long-time educator, researcher and youth advocate, I’ve witnessed firsthand how technology is reshaping young minds as young people struggle to focus, have challenges engaging constructively with peers, and show signs of having hardened opinions on issues, which impedes learning. While multiple factors contribute to these trends, the influence of social media can’t be ignored.
This summer, California Gov. Gavin Newsom joined New York and Indiana in calling for a ban on smartphones in classrooms. Colorado Springs District 11 has a “no cellphone” policy for the upcoming school year. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has proposed including warning labels on social media.
These efforts resulted in critics crying foul, claiming insufficient evidence, and government overreach. These objections ignore a crucial reality: the profound impact of social media on the developing brains of our youth.
A world of two hemispheres
These days, brain research is invoked in conversations around what and how children should learn — early childhood and the science of reading, for example. Unfortunately, not as many people seem worried about what brain science suggests about the dangers of technology and our digital habits.
Let’s start with a fundamental misconception about our brain’s two hemispheres. Both are involved in everything we do, but they engage with the world differently.
The right hemisphere, like the broad end of a funnel, takes in complex, embodied experiences, seeing things in context including the connections and concrete nature of reality. The left hemisphere is narrower in its focus, simplifying and categorizing; it pulls things out of context, naming and abstracting them. Both are essential, but our modern world increasingly favors left-hemispheric engagement.
Dr. Iain McGilchrist, a renowned psychiatrist and neuroscience researcher, warns that technologies like social media and AI are over-engaging our left-hemispheric capabilities, disrupting the delicate balance between these two modes of attention. Social media platforms maximize engagement through carefully timed notifications based on our expressed interests. This narrows our attention and trains our brains to expect instant gratification and constant stimulation. For adults, this can be problematic. For developing brains, it can be dangerous.
Researchers have found that children are struggling to sustain their attention and may even be less empathetic than in previous generations.
Between birth and age 25, our brains are shaped by our experiences. When young people spend hours each day interacting with attention-capitalizing algorithms we’re allowing profit-driven companies to mold their neural pathways.
The consequences are already visible. Educators report having to help children learn to read the human face, a difficulty that used to be associated mostly with autism-spectrum disorders, which, along with anorexia nervosa, are on the rise; research shows that both these conditions mimic deficits in right-hemispheric processing. Children are struggling to sustain their attention and some research suggests that young people are now less empathic than in previous generations. McGilchrist notes that each of these faculties — the abilities to read faces, to empathize and to sustain attention — relies on the right hemisphere of the brain.
Some will argue that we’re overreacting to yet another technological advancement. This isn’t about demonizing technology. Digital tools, when designed to enhance deep learning and connection, can be helpful. Enhancing well-being is not the primary focus of for-profit technology companies whose leading trade groups have been actively pushing back on legislation designed to make kids safer online.
Becoming social media influencers
So what can each of us do within our spheres of influence?
Parents of children under 8 can eliminate smart devices and social media in the home since the brains of children this young need active, embodied play and real-world relationships to develop properly. Older children and adolescents should aim to have a “digital diet”: for every hour spent on social media or apps, aim for three hours of non-technology mediated activity. This ratio reflects concerns around screen time raised by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Removing phones from bedrooms after a certain hour can encourage exploratory thinking and better sleep hygiene.
Schools, school boards, educators, and afterschool/summer providers can approach the issue more systemically. Many schools are already seeking to ban phones in schools and report significant improvements in student engagement, mood, and critical thinking when they do. Afterschool and summer programs can go tech-free emphasizing activities that prioritize real-world skills, social interactions, and exploratory attention.
State leaders can follow the lead of states like Indiana, California and New York in enacting legislation to limit phones in schools. At the federal level, Congress should create a commission that will recommend guidelines for social media and app design. We need guardrails to limit tech companies’ manipulation of user attention and prevent technology-related addictive behaviors.
As for tech designers and companies, instead of fighting against regulations, they could involve educators with deep expertise in human-centered design and pedagogy and young people in your process. Doing so in partnership with nonprofits like Playlab could help companies ideate and design applications that actively support the kind of learning and cognitive skills young people need to thrive in an age of AI.
Some of these steps may seem drastic, but they’re necessary to protect our youth’s cognitive development. The human brain, with its delicate hemispheric balance, is our most precious resource. It’s time we treated it that way. Our children’s cognitive future — and by extension, the future of our society — hangs in the balance.
About the author
Ulcca Joshi Hansen, Ph.D., JD, is a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow and a Public Voices Fellow of The OpEd Project. Dr. Hansen is the author of the award-winning book “The Future of Smart,” host of The Future of Smart podcast, and a two-time TEDx speaker whose work has been featured by The Washington Post, NPR and at COP26.
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