Author, columnist, speaker

Blessing or Curse, Cellphones Have Been a Game Changer

By Robert Knight

Sometimes, the truth comes packaged in unorthodox places.

The Babylon Bee online satire site had a recent headline, “Jesus Heals Demon-Possessed Man by Taking Away His Cellphone.”

“Multiple reports indicated that the man's rages, convulsions, and foaming at the mouth were instantly healed as soon as Jesus removed the man's smartphone from his hand,” the Bee said.

“At publishing time, witnesses had reported that Jesus had told the man to go and scroll no more, or something worse might happen to him,” the Bee concluded.

Christians familiar with biblical accounts of Jesus’s miracles, plus his admonition to the woman caught in adultery to “go and sin no more,” will get this immediately.

But you don’t have to be a Christian to question whether smartphones have been a blessing or a curse. Clearly, they’re both.

Remember what it was like trying to connect with someone arriving at an airport? Or losing written directions on the way to a destination? Or not having change for a payphone? Scratch that last one if you’re under 40.

The convenience has been astonishing. The world’s accumulated knowledge is at our fingertips. You can talk face to face with friends, loved ones and business acquaintances across the world.

But the price has been steep. A story broke last year in The New York Times about a remote Amazon tribe getting internet access and cellphones and developing social pathologies within two years. The tribe says the paper exaggerated and has filed a defamation lawsuit.

Nonetheless, the social effects of ubiquitous cellphones are obvious. Every weekday, on a nearby corner in my town, middle school and high school kids wait for a school bus. Every one of them has his or her head down, engrossed in their cellphones.

No one is talking. No girl is flirting with a boy. No boys are comparing sports scores. At least in person.

When we encounter these teens on neighborhood walks, we’re often surprised and saddened that they won’t even return a friendly “hello.”

Recently, writer Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist, posed this question to ChatGPT: “If you were the devil, how would you destroy the next generation, without them even knowing it?”

Here’s a bit of the answer he shared in a Free Press article: “I’d keep them busy. Always distracted.”

“I’d watch their minds rot slowly, sweetly, silently. And the best part is, they’d never know it was me. They’d call it freedom.”

Haidt wrote, “It seemed to be saying, if the devil wanted to destroy a generation, he could just give them all smartphones.”

He came to this after studying why Gen Z, the kids born between 1996 and 2012, experienced an increase in mental health problems beginning in the early 2010s.

Not coincidentally, Apple founder Steven Jobs introduced iPhones in January 2007, and by the 2010s, they were everywhere.

Big Tech with instant communication has created an environment in which kids are fed constant opinions and often dark themes. They can become victims of scathing psychological attacks or become part of a peer group assaulting another student.

They can watch videos ad nauseum on TikTok, access pornography, create deepfakes, and read posts that make their parents out to be ogres if they exert any discipline whatsoever.

Talking to human beings in person entails risks. Kids can avoid them by staying glued to their phones.

In his 2024 bestselling book, “The Anxious Generation,” Haidt states that spirituality is a key to mental health. We can elevate our minds upward with “our better angels” or make them subject to “spiritual degradation.”

All too often, he writes, it’s the latter. I confess I haven’t yet read his book, in which he writes, “I approach spirituality as a social scientist who believes that whether or not God exists, spirituality is a deep part of human nature.”

Personally, I have no doubt that God exists, came miraculously in human form 2,000 years ago to save our souls, and is still doing so.

In any case, Mr. Haidt is on to something important. He offers “four norms” that could help: No smartphones before high school; no social media before 16; phone-free schools from K through 12, and more independence, free play, and responsibility in the real world.

Children, he says, need “to do hard things, over and over, and suffer setbacks and losses, in order to become strong, independent adults.”

In other words, they need to develop character, something about which the Bible has much to say.

For example, “Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out.” (Proverbs 10:9)

The most powerful factor for success in life is an intact family. A record percentage of American babies are being born to single mothers, and divorce is rampant. Throw cellphones into this mix and you have a perfect storm.

A committed mother and father can make an enormous difference. And for those lacking such a foundation, faith in a loving God goes a long way.

“He will heal the broken-hearted and bind up their wounds.” (Psalm 147:3)

The Apostle Paul offered a timeless antidote to angst and cynicism that could apply even to over-use of cellphones:

“Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Phil. 4:8) 

(Illustration by Linas Garsys in The Washington Times)