By Michael Daniels

Over the past decade, something alarming has happened. Gen Z now averages more than nine hours of screen time daily, and during that same time, adolescent mental health has collapsed. Persistent sadness and hopelessness among American teens jumped from 28% in 2011 to over 40% (36% to 53% in girls) in 2023. Diagnosed anxiety among adolescents soared 61% (10.0% to 16.1%).

Psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues this is no coincidence. In The Anxious Generation, he pinpoints the early 2010s as the moment when “something went suddenly and terribly wrong.” Childhood shifted from play-based to phone-based. Today’s youth are “overprotected in the real world and underprotected online,” trading independence, adventure, and real friendships for algorithmic feeds, digital comparison, and isolation.

The result? A generation robbed of what builds resilience —free play, problem solving, face-to-face connection— and flooded instead with what fuels anxiety: addictive platforms, sleep deprivation, endless comparison, and fractured attention.

Spiritual Wickedness from the Cloud

Now let me ask you: do you think the devil is just standing by, uninvolved? I propose this is the most successful capturing of our youth the wicked one has ever pulled off! The effect has been like a newer, more subtle possession than the world has ever seen before.

In April 2020, 16-year-old Shawn Tyler Willis from Anderson County, Tennessee, murdered his mother, Sandy Willis, while she slept. The trigger? A conflict over his cell phone. Prosecutors cited the phone dispute as part of the motive. Willis used his mother’s own firearm and was later tried as an adult, pleading guilty to second-degree murder in 2025. Legal experts noted deeper issues —firearms access, emotional instability, family conflict. Do you think the devil is still uninvolved?

Consider an interesting moment in scripture. When Jesus healed the demon-possessed boy in Matthew 17, He rebuked His disciples who couldn’t cast out the spirit because of their unbelief. “Howbeit,” Jesus said, “this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:21). Jesus spoke of a kind that requires prayer and fasting. That’s what is needed today for those ensnared by the time-wasting, mentally-draining access to anything our desperately wicked hearts desire.

Controlled Exposure to Phones and Social Media

In The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt lays out urgent steps to protect children. His recommendations are clear: no smartphones before high school —give kids basic talk-and-text phones instead. No social media before age 16 —early exposure during puberty dramatically increases anxiety, depression, self-harm, and social withdrawal. Phone-free schools —so children can focus, learn, and build real relationships without digital distraction.

This isn’t just a restriction, Haidt argues. It’s restoration —rebuilding a play-based childhood around real friendships, outdoor activity, responsibility, and resilience.

But more important than any of this is training our children to respect the time the Lord has given us and not waste it. As 1 Peter 5:8 warns: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”

And for all those who find their eyes glued to a screen late at night, consider, have you too been snared by something wicked? Perhaps all these evils will only go out by prayer and fasting from our devices — especially at night. If this hit home for you, then think of our children, and let’s start fasting and praying that we may “[Redeem] the time, because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:16)