Community Effort Launches ‘A Thriving Generation’ Oct. 10

Digital interactions do not create the same social and emotional bonds as face-to-face interactions.”

Many adults are worried about the mental health of teens, locally and nationally. Students are stressed and depressed. Tragically, it is not uncommon to learn about another teen suicide, which is the second leading cause of death for teens in Washington State. Over the last three years, 38 community leaders representing organizations from the Key Peninsula and Gig Harbor have been working together to address the problem.

In the fall of 2024, the group agreed to try a new approach and created a campaign called “A Thriving Generation.” The theme is to reduce the amount of time youth spend with smartphones and increase unsupervised free play time.

The challenge of managing communication in a world where advanced technology lives in your pocket versus unobstructed time to run, play, explore, and perhaps arrive home for dinner a little bit dirty is one that preceding generations escaped.

John Hellwich, the Peninsula School District director of secondary teaching and learning, has been working with a group comprised of educators, faith leaders, counselors, and nonprofit leaders for over a year. He said the roots of the campaign emerged two years ago when PSD became one of the first districts in the state to prohibit the use of cell phones in the classroom.

“A short time later, some of the (school) board members started reading the book, ‘The Anxious Generation’ by Jonathan Haidt, which started a conversation about the teen mental health crisis,” Hellwich said.

“Simultaneously, the collaborative group became aware of the book. Previously, this group had focused on crisis response to student issues, but the information in the book led them to a discussion about taking positive action with a wider framework.”

“The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness” (2024) is the work of social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, Ph.D. He attributes sharply rising rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide to extensive and unsupervised smartphone use among students, along with a loss of opportunity for unsupervised play time. Haidt outlines four foundational harms: social deprivation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, and addiction.

Haidt argues that smartphones in particular give young students access to readily available pornography, the possibility of being bullied or extorted by others, and a pathway to addictive behaviors. Haidt said that children are often restricted or overly supervised in in-person situations, and yet have total freedom to surf the internet, where parents are often naively unaware of what their child may be exposed to.

Haidt also argues that free play in childhood gives children confidence and allows a natural path for healthy development. Digital interactions do not create the same social and emotional bonds as face-to-face interactions.

Smartphone supervision can be challenging. Based on national averages, around 90% of fourth through eighth graders have smartphones. Parents and children need to communicate with each other and other students, and phones are used for personal safety. Alternative phones for young users are available that have no apps, social media, or internet capability.

“Another statistic that we want parents to hear is that Snapchat has 10,000 incidents of sexual extortion every month among teens,” he said. “We have seen it in our district, where a student will ask for nude pictures of another student, and then say, ‘Keep giving them to me or I’m going to show them to everyone.’ I’ve seen it destroy families. Parents think they know what their kids are doing, but they don’t.”

The launch of the “Thriving Generation” campaign begins Oct. 10, coinciding with World Mental Health Day 2025, and extends throughout the weekend. The outreach will focus on educating the community about the need for limited and supervised smartphone time and increased free play.

“We really want it to be a phone-free weekend, but some people cannot do that,” Hellwich said. “Tier 1 is you put your phone away and you don’t see it for three days; Tier 2 is only use it for absolute necessities.”

Gateway Park and PenMet’s Sehmel Homestead Park will each be hosting events Oct. 10 as part of the campaign.

Tracey Perkosky, executive director of Key Pen Parks, said, “It’s important that we are trying to support mental health in a variety of ways. We need a really big umbrella.”

Becky Maffei, lead counselor for PSD, said, “The goal is not to tell people that phones are bad, but to support a healthy lifestyle and get the life they want. It’s about community, not a school district thing.”

“I see lots of kids who feel really isolated,” Maffei said. “They say their free time is online gaming, talking to friends online. They can’t even imagine a world where the majority of time is spent doing something physical with friends. They don’t have a framework for where to start to call or invite a friend, no experience. Kids might be aware this is not healthy, but it is hard to push against the norm.”

In contrast, the Key Peninsula’s Red Barn Youth Center’s after-school program provides a variety of interactive activities for students.

“The kids arrive after school and check their phones right away, after not having access through the day,” said Executive Director Jolene McCarthy, “but then they go to other opportunities like basketball, pool table, or board games that are face-to-face. Most love the interactions, and they are here for friends instead of technology.”

For more information, go to www.peninsulathrivegeneration.org.