Welcome back to the savvy psychologist. I'm Dr. Ellen Hendrickson and every week I'll help

you meet life's challenges with evidence-based research, a sympathetic ear, and zero judgment.

Okay, with that, let's kick off this week with some important dates.

July 4th, 1776, is when the United States declared independence from Britain.

On July 20th, 1969, humans landed on the moon. And on

November 9th, 1989, the Berlin Wall finally came down. Now, will we look back on June 29th, 2007 as one of those watershed dates?

Only time will tell, but that date, the day the first iPhone came out, certainly changed our psyches forever.

Now, everything from studies to magazine articles and just general cultural rumblings tells us that technology is making us

more anxious. So for instance a new study in the journal Emotion of over 1 million

American high school students found that teens who spend more time on screens

and less time on non-screen activities like face-to-face socializing, exercise or homework

were psychologically worse off.

And what's more, the study found that when kids reported a shift to more screen-based activities,

a decline in happiness followed, implying a cause and effect relationship.

But how exactly does this happen?

What is the nitty gritty of technology leading to anxiety?

Well, with the caveat that these are my professional speculations,

not the results of some more official research,

here are five big reasons.

Reason number one, technology insulates us from small uncertainties,

but leaves us vulnerable to the biggies.

Uncertainty is the root of anxiety.

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