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What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood | Parenting Tips From Funny Moms

Fresh Take: Jean Twenge, 10 RULES FOR RAISING KIDS IN A HIGH-TECH WORLD

What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood | Parenting Tips From Funny Moms

What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood

Kids & Family, Comedy, Parenting

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 10 October 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Amy and Margaret sit down with Dr. Jean Twenge, renowned researcher of generational differences and author of the new book 10 RULES FOR RAISING KIDS IN A HIGH-TECH WORLD. Dr. Twenge shares what her research reveals about smartphones, social media, and gaming—and how they impact kids’ mental health, sleep, and friendships. From the rise of teen depression since the smartphone boom, to the addictive power of algorithms, to the everyday battles over devices in our homes and schools, this conversation sheds light on what’s really happening when kids spend hours online. Dr. Twenge also offers parents very clear rules around devices that may not be easy to implement—but may be far easier than the small daily fights we're all having about screens. Whether you’re navigating screen time with your elementary schooler or arguing with your teen over TikTok, this episode is full of insights and realistic tools to help your family thrive in the digital age. Here's where you can find Dr. Twenge: www.jeantwenge.com @jean_twenge on X Buy 10 RULES FOR RAISING KIDS IN A HIGH-TECH WORLD: https://bookshop.org/a/12099/9781668099995 We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.whatfreshhellpodcast.com/p/promo-codes/ Get 50% Off Monarch Money, the all-in-one financial tool at ⁠www.monarchmoney.com/FRESH Ready to raise money-smart kids? Start now with your first month FREE at acornsearly.com/FRESH! Head to GigSalad.com and book some awesome talent for your next party, and let them know that What Fresh Hell sent you. Dr. Jean Twenge, 10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Tech World, smartphones and kids, social media and teens, screen time rules, parenting in the digital age, parental controls, TikTok and teens, smartphone addiction, teen mental health, kids and technology, raising kids with phones, screen time boundaries, algorithms and teens Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Fresh Take from What Fresh Hell Laughing in the Face of Motherhood.

0:06.3

This is Margaret.

0:07.3

And this is Amy.

0:08.2

Today, we're talking to Dr. Jean M. Twangy.

0:11.3

She is a professor of psychology at San Diego State University.

0:15.4

She's the mother of three daughters and the author of more than 190 scientific publications and several books based on her research,

0:24.3

including Generations, IGen, Generation Me, and her latest book, which we will be discussing

0:29.8

today, 10 rules for raising kids in a high-tech world, how parents can stop smartphones,

0:36.9

social media, and gaming from taking over their children's lives.

0:40.5

Welcome, Jean. Thanks so much. That sounds like something we want to talk about and our audience wants

0:45.9

to hear about. That's right. I wanted to go back all the way to 2017, which is when I first became

0:51.2

aware of your work. It went viral. You studied generational differences.

0:55.9

Tell us about the revelation that you had in 2017 and then what happened when you wrote about it.

1:00.7

It was actually a couple of years before that because, you know, this is my job to analyze generational differences.

1:06.1

So I keep an eye on the big national surveys of teens. And there's, you there's like a two-year delay in the data coming

1:12.6

out so with the data from 2012 and then 2013 I started to see these patterns that there was these

1:18.3

sudden increases in teens saying that they were lonely that they felt left out that they felt like

1:24.1

they couldn't do anything right that their their life wasn't useful. And those two

1:27.7

are classic symptoms of depression. And then over those years, more and more, it came out, well,

1:33.0

actually, clinical level depression is going up. And that, of course, begged the question of why.

1:38.7

And it was completely misaligned with economic cycles. It was tough to think of anything else that

1:42.4

happened around 2012. That might be one big event that kept going in the same direction that had a big effect on teen's day-to-day

...

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