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If this is your first Z-Pack, welcome - I'm Zach.

I’m chronically online, finding out how the world works.

⬇️ Let’s get it.

📱 The surprising impact of smartphones on your life

I recently listened to author Derek Thompson’s podcast, where he tried to pull back the curtains a little for us —

🗞️ The headlines: youth depression rates are out of control!! Unprecedented!!

🌱 The reality: *cracks knuckles* first of all, calm down.

Here’s what we think we know so far, based on this episode:

1. When we compare the data to other countries, the trend of increasing youth depression rates almost entirely disappears 😶‍🌫️, meaning, we’re seeing an increasing trend of teenagers being depressed or committing suicide only in the U.S. and other English-speaking “Western” countries, like the U.K. and Australia.

   • Why? Well, maybe because they’re culturally very similar = it's likely that their cultures of mental health and mental health care are moving somewhat in parallel

   • Ok well what the heck does that mean? It means that our cultures have tried reaaaally hard recently to destigmatize these issues, so more people are talking openly about depression, seeing therapists, getting medicated, etc.

   • We may actually be experiencing this theory called prevalence inflation - too much of us doing or trying something! Based on some research, we may be talking ourselves into mental illness by talking about distress and anxiety and depression so much that people begin to believe that their normal feelings are diseases

1. Increased awareness and diagnosis do not necessarily mean MORE people are getting depressed - it means we’re just finding them! - ex/ when the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare was passed in 2010, it was recommended for the first time in U.S. history that primary care physicians screen teenage girls for depression annually. So of course number went up.

   • Another example - in the 1990s, we saw a 4000 fold increase in the diagnosis of bipolar disorder among American teens, but this was because psychologists, therapists and doctors learned how to look for it and became preoccupied with diagnosing it among a certain demographic

So, the ultimate question *TRUMPET SOUNDS* - if kids in tons of different countries all have smartphones, why aren’t we seeing all of them experience increasing rates of depression or suicide? 👀

Beats me, buddy, but we’re working on it!

Still curious?

• Hear the full episode here 

• I’ve heard this doctor’s book is great on the impact of smartphones

Here’s your 🔥 tweet for all of us who decided to go hard on Sunday yesterday —

Thanks for taking the Pack,

Zach

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