Impact of various media on health

Phones at school are "a disaster," said Jonathan Haidt, the prominent social psychologist, making the case for phone-free schools. "Smartphones impede learning, stunt relationships, and lessen belonging," says Haidt. Teachers and administrators see "clear links between rising phone addiction and declining mental health, to say nothing of declining academic performance. Back in 2019, Haidt asked school leaders why they couldn't just ban phones during school hours. "They said too many parents would be upset if they could not reach their children during the school day," he said.

This advisory describes the current evidence on the impacts of social media on the mental health of children and adolescents. It states that we cannot conclude social media is sufficiently safe for children and adolescents and outlines immediate steps we can take to mitigate the risk of harm to children and adolescents. Key takeaways:

On December 20, 2022, President Joe Biden signed into law the Data Mapping to Save Moms’ Lives Act. This Act directs the Federal Communications Commission to incorporate, in consultation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), publicly available data on maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity into its Mapping Broadband Health in America platform by June 18, 2023.

Broadband is no longer a luxury that only a few people need; it is a critical service that supports Americans’ economic opportunity, health, education, recreation, and well-being.

As some states try to regulate children's social media use and TikTok emerges as a geopolitical chew toy, a new clearinghouse has emerged for mediating between tech companies and those concerned about their products' impact on kids: the 

An oft-invoked pun in broadband policy circles is the exhortation to support a fiber-rich diet. But data indicate that actual dietary benefits may arise out of strong broadband connections. Several inquiries have explored the role of internet connectivity in resolving the adverse impacts of “food deserts,” namely, areas in which there is low availability of healthy foods. The underlying theory is that internet connectivity may enable users to identify retail sources of healthful foods more easily or to even order those foods online.

The Federal Communications Commission is an important institution. It oversees a huge input to our information economy: Spectrum. Fortunately, three decades ago, we developed a method for allocating spectrum that has garnered bipartisan praise, been copied around the world, underlaid two Nobel prizes, and is arguably the most successful communications policy innovation ever. Unfortunately, Congress can’t decide how to reauthorize that auction authority. Congressional dysfunction? Alas, not weird. The stakes are high: billions in investment capital, 10x more in economic impact.

Broadband adoption is a determinant of health that intersects with other sociological determinants such as education and employment. Due to the rising reliance on digital technology, lack of broadband adoption prevents individuals from accessing the essential resources needed to fully participate in 21st century educational and employment opportunities. Vulnerable populations experience greater impacts of divestment, and therefore experience greater sociological stressors and worse health outcomes.

Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) introduced the Social Media Child Protection Act (H.R.821), which would make it unlawful for social media platforms to provide access to children under the age of 16. The rates of teen and adolescent depression, anxiety, and suicide have risen at unprecedented levels since the emergence of social media. The Social Media Child Protection Act makes it unlawful for social media platforms to provide access to children under the age of 16. It also does the following:

Despite increased investment in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of households in the rural United States still lack adequate access to high-speed internet. In this study, we evaluate a wireless broadband network deployed in Turney, a small, underserved rural community in northwest Missouri. In addition to collecting survey data before and after this internet intervention, we collected pre-treatment and post-treatment survey data from comparison communities to serve as a control group.