iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy--and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood--and What That Means for the Rest of Us

by Jean M. Twenge

Today’s teens follow a slow life strategy, common in times and places where families have fewer children and cultivate each child longer and more intensely.

iGen teens are spending less time on homework, paid work, volunteering, and extracurriculars combined,

The results could not be clearer: teens who spend more time

on screen activities (the black bars in Figure 3.5) are more likely to be unhappy, and those who spend more time on nonscreen activities (the gray bars) are more likely to be happy. There’s not a single exception: all screen activities are linked to less happiness, and all nonscreen activities are linked to more happiness.

Another study of adults found the same thing: the more people used Facebook, the lower their mental health and life satisfaction at the next assessment.

Antibullying programs may, as a side effect, have shaped iGen children into kids who are constantly on the lookout for being harmed.