No. Screens are not making Gen Z “dumber than their parents”
Mike Males, Principal Investigator, YouthFacts.org| August 2026 Not ANOTHER media- and politician-pandering “expert” wildly distorting data to berate teenagers and screens… and, of course, winning uncritical accolades. “A leading neuroscientist explains why Generation Z is the first generation to be less intelligent than their parents,” the MSN headline (one among dozens over days and days) blares of
Gee. Top authorities just can’t figure out why American teenagers got more depressed during the 2010s. “It must be social media!”
Mike Males, Principal Investigator, YouthFacts.org| August 2026 Source: Centers for Disease Control, Mortality data; Fatal and Nonfatal injury reports . Amid skyrocketing deaths and hospitalizations for suicidal and drug abuse causes (which measure only a fraction of the adult addiction crisis) among grownups of age to be parents, parents’ partners, relatives, teachers, coaches, etc., around
America’s callousness toward children and teenagers worsens as authorities shrug off widespread household abuses
Mike Males, Principal Investigator, YouthFacts.org| July 2026 Adulthood is deteriorating from tolerating to celebrating and rewarding violent, abusive grownups and officials who ignore real predators because they’d rather grandstand over social media. Again, I suggest watching psychologist and social media scholar Candice Odgers’ TED talk and new interview by tech journalist Taylor Lorenz, the latest featuring a powerful scientific reality
Teenage boys show major declines in suicide across the globe as their social media use grew
Mike Males, Principal Investigator, YouthFacts.org| July 2026 83% of countries with reliable reporting show plunging suicide rates by teenage boys as social media proliferated. Does social media actually prevent suicide? The trend is amazing – and completely destroys the myths of rising teen self-destruction that are flooding major media and political forms. Teenaged boys show
The “global increase in teenage girls’ suicides” driven by social media is a hoax. In fact, two out of three countries show declines in girls’ suicides
Mike Males, Principal Investigator, YouthFacts.org| July 2026 A better question: Why did a few nations like the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan suffer teen suicide increases while dozens more like France, Spain, Italy, Korea, had declines? Ban-teens advocates constantly trumpet that social media must be torturing vastly more teenaged girls into self-destruction all over the
There’s no “global increase in teenage suicide.” In fact, 29 of 32 Western nations saw teen suicide DECREASE as social media use rose
Mike Males, Principal Investigator, YouthFacts.org| July 2026 How on earth have crusaders to ban teens from social media gotten away with fabricating the impression that social media use fosters more teen suicide? Regarding my last substack, watch Candice Odgers’ full TED talk. She argues succinctly to refute misleading and outright false statistics used to whip up
The miraculous way most teenagers dramatically reduce their depression makes authorities’ obsession with social media pointless
Mike Males, Principal Investigator, YouthFacts.org| July 2026 Teenage girls abruptly cut their rates of sadness and depression by 70-80% by doing something the large majority do (hint: it’s not giving up TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat). The Centers for Disease Control’s massive Youth Risk Behavior Survey shows an alarming 92% of 12th grade girls reported suffering poor mental health
We’ve reached logical insanity: cops bust up whatever they define as a “teen takeover” even if the gatherings are not causing problems
We’ve reached logical insanity: cops bust up whatever they define as a “teen takeover” even if the gatherings are not causing problems Mike Males, Principal Investigator, YouthFacts.org| June 2026 Apparently, cops and the press (same thing) can brand a 99+% peaceful gathering of “both teens and adults” as a “teen takeover” to justify busting it
“Teen takeovers!” everywhere! Still no evidence.
“Teen takeovers!” everywhere! Still no evidence. Mike Males, Principal Investigator, YouthFacts.org| June 2026 Media, politicians, and cops decry “hundreds” or “thousands” of violent, property destroying, rampaging (Black) teenagers. Yet, these “takeovers” appear nowhere in police reports. I apologize for the sparsity of recent posts; I’m drafting a comprehensive journal article for peer review on the