, a clinical psychologist who specializes in technology overuse, makes the case that you can track the rise in youth mental health problems from the introduction of Instagram and Snapchat in 2010. Those social media sites and what would come later鈥擳ikTok鈥攆ueled the overuse and misuse of technology, especially among school-age kids.
That is why she has dedicated her career to connecting the dots between technology overuse/misuse and mental health problems. She is not a Luddite, far from it鈥攕he tests out new technologies like ChatGPT and other AI tools and believes technology has a meaningful role in teaching and learning. But she has grave concerns that many kids in the current generation are using technology in ways that are driving them into a mental health hole that will prevent them from reaching their true potential academically and personally. And Strohman鈥攖he author of Unplug: Raising Kids In A Technology Addicted World, and Digital Distress: Growing Up Online鈥攂elieves schools and parents can help turn the tide in a better direction.
Education Week spoke with Strohman via Zoom about her work. This interview was edited for brevity and clarity.
Walk into a school and you often see kids at a table together, all on their phones, not talking to each other. What are the downsides of that kind of behavior?
I go into schools and look at their tech policies, I look at their school lunches, and I walk the campus because I want to see how they鈥檙e managing that [challenge]. It is one of the biggest complaints about recess in the elementary schools or lunches in middle and high school. What it does to the kids is it really gives them a buffer and an excuse. It gives them the ability to manage their decisionmaking based upon a phone, and they don鈥檛 really have to have the difficult conversations or learn how to create a conversation. So eye contact is gone.
Tell us about the work you鈥檙e doing with schools.
I created a program called that was my effort as a clinical psychologist working with families for almost two decades to give support where I could see it needed to be. I did a K-8 program so we can start in elementary school. The approach is really going to the school, help the school understand: What is your tech policy? How are you creating a partnership with the parents? Because the shift that I saw for almost a decade was that schools would say these devices were the parents鈥� issue because they鈥檙e buying them for their kids. And the parents would say, 鈥淏ut you鈥檝e got my kid for eight hours a day, so why aren鈥檛 you fixing it?鈥� And so there鈥檚 been a standoff.
And, so, I came in and I was like, 鈥淗ey, look, we can actually educate both of them.鈥� We can have the parents go through a parent program that gives them the education on the research, the structural damage, the neurochemical damage, the things that happen from a technology-overuse standpoint, and we can get them educated and then we can get the kids [involved]. They are the most powerful technological cohort in history, and the industry is banking on them being siloed and separated without being able to band together and understand that they have a voice. We teach kids how to become ambassadors in this space, not just in their school, but in the policies that are going to be upcoming that are influencing them.
The expanded use of artificial intelligence is a huge issue in schools. How do you think the rising use of AI-driven technologies such as deepfake videos will affect students鈥� mental health?
Well, it terrifies me. The deepfakes are challenging because you have to think through the developmental appropriateness of a student. So if you have a 13-year-old and a peer creates a false picture of them and then circulates it through the school, the 13-year-old victim of that circulation doesn鈥檛 really have a voice or a platform to be able to argue against it before the social and psychological damage has occurred. And so it doesn鈥檛 matter anymore if it鈥檚 true or not. So there鈥檚 a lot of damage that鈥檚 starting to occur in a very quick way.
I鈥檝e done a lot of trainings on [AI and ChatGPT] and I鈥檝e talked about it a lot because I think that schools are missing an opportunity if they just say, 鈥淵ou can never use it鈥� and they ban it. How do we use it and understand the limitations on it? Oftentimes, I鈥檒l tell kids, 鈥淭est it out.鈥� It鈥檚 a really good opportunity to teach around it, how to use it and what it鈥檚 appropriate for.
What is your advice to educators about how to help students find a better balance in their use of technology?
That鈥檚 a great question. I talk about the 鈥減ower of one鈥� a lot. I have such a respect for the relationship that a teacher can have with a student. And in terms of the tech in it, I think that having every teacher understand that it鈥檚 OK to tell your students: 鈥淟isten, the world is moving very fast. You鈥檝e got a lot of influences coming at you through these platforms, but I鈥檓 here and I鈥檓 a person who you can trust.鈥� And as much as they possibly can, have that open door for those kids so they can come in and just talk.
