Evidence
Find links to the latest research and relevant journalism here.
Mental Health Effects
The Youth Mind: Rising Anger & Agression (Sapien Labs, Jan. 2025)
If You’ve Got Children, You Need To Watch Swiped & See How Sick Their Phones Are Making Them (The Guardian, Dec. 2024)
Australia Moves To Ban Young Teens From Social Media (The New York Times, Nov. 2024)
Gen Z Has Regrets (The New York Times, Sept. 2024)
The Surgeon General Calls For Warning Labels on Social Media Platforms (The New York Times, June 2024)
The Terrible Costs of a Phone-Based Childhood (The Atlantic, March 2024)
Family Therapist Explains How Parents Can Address The Issue of Phone Addiction (Today Show video, April 2024)
Why 16 Should Be The Minimum Age For Social Media (The Wall Street Journal, June 2023)
Smartphones Are Destroying Kids But Where Are The Parents? (New York Post, May 2023)
Why Are Teens In Crisis? Here’s What The Evidence Says (The New York Times podcast, May 2023)
How Jonathan Haidt Won The Fight Against Smartphones in Schools (The Free Press, Dec. 2024)
An Epidemic of Vicious School Brawls, Fueled by Student Cellphones (The New York Times, Dec. 2024)
Why Schools Are Racing To Ban Student Phones (The New York Times, August 2024)
NYC Planning a School Cellphone Ban For February (Chalkbeat, July 2024)
California Joins Growing National Effort To Ban Smartphone Use In Schools (The New York Times, June 2024)
Sign Right Here: The Parents Pledging To Keep Kids Phone-Free (The New York Times, June 2024)
Jonathan Haidt’s 4 Rules For Curbing Children’s Smartphone Use (Wall Street Journal video, May 2024)
Ohio School Bans All Phones In Middle & High School (Today Show video, May 2024)
How A Connecticut Middle School Won The Battle Against Cellphones (The Washington Post, May 2024)
How Cell Phones Are Killing Our Kids, And What We Can Do About It (CNN, April 2024)
The Revolution Has Begun in the UK (After Babel, April 2024)
Schools Should Ban Smartphones. Parents Should Help. (The Washington Post, Nov. 2023)
Get Phones Out Of Schools Now (The Atlantic, June 2023)
This School Took Away Smartphones. The Kids Don’t Mind. (10-min. YouTube doc., Dec. 2022)
Phone-Free Schools
I Gave Up My Smartphone For A Dumbphone. You Can Too (The New York Times, Feb. 2025)
I Was Addicted To My Smartphone, So I Switched For A Month (The New York Times, June 2024)
Adults & Teens Turn To “Dumbphones” To Cut Screen Time (BBC, June 2024)
The Dumbphone Boom Is Real (The New Yorker, April 2024)
Alternative Phones
Impact of Social Media and Personal Devices on Mental Health (NEA, Aug. 2024)
How Using Social Media Affects Teenagers (Child Mind Institute, May 2024)
Teens, Social Media and Technology 2023 (Pew Research Center, Dec. 2023)
Surgeon General Issues New Advisory About Effects Social Media Use Has on Youth Mental Health (U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services, May 2023)
Kids Who Get Smartphones Earlier Become Adults With Worse Mental Health (Sapien Labs, May 2023)
Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity (The University of Chicago Press Journals, April 2017)