In 2017, Jean Twengi started a firestorm in the field of psychology.

Twengi studies health metrics across generations in America, and when she looked at data for

Gen Zers, who are now teenagers and young adults, she saw signs of a mental health crisis

on the horizon.

Rates of depression, anxiety, and loneliness were rising and fast.

She had a hypothesis for why smartphones and social media.

Smartphones were used by the majority of Americans around 2012, and that's the same time loneliness

increases.

That's very suspicious.

That is Twengi speaking on all things considered in 2017.

I think many parents are worried about their teens driving and going out with their friends

and drinking.

Yet, parents are often not worrying about their teen who stays at home, but is on their

phone all the time.

They, oh, that's just how teens are.

So they should be worried about that.

At the time, many of her colleagues didn't agree with Twengi.

They thought she had way too little data to make such claims, and that she was unnecessarily

causing a panic.

In the years since, the rates of depression, anxiety, and loneliness and teens have continued

to skyrocket, exacerbated by the isolation of the pandemic.

The data is particularly concerning for girls and LGBTQ youth.

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