By Esther Gaon
As the first generation born in the “Internet Age,” Gen Z has never known a world without smartphones and iPads, social media and Google. For them, childhood has meant more time indoors and unrelenting exposure to everything online. Along with this has come increasingly concerning societal issues, such as the neglect of physical health via exercise and sleep, intellectual deterioration from “brain rot” and immediate access to information and overall damage to mental health from anxiety and depression — all of which are problems that stem from screens.
Although the harmful effects of phone addiction are common knowledge, most people hardly ever do anything about it. The only question is: why?
To explain such a disconnect, we need to truly understand what phone addiction looks like. What is it, really? And is it really as prevalent in our society as we think?
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), drug addiction is defined as “a chronic, relapsing disorder characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use despite adverse consequences.” Addiction is also considered to be a form of a “brain disorder, because it involves functional changes to brain circuits involved in reward, stress, and self-control.” Although phone use is not a drug addiction, both stem from the same underlying motivations.
People use drugs to “feel good” — to experience that intense dopamine hit that stimulates whatever feeling you’re looking for, from an energy rush to relaxation. Your phone, and more specifically social media, works the exact same way. In an article from Johns Hopkins Medicine about this kind of addiction, Jennifer Katzenstein, Ph.D., writes that “devices [reinforce] dopamine pathways, a neurotransmitter that is a ‘feel good’ chemical involved in our reward-seeking behaviors.” It’s that “instant gratification” which is what makes drugs — and your phone — so addictive.
NIDA explains that social pressure is another cause of drug addiction, especially in teens. When you’re invited to parties where people use drugs, or want to feel like you belong in such an environment, you’re far more likely to fall into drug addiction. Likewise, with cell phones, when you walk around and see everyone else staring at their phones, you feel compelled to do the same.
Furthermore, according to NIDA, drugs can work as a mechanism to feel better and an escape from “social anxiety, stress, and depression.” For many, phones are used in the same manner. Many reach for their phones to avoid awkward situations, or to distract from stress through procrastination.
Anxiety, stress or depression can also all create pressure to do better. If you feel that your best isn’t good enough, drugs can be a way to strive above your best, to become the best. Correspondingly, Katzenstein notes that cell phones today are used to “communicate, get information and remain in contact 24/7.” Today, to be the best means to be reachable at all times, having access to anything you need to know at the tap of a screen and knowing how to navigate the internet to find exactly what you are looking for.
Ultimately, like any addiction, cell phones take control over us. We become dependent on them for navigation, knowledge, communication and even just as a way to pass the time. This reliance has become so apparent that there’s actually a word for it: nomophobia, the “fear or worry at the idea of being without your cell phone or unable to use it.”
This dependence on our phones is not leading to anything good. An article published in the National Library of Medicine explains that “the growing dependence on smartphones has led to the so-called ‘heads-down’ generation, whose physical and mental well-being may be harmed in several ways,” including not only an addiction to dopamine signaling but also poor sleep quality, depression and musculoskeletal health problems. Other problems — like decreased productivity and attention spans — have also been shown to strongly correlate phone addiction.
However, the article draws a clear distinction between drug and phone addiction: “Drug addiction is driven by chemical substances, with strong physical dependence—long-term use leads to obvious physical withdrawal symptoms,” it says. “In contrast, smartphone dependence is driven by digital stimuli and psychological-behavioral mechanisms, with almost no physical dependence; withdrawal mainly causes psychological discomfort.” This reinforces the point that while drugs will slowly damage your physical body, your phone is hurting your brain.
Gen Z is open and honest about the consequences of cell phone addiction. According to a survey from 2024, 66% of Gen Z want to cut down their cell phone usage. They just don’t. It’s an acknowledged problem, and yet awareness appears to have no impact in effecting actual change.
Perhaps one reason this is the case is because the consequences of cell phone addiction aren’t at all immediate. It’s like the way smoking was viewed until only the last century: it’s just part of life. According to university professors Dr. K. Micheal Cummings, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and Robert N. Proctor, a historian of science, it was only after 1964 that there was a “recognition of tobacco use as an addiction and cause of cancer,” and with that in time came a “declining social acceptance of smoking.” Once someone is told of the deathly cause and effect relationship between smoking and lung cancer, they are far more likely to stop smoking than someone who is just told that smoking is bad for you. But, somehow, even with the knowledge of the hazards of phone addiction, it is still very much socially accepted.
Another major component of the problem is that cell phone addiction, unlike most other addictions, has become so normalized in mainstream society due to the widespread reliance on cell phones for daily tasks. Cell phones today are necessary in nearly every part of daily life. Who needs credit cards on hand when you have Apple Pay? And no subway ride or long walk would be complete without some music. Cutting down on screen time, or even just social media, makes you feel out of the loop and even can lose you opportunities that require immediate attention and response. While tobacco and drugs are optional but sometimes feel encouraged, cell phones are not something you can opt out of if you want to continue to be a part of the modern world. They have become intrinsically tied with the way society today functions and cannot be ignored.
So, unfortunately, the only real solution to this problem is time. The evidence of tobacco’s dangers is well-documented because it has been a part of society for centuries, and its long-term effects can be traced. But Gen Z is the first generation to grow up around today’s technology, so the long-term effects of phone addiction cannot be fully understood until its effects on a generation that has gone through it are measured. Only this can galvanize the public to make real changes.
Nevertheless, though there may not be the means yet for a societal-level change, there were those that knew the dangers of things like tobacco before society could adapt and made a change for themselves.
Rehab programs for drug addiction were not created to change the world; they were made for the few who actually decided to take the steps themselves, before the world decides to get smart and catch up. Just think: there’s a reason Steve Jobs never let his kids have an iPad.
The first step to getting over a drug addiction is recognizing the problem, and then can you decide to make a change. With technology, we’ve recognized the problem. All that’s left is to take the first step toward solving it.
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