As someone who has a shameful screen-time record, I was very intrigued by this non-fiction when I spotted it on NetGalley. Dr. Regehr delves into how social media is set up to purposefully draw us in and keep our attention for their own profit.

One thing I really hadn't expected from this book was its focus on how parents can keep their children safe online. Whilst I think this is a really important topic, I'm not a parent myself and don't plan on being one so I wouldn't have picked this book up if I'd known this was the focus. The synopsis doesn't make it clear that this is such a core focus and I feel like it's doing the book a disservice as more parents would pick this up if they knew (and I wouldn't have!)

Separate from all the sections on kids, I did find Dr. Regehr's research into this topic really interesting and whilst not surprising having it laid out in black and white did make me truly think about my usage and why exactly I'm online so often.

This book is definitely being mis-marketed, but I did enjoy the 20% that was relevant to me (and maybe I should try and treat myself like a child over my internet usage!)

This is a brilliant and vitally important book that everyone should read. The author is a highly experienced academic at UCL and draws on her and her team's extensive research to offer a multitude of valuable and sometimes disturbing information about smartphone use. She writes in a very accessible style and there is some great advice too. Recommended reading.

A worthwhile read on how smartphones and the companies that make them work and how to manage time spent on them. Recommended read.

You might be familiar with Regehr’s advice because she provides consultancy about the use of social media to government bodies.
Even with some of the familiarity of the messages and advice, Smartphone Nation has many shocking facts to deliver such as the age when 90 something per cent of children have an online presence, and how much of a role social media exposure played in a few tragic cases.
This book is not only facts, it is also step by step valuable advice to use social media and help children be more aware about its effects.
The highlight for me was Dr Regehr’s arguments against tech companies’ excuses. It is shocking how we can miss the most common sense, logical and ethical points when those who hold power keep manipulating us.

This is an accessible, thought-provoking read. Looking at smartphone usage for both children and adults, it highlights the ways in which we are all effectively giving away our likes, dislikes, interests and personal information and offering it up to advertisers who then target us with ever more specific ads. It also looks at the darker side of smartphone use, the content that children are exposed to from a very young age, as well as discussing screen time as a potential issue, and ways to address these things with your children.
I really liked that the book felt balanced, in that it isn't a diatribe against technological advances. And the suggestions and ideas for ways to check you're not stuck in a you-loop, and how you can moderate your own usage, as well as your children's, were all useful. I've already implemented some of the ideas within my own feed, and discussed the book with my children. Although it does make reference to children throughout, I found it relevant to my own smartphone usage, and so I think it isn't just for parents and would be a useful reminder of monitoring what information you are giving away, and thinking about your active and passive phone usage.

A welcome voice of calm in current hysterical debate about the devices we are all in thrall to. The author looks at the evidence, and gives a practical guide on how to manage screen time, both as a parent of children, and for our own habits.

Whilst I spent much of my time reading the words and nodding my head, I did spent an amount of time wondering when the basic-basics were going to get covered and they never were.

This is very sad because until those basic-basics are "fixed", smartphones are going to continue to monetise far to many users. It is very difficult to talk to supposedly tech-savvy generations when those doing the talking do not understand what they should be addressing. What am I banging on about? The fact that far, far too many people just click on OK and accept all terms and conditions when they load a new app or an old one is upgraded. The other silliness is that when people chose to check what they are agreeing to, they discover something called "legitimate interest". Yes, "legitimate interest" to all the data collectors and of no real benefit to the user.

Given that this sort of basic education is missing or ignored by far too many users, however tech savvy they think they are, allows the commercial world to take full advantage of those users as product!!

Smartphone Nation is certainly a book worth reading for the data and warnings it provides and I hope that Dr Kaitlyn Regehr covers the basic-basics when and if there is a revised edition.

This isn't just another book blaming us for spending too much time on social media or telling us to just cut down our screen time. Regehr points out how tech companies love putting the blame on us. Instead, she digs into how these platforms work – the algorithms, the “you-loops” that feed us more of the similar content and suck us into a giant vortex of “echo chambers”.

One of the most haunting and heartbreaking stories that Regehr shares is that of Molly, who died by suicide at the age of fourteen. After her death, her father Ian accessed some of her social media accounts. What he found wasn't just teenage popstars. Molly's screen became “awash with red.” Self-harm images, despairing sketches, posts glorifying anxiety, depression, and suicide. Algorithms had fed these to Molly. She’d seen over sixteen thousand such pieces of content in her last six months. Two thousand were about self-harm or suicide. In November 2017, Molly took her own life. She was fourteen.

Regehr worries about more than just kids. The January 6th Capitol riot in the US and the more recent, horrific 2024 Southport stabbing at a kids' Taylor Swift yoga class in the UK, followed by racist, anti-immigrant protests showed that adults get sucked in too. “You-loops” and “echo chambers” don’t just twist reality, they actively fuel rage.

The book also rings the alarm on “sharenting” – parents constantly posting about their kids, building digital records from birth. Barclays Bank thinks this could cause two-thirds of youth identity fraud by 2030. Then there's what Regehr calls “truth decay.” Facts erode. Disinformation and violence spread online, fanned by figures like Andrew Tate. The young attacker of Southport stabbing had consumed masses of extremist content. These aren't random awful events. They're signs of a system where, as Regehr says, “disinformation can be more attention-grabbing than truth and thus rewarded by the algorithm.” And yes, it's the same system that can make it way too easy for parents to use phones as digital babysitters.

Regehr isn’t anti-tech though. She is fiercely pro-information. She suggests “Digital Nutrition.” Think of it like a healthy food diet, but for screens. It’s not just how much screen time, but what kind. We need to move from mindless scrolling to active, thoughtful engagement. Each chapter has these brilliant “What You Can Do About It” sections where she gives real strategies such as “game your algorithm” with “algorithmic resistance”, and using a “walk-through” method with our children.

But doing it all on your own isn’t enough. The problem isn’t just us. It’s the companies that design for addiction, optimize for outrage, and profit from disinformation. Holding them accountable, however, is harder than it seems.

Think about it – almost everything we consume is regulated, from the food we eat and the medicines we take to the cars we drive. But when it comes to social media and online platforms, this is less the case. Regehr explains how tech giants manage to dodge regulation with two clever strategies: the argument of “causation” and the shield of “free speech.”

When confronted with the harms linked to their platforms—teen suicide, misinformation, violent extremism—companies like Facebook claim there’s no scientific evidence of direct causation. Regehr compares this defense to how the tobacco industry used to deny that smoking causes cancer. Strictly speaking, it’s true: you can’t definitively prove smoking causes cancer in the way these companies demand. Doing so would require an unethical randomized controlled trial. That means forcing one group of people to smoke heavily and another group not to, then observing them for years. Obviously, that's impossible and unethical. Yet, tech companies demand this same impossible standard of proof for social media harm.

They also wave the “free speech” flag to fight regulation. This argument is powerful, especially in the US with its First Amendment history. Tech giants like Facebook, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter) present themselves not as publishers but as platforms, like an open town square. It’s a subtle but significant distinction. Publishers, by law, are responsible for what they print. Platforms, on the other hand, claim they’re just hosting content without endorsing it. Regehr points out that this argument is dangerously convenient.

She explains that while platforms are shouting about commitment to free speech, they are, in fact, constantly making editorial decisions: who gets amplified, who gets silenced, what gets monetized. The algorithms aren’t neutral. They are heavily curated. And the idea that regulation automatically kills free speech doesn't hold up either. Newspapers, TV, and radio have regulations and free speech. Regehr points out the absurdity: content “too brutal for broadcast on TV” is easily found by kids online. The money behind the attention economy needs a rethink.

In the end, Smartphone Nation isn’t about rejecting technology. It’s about reclaiming agency. It gives you the knowledge to understand what's happening when you scroll and the tools to take back some control.

(I received an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) of this book. Thanks to the publisher, Bluebird (an imprint of Pan Macmillan), and Netgalley. Smartphone Nation is expected to be released on 15 May 2025 in the UK, and 2 December 2025 in the US.)