> Sure, this is possible, but there have always been poor parents, yet these changes to mental health have only started with adoption of the smartphone. They s

> Sure, this is possible, but there have always been poor parents, yet these changes to mental health have only started with adoption of the smartphone. They started with adoption of the smartphone, which also corresponds with a specific and brand new phase in globalisation, in climate change crisis, in global loss of trust in the media, in disillusion in the capacity of changing elements that matters, in faster access of overwhelming communication, a more open communication about personal issues (gender, ...), ... It's incorrect to say that "it has to be smartphones because smartphones are the only thing that appeared", it's just really obtuse, and also a bit of Dunning-Kruger. > but what else has so drastically changed in the last 15 years. We see plenty of evidence of how dramatic smartphone adoption has been. What else has experienced such a fundamental in adoption? Smartphone adoption was a dramatic adoption that is visible for the layman, but in sociology, it's a very unimpressive thing. There are TONS of technology that were introduced that fast, from domestic electricity usage to internet, rap music or video games. But layman people are victim of Dunning-Kruger effect: smartphone is very visible to them, so they don't realise to which extent smartphone is in reality important or not. And again, if I have to bet, I would say it is rather social media that is the cause, and if you ban smartphones, people will just use laptop and the problem will be the same.