Connected or addicted? Gen Z's complex relationship with technology

There's a lot of moral panic associated with the how Generation Z uses technology. As a cohort they have spent their entire lives immersed in the internet, with smartphones never far from their nimble fingers. Young people aged between 18 and 24 are a test case for the impact of technology on our broader social systems.

As with every new technology, from electricity to music to television, there is an ever-present fear among older generations of the damage it will do to young minds. Writing for The Atlantic and in her book iGen, American psychologist Jean Twenge argues that there is a sharp decline in the mental health outcomes of Gen Z (or "iGen" as she calls them) compared with their predecessors, and it correlates exactly to when smartphone use became more prevalent among young people.