U.S. Surgeon General Talks Loneliness, Social Media, and Reclaiming Your Life with Tech-Free Zones

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has been an outspoken advocate for young people amidst what he calls a youth mental health crisis, “the defining public health challenge of our time.” He has issued advisories about the harm social media is doing to the nation’s young people, and the need for greater connection amidst an epidemic of loneliness. Murthy recently spoke with two student reporters at PBS NewsHour, Student Reporting Labs podcast “On Our Minds.”

Excerpts from that conversation follow:

On his own mental health as a teenager

“I struggled a lot as a teenager, but I don’t think a lot of people knew that. I put a lot of pressure on myself to sort of excel in certain areas of academia, in terms of schoolwork and stuff like that.

And I think it’s probably safe to say that, in some places, my standards were unreasonable. I was also struggling a lot with loneliness as a kid. I was really shy, and I was very introverted. I actually really wanted to hang out with other kids, but it took me a longer to make friends.

I didn’t talk to people about it, because I was ashamed. And it wasn’t something I heard other people talking about either. So I kept it all bottled up inside. And I can tell you from experience that that was not a good strategy.”

On the problem of social media

“I don’t think people are having these struggles because somehow your generation is deficient in willpower. I don’t think that’s what’s going on. I think you have just as much willpower and strength as prior generations.

But I think what’s different is the technology that you’re surrounded by. There are large numbers of adolescents who say that that they are being bullied and harassed. Six in 10 adolescent girls are being approached by strangers on social media in ways that make them feel uncomfortable.

I got bullied at times when I was in middle school, but maybe once every now and then – not at the volume and the severity the kids are experiencing online now. So that’s really concerning.

The third thing that I will mention that concerns me is: What is being displaced by social media? What are you not doing because you’re spending a lot of time on social media?”

On reclaiming your life by creating tech-free zones

“Number one is to create tech-free zones in your day, saying, ‘OK, you know what, I’m going to put my phone away a half-hour before I go to sleep. And I’m actually not going to keep it with me at night.’ [Or] charge it another room so you’re not tempted to go at it. That will positively impact the quality of your sleep.

You could also say, hey, whenever I’m having a meal, whenever I’m catching up with friends, I’m actually — we’re all going to put our phones away, right? Like, I heard of a common practice that some young people do where, when they all go out to dinner, they will put their phones in the middle and whoever picks it up first to try to look at it or something, they pick up the tab for the group.

It’s much more likely that you will be able to sustain that practice than if you try to do it alone.”

Watch the podcast interview here or read the transcript at PBS News.

Learn more from U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy: