Jason Leonard, Part 2: Smartphone Addiction and Generational Cycles
December 27, 2019
Every generation faces new challenges, and the current generation of college-aged young adults has to reckon with how smartphones, social media, and targeted marketing affect their lives – sometimes for better, but often for worse. In this episode, Adam and Jason talk about how technology plays a role in the lives of college students and how the current and previous generations respond to each other.
Through several anecdotes, Jason reveals that college students truly feel “enslaved” to their phones. From the decision fatigue caused by a constant demand for attention to the deliberate manipulation of addictive inclinations, phones (and social media and entertainment apps) generate a host of psychological and spiritual issues for Gen Z (and some Millennials). These two generations are often characterized as phone-addicted industry-ruiners, but as Jason points out, every generation tends to view the next one critically.
Listen in to this episode to hear more about generational tension and how college students are responding to the negative effects of technology.
Jump Through the Conversation
[0:55] Contributing factors to anxiety and depression in the lives of college students
[1:57] Story about taking a break from screen time
[4:13] How we’re impacted by the immoral use of technology
Story about question posed to designers
Exploiting addiction
[7:03] Adam’s observations about smartphone addiction
Mark 4:19 and spiritual implications
Decision fatigue
[12:18] Smartphones and the demand for attention
[14:32] Gen Z’s response
[17:54] How Jason teaches about technology and social media
Advice to college guys after first dates
Delayed gratification, risk, and vulnerability
[22:47] The cycle of how generations view and respond to each other
[27:01] How Gen X responded to the major events of the late 20th century
[29:13] How Millennials have responded to Gen X
[29:43] The remedial changing of institutions
A resource of the Chattanooga House of Prayer