I used to think we’d adjust. Sure, the rise of screens was fast and destabilizing—but I believed young people would adapt, and that calling it a crisis was just

I used to think we’d adjust. Sure, the rise of screens was fast and destabilizing—but I believed young people would adapt, and that calling it a crisis was just the latest round of moral panic. A generational overreaction, like the Beatles or comic books or video games before them. But as the data pile up, I find myself shifting. Now, I think we will likely look back on this era the way we now view ubiquitous cigarette smoking: What were we thinking? It should have been obvious. We don’t need to adjust to the smoke. We need a public health response that makes the air clear again—where the very idea of “screen childhood” feels as strange to future parents as a cigarette in a stroller. Not a ban. Not panic. But a serious, data-driven cultural shift.