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Feature
06 January 2025

There is increasing awareness of how exposure to devices with screens will seriously affect young children. American sociologist Jonathan Haidt in his influential book, The Anxious Generation, asserts that such exposure is causing an epidemic of mental illness among adolescents. He explains how the “play-based childhood” in the 1980s has been replaced by the “phone-based childhood”.

Adolescent mental illness has significantly risen since 2010; the incidence of anxiety, depression, and self-harm has more than doubled. This is not only true for the US but also many other parts of the world, and governments are taking note of it.

It has mainly affected Gen Z young people (1997-2012), but the earlier millennial generation (1981-1996) has not been spared too. This is also shown in studies done in Yale University, Bristol University, the National Institutes of Health and the Pew Research Centre in the US, and many others.

Parental concerns for the safety of their children resulted in reduced opportunities for the youngsters to spend time in playgrounds and open spaces to engage in childhood adventures and relationships. Instead, the rapid increase in smart phones since 2010 has resulted in children growing up with these gadgets and the social media and games they contain.

Haidt asserts that “we ended up overprotecting children in the real world while underprotecting them in the virtual world.”  Not only does heavy exposure to smart phones affect normal human development but it also “rewires” the brain of the young to be more prone to mental illness.

Children and teens face negative consequences such as social deprivation from real interaction, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation arising from constant distractions, and addiction.

A nationwide study in Singapore done by the Institute of Mental Health (published in the Asian Journal of Psychiatry in August 2024) showed that almost 50% of youths aged between 15 to 21 had “problematic smartphone use”. This was experienced as addiction to phones, missing work, and difficulties in concentration. It was also associated with mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and insomnia.

The solution to this problem is to get parents, educators, policy makers, and technology developers to help restrict exposure of children to mobile devices and social media. This will not be easy because of the easy availability of such devices and the tendency of tired and preoccupied parents to keep their children occupied with electronic distractions.

The larger problem is that, as a society, we are becoming enslaved to screens. Notice how people waiting at bus-stops or travelling in MRT trains are glued to the screens of their phones. This happens even when they are crossing streets, or sitting down as families for dinner. Couples who go to the seaside to relax, bring their portable chairs to enjoy the breeze. But instead of enjoying nature and each other, they are stuck to their phones.

We are so surrounded by screens that we prefer reality to be screened to us. This became clear to me when I attended a function where various speeches were given, with heavy use of PowerPoint slides on the large screen. At the end of it, everyone stood up for the national anthem. The uniformed officer in front turned smartly to the screen that showed a national flag swaying in the wind, to salute it. Behind him was a real flag that was largely ignored in that moment.

The screen has also become ubiquitous in churches. Almost all churches in Singapore now have screens. One church I spoke at had installed a huge (and expensive) screen that spanned the entire chancel area. Soon the church began to screen the national day parade, as requested by many members. There were more requests to screen world cup matches in the church!

Does our heavy use of screens affect us negatively? One problem is superficiality. When Christians consume videos more than reading good Christian literature, they are cutting themselves off from the depths by being confined to “the shallows”, as Nicholas Carr writes in his similarly titled book.

Carr explains that neuroscience research shows that the technologies we use to find, store, and share information can literally reroute the neural pathways in our brains. In other words, our technologies can change our brains and the way we experience reality.

Modern information technology that employs screens, whether we use laptops, smart phones, or tablets, is making us master the art of scanning and skimming information. We might be more efficient and faster, but we condemn ourselves to the shallows. Less and less space is given for old fashioned reading of printed books, that allow for a better opportunity to reflect more thoughtfully, meditate, and grow deeper.

Academic Tricia Rhodes agrees that our digital technologies are deeply affecting our spirituality. In her book The Wired Soul, she shows how the constant use of modern digital technologies is already rewiring our brain (and souls). We are losing the ability to have deeper spiritual experiences based on paying sustained attention to spiritual realties.

The solution lies in rediscovering classic Christian spiritual disciplines such as Scripture reading, prayer, and meditation to regain our ability to focus and centre our lives in God.

Modern addiction to screens is not just due to huge technological changes but deep cultural shifts. In his book The Humiliation of the Word, French Christian philosopher and social critic Jacques Ellul argues that modernity has seen a shift from word to image.

In biblical teaching and Christian practice, hearing has been more important than seeing in bringing us to deeper truth. Ellul offers a thought experiment to show that the act of seeing makes us self-centred, in that the one who sees is in the centre of his reality. On the other hand, the act of hearing makes us other-centred because the focus shifts to the one who is speaking. We can understand, then, why in our relationship with God and others, hearing and listening are necessary disciplines. For Ellul, we see reality, but we hear truth. Reality is what our five natural senses convey to us, but truth comes from beyond the material senses.

When reality and truth do not match, it is always important to be on the side of truth, that is, by what we hear in our souls. The apostle Paul said the same thing when he differentiated that which is seen and temporary from that which is unseen and eternal (2 Cor 4:18-20).

What then does all this mean for us today? We cannot run away from screens for they have become so pervasive. However, we must avoid becoming addicted to screens. It is important to ask ourselves who actually determine the content of our screens. They are the ones who control the reality that we perceive from our screens.

We need to spend adequate time to be free from our screens and to hear truth from God’s Word and from godly people. We need to read our printed Bibles in a reflective and unhurried way (and as a community, we must read the Bible aloud so that it can literally be heard), diving deeper into revealed truth to challenge what we see on our screens, some of which are true but much of which might be falsehood or distortions and diversions.

We also need to guard the young from the harmful effects of getting sucked into a digital world before they can know the real world.


Bishop Emeritus Robert Solomon served as Bishop of The Methodist Church in Singapore from 2000-2012. He had served previously as a medical doctor, church pastor, principal of Trinity Theological College and president of the National Council of Churches of Singapore. He now has an active itinerant ministry of preaching and teaching in Singapore and abroad.