Sacrificing Our Youth

I have been in the field of public education for 25 years, which is long enough to remember what it was like before kids had cell phones. I’m a principal now, and like most educators, I am concerned about our youth because more and more of them are rudderless, lonely, racked with anxiety, and depressed to an extent I have never seen before. This is frequently verified by reports covered in the news, each with some new, alarming statistic. There’s the National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report from 2023, showing that death by suicide among adolescents rose 75.7% from 2008–2021. Another report from published by Attendance Works found that rates of absenteeism (missing 10% of school days or more) after the pandemic increased to almost 30%, equating to 6.5 million kids. Another study from the Harvard Graduate School of Education found that 3 in 5 young adults report that their lives lack meaning or purpose. Clearly something is not working for our youth, and it’s our responsibility to uncover the source of this problem.

Salvator Dalí, Metamorphosis of Narcissus, 1937

Smartphone use among young people is the cause of almost universal concern, and so it is a good entry point into our examination of this issue. The way social media and gaming apps are designed to monopolize the attention of their users is particularly troubling. Generally speaking, the main platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter report that they use the information provided and collected by users to create a more tailored experience. They create content that will extend the time users stay on their platforms, which allows them to sell more advertising. The more that is known about the user, the better the platform can provide an experience that will hold their attention and keep them coming back for more content.

The capabilities of all tech-related companies have drastically improved with the development of more powerful artificial intelligence (AI). All platforms—including social media, gaming, gambling, porn, and entertainment—have expanded their ability to target each user. Marketing agencies are moving quickly into AI because of the enormous potential to individualize their messaging and make their advertising more efficient by targeting users who are more likely to buy their products. Mike Kaput, writing for The Marketing for Artificial Intelligence Institute, provides a typical argument for using AI in advertising:     

Thanks to the internet and programmatic advertising, we now have the ability to reach consumers across hundreds of digital platforms. We also have the ability to target them based on hundreds and thousands of demographic and behavioral data points. We can even test hundreds or thousands of different ads to see what they respond to best. With AI, you can actually highly personalize your advertisements based on what motivates consumers.

But what AI proponents are doing is nothing new; it is just an extension of what has always been done since mass advertising started. The internet, smart phones, and AI are just the next advancement in what was first done in magazines and then radio and television. Marketers now have new and more sophisticated ways of getting closer to the ideal information delivery system where every type of messaging, advertisement, propaganda, news, or update can be personalized.

While AI has upended the advertising industry, social media may be a far more powerful tool for building a base of eager consumers conditioned in the ways of materialism. Users are adopting consumerism into their cultural mindset and becoming the advertisers themselves. Social media is abuzz with posts about vacations, new cars, and concerts, and the compulsion to photograph and post about even the most mundane experience is widespread. Materialism isn’t new, and people have an inherent desire to signal certain attributes, but social media changes this by magnifying the audience and rewarding superficiality. Staged through props and touch-ups, the individual is removed from the real world and transformed into a marketable and consumable illusion.

Thus, the individual is being reduced to an organism that is easily manipulated for the ends of others. Many have foreshadowed this reduction of humans. C. S. Lewis wrote about it in The Abolition of Man back in 1943: “From this point of view the conquest of Nature appears in a new light. We reduce things to mere Nature in order that we may ‘conquer’ them…The stars do not become Nature till we can weigh and measure them: the soul does not become Nature till we can psycho-analyze her.” With each new report and major study, science inches further in its capacity to understand humanity. And while this happens, everyone has access to this information to use it for what they will. Scientists spend a lifetime pursuing their research and moving the needle of progress. Corporations take that knowledge and use it for profit, politicians take it and use it to persuade voters, and other interest groups use the knowledge to pursue their own ends.

People are more likely to fall victim to these powerful interests if they are vulnerable. Indeed, the social bulwarks—families, marriage, religion, the police, schools, traditions, universities, and other community organizations—that historically have guided and supported young people are deteriorating. In 2019, the Pew Research Center published a study about the status of American families and marriage. It verified upward trends in the number of single-parent homes (almost 1/4) and children living with unmarried couples (almost 2/3). Religious institutions are also in decline. Agnosticism and secularism have spread across America in the past few decades. According to a recent survey from the Public Relations Religion Institute, Americans who consider themselves as “unaffiliated” were the only religious category to see growth since the previous survey in 2013. It also found that fewer than half of Americans attend church at least once per month, also a decline from the previous survey. Our children are growing up with weaker supports while an oligarchy of tech corporations, backed by an ever-growing arsenal of information and technology, are filling that void.

I would argue that modernism is the link between the relentless pursuit of new technology and the deterioration of traditional institutions. Modernism is an attitude characterized by a deep faith in progress and a belief that, through science, innovation, and the pursuit of knowledge, we can overcome the human condition and discover the secret to immortality and a better way of life. According to this mindset, the world can be known, understood, and even controlled. Although it has led to the wonders of the modern world, humans have yet to figure out how to grapple with such wealth and knowledge. We have vaccines and life-saving medicine alongside drug addiction; we can access infinite amounts of information but many live in profound ignorance; we have unimaginable wealth and unimaginable despair. Part of the problem is that modernism knows no boundaries in its quest for progress. As Lewis pointed out, everything sacred or mysterious is solved by a study. As each shrine is demystified, scholars move on to the next unexplored topic, creating a feeding frenzy of criticism. Marx took on capitalism, Nietzsche leveled his arguments against Christianity and God, and Foucault even attacked modernism itself. The endless pursuit of knowledge naturally turns inward upon all institutions, with the result that nothing is left undissected and everything is cast into doubt.

Children and families can no longer rely on institutions to help them navigate a wilderness of advertising, media, and technology. History tells us that bad things happen when large groups of people lose purpose and become despondent. The era of Nazism, Stalinism, Maoism, and McCarthyism all came about when demagogues took advantage of vulnerable groups of people. Trumpism is the latest version of this, but movements on both the left and right are also guilty. While adults are not faring well, we are serving our youth on a platter to whatever interest can occupy their attention.

Fortunately, humans are complex and mysterious, and, when given the chance, they will seek authentic experiences. Despite the arrogance of modern thinkers and the mountains of data tech companies collect about us, they still fail to know us deeply, and many see through the superficial world they are trying to create. Moreover, history shows us that tyrannical influences elicit strong reactions among those who see it for what it is. Philosophers, writers, historians, poets, moralists, and artists are out there adding spirit to our world and defying the hollow culture being thrust upon us by the forces of modernism. I see it in our children too. They still play and laugh and do the things they have always done. When they have a human experience—like being on a winning team or taking a weekend trip with their friends—something comes alive within them that they didn’t know existed. If we provide children with authentic and meaningful experiences, we can satisfy that deep human need for belonging and acceptance.

Charles R. Martelle is a principal in a small school in western New York State. His research and writing center on the impact of technology on education.