What Can Parents Do Without Panicking
Conversations about teen mental health and technology can easily become overwhelming. Parents can feel as though they have already lost the battle. They haven't.
Haidt's message is ultimately one of agency. The environment may have changed dramatically, but families still have meaningful choices about how children spend their time and what experiences they prioritize. Parents can start small.
Create phone-free moments and spaces.
Meals, family conversations, and certain parts of the home can become opportunities for everyone to put devices aside.
Protect sleep.
Adolescents need sleep, and late-night technology can make healthy sleep routines more difficult.
Make room for real-world friendships.
Teenagers still need face-to-face relationships where they can laugh, disagree, collaborate, and simply spend time together.
Encourage boredom.
A child who is bored is not necessarily a child who needs entertainment. Boredom can create space for creativity, curiosity, and independent activity.
Protect reading.
Reading something longer than a social-media post requires a different kind of attention. Making space for books can help reinforce the ability to slow down and stay engaged.
Let adolescents have developmentally appropriate independence.
Young people need opportunities to solve problems, navigate relationships, take reasonable risks, and experience the satisfaction of doing something for themselves.
The goal isn't perfection. The goal is balance—and making sure that technology doesn't crowd out the experiences adolescents need most.
Why Real-World Relationships Still Matter
There is another piece of this conversation that matters deeply from a mental health perspective: connection.
Teenagers need people who know them.
Not just people who follow them.
Not just people who "like" their posts.
Not just people who send them messages.
They need adults who can sit with them when they are frustrated. Friends who will laugh with them in person. Parents who can tolerate difficult conversations. Coaches, teachers, mentors, pastors, counselors, and other trusted adults who can see beyond the curated version of a young person's life.
For adolescents especially, emotional development happens in relationships.
A teenager learns how to navigate conflict by experiencing conflict.
They learn empathy by encountering another person's feelings.
They learn resilience by facing manageable disappointment.
They develop confidence by doing difficult things.
They discover who they are partly through interacting with people who know them well.
That is why creating opportunities for real-world connection is not merely an antidote to excessive screen time. It is part of healthy adolescent development.
When a Teen Needs More Than a Screen-Time Rule
Sometimes a phone is the symptom—or one piece of a much larger picture.
A teenager may be using social media to cope with loneliness.
They may be retreating into gaming because real-world relationships feel overwhelming.
They may be scrolling late at night because they are anxious and unable to settle their thoughts.
They may be experiencing anxiety that existed long before they received their first smartphone.
This is where professional mental health care can be valuable.
A licensed mental health counselor brings clinical training and therapeutic tools that are different from what a parent, trusted friend, pastor, or mentor may have available. When an adolescent is processing trauma, navigating significant anxiety or depression, struggling with emotional regulation, or dealing with deeply rooted patterns of behavior, a clinician can draw from specialized therapeutic approaches designed to address those concerns.
The goal is not simply to tell a teenager to put down the phone.
It is to understand why the phone may have become so important in the first place.
Abbott Mental Health Works With Adolescents
At Abbott Mental Health Counseling, we see adolescents as whole people—not simply as symptoms, diagnoses, or screen-time statistics.
Our clinicians work with young people experiencing anxiety, depression, trauma, family and relationship difficulties, identity questions, life transitions, and other emotional challenges.
We also believe that parents need support.
Sometimes the most helpful intervention begins with helping a parent understand what their teenager may be experiencing. Other times, the work happens directly with the adolescent. Often, meaningful progress involves both.
Our approach to adolescent counseling considers the emotional, relational, psychological, and developmental needs of the young person while recognizing the important role family relationships can play.
And sometimes, the first step is simply giving a teenager a place where they can talk openly with a trusted professional.
Resources for Parents and Teens
Jonathan Haidt's The Anxious Generation has become an important resource for parents and educators trying to understand the broader changes taking place in childhood and adolescence.
For younger readers and teens, The Amazing Generation, written by Jonathan Haidt and Catherine Price, offers a more accessible introduction to these ideas. We keep a copy in our Abbott Mental Health Counseling offices because we want adolescents to have opportunities to engage with conversations about technology, attention, friendship, and their own well-being.
These resources don't provide every answer—and no single book can.
But they can help families start conversations.
A Final Thought for Parents
Perhaps the most important message we took away from hearing Jonathan Haidt speak was not simply that something is wrong with technology.
It was that we still have agency.
And when an adolescent is struggling, they still need adults who are willing to notice.
As mental health professionals who work with teenagers, we don't expect parents to navigate all of this perfectly. The digital world is changing quickly, and families are learning as they go.
What matters is paying attention.
Notice the changes in your teenager.
Notice their sleep.
Notice their friendships.
Notice their mood.
Notice what they do when they're bored.
Notice whether they still have things in their lives that make them feel alive, connected, curious, and capable.
And if something doesn't feel right, don't be afraid to ask for help.
Sometimes caring for a teenager's mental health begins with simply slowing down long enough to notice what is happening.
If your adolescent is struggling with anxiety, depression, trauma, relationships, identity, or other emotional challenges, Abbott Mental Health Counseling provides counseling for adolescents in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and through telehealth.
Further Reading
Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation — Research and resources about childhood, technology, mental health, and the changing digital environment. (The TAG Movement)
Jonathan Haidt & Catherine Price, The Amazing Generation — A resource designed to help children and teens think about technology, attention, friendship, and real-world life. (The TAG Movement)
OECD PISA 2025 Results — International data on reading, mathematics, science, and student engagement among 15-year-olds. (OECD)