Iowa

An Iowa pediatrician’s call to action on smartphones and social media for children

Published

1 year ago

July 7, 2024

Press Room

An Iowa pediatrician’s call to action on smartphones and social media for children

We must collectively protect children. And even if you don’t have children, speak up because it will affect our workforce and economy for years and years to come.

Padget Skogman
| Guest columnist

Dr. Padget Skogman is a pediatrician in Cedar Rapids.

This spring, our surgeon general recommended that we mandate a warning label on social media platforms cautioning of the detrimental effects to mental health of our children. Evidence demands that we open our eyes and become aware of the cost of social media and smartphones to them.

I am a pediatrician, born and raised Iowa farm girl, mother of three daughters and graduate of Iowa’s Carver College of Medicine in 2014. I have witnessed the erosion of our children’s development from smartphones and social media. They are inhibiting their social-emotional growth by robbing them of necessary socialization and development, which affects, but also extends far beyond, mental health, encompassing social awkwardness, reduced self-confidence, increased sedentary time, fragmented attention and disrupted learning, addiction, and social withdrawal. As a community, we must adopt new norms around social media and smartphones to reduce the cancerous risk they pose to our children.

Facebook became mainstream in 2006, and smartphones ubiquitous around 2012 and 2013. Not by accident, anxiety and depression in teens rose by 50% from 2010 to 2019, leading to a national mental health crisis. Loneliness and friendlessness began to surge in 2012, and, academically, U.S. scores for reading and math began to decline for the first time since the 1950s. Recent data shows teens spend an average of 4.8 hours on social media per day with YouTube and TikTok leading the charge.

Please note that none of these hours include the screen time associated with school or homework.

The harms extend further with lost hours of sleep, exercise, socialization, and reading. Social media and gaming involve abnormally heavy and sustained activation of dopamine neurons and reward pathways, which means that, over time, the brain adapts to these high levels and then experience withdrawal without them, inducing anxiety, insomnia, and intense irritability, predisposing these children to addiction. Simultaneously, rates of pediatric obesity and pediatric type 2 diabetes also continue to rise, with Americans averaging 93.7% of their time indoors throughout the year.

While this correlation isn’t 100% causation, it certainly gives me pause, and explains what I’ve observed in my own pediatric practice.

Perhaps you’re thinking, “Well, my child is safe, then, because I haven’t allowed them to have a smartphone yet.” Kudos, but have you factored in that greater than 85% of the children they hang out with are on their phones? Even if your child isn’t on a phone, if at their cafeteria table majority of kids are staring at one, your child’s experience is altered. This is why adoption of community norms and school policies is paramount. We must collectively protect them. And even if you don’t have children, speak up because it will affect our workforce and economy for years and years to come.

Until recently, I’ve felt completely overwhelmed with how to stop or at least slow this proverbial “train crash” aside from educating everyone I encounter. Recently Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist, published “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness” with these four suggested norms, and I feel empowered to ensure that everyone in our community and state is aware of them. These are an excellent staring place to evoke a strong change for our children. I strongly recommend that all parents, grandparents, teachers, coaches, and schools adopt these immediately:

No smartphones before high school.
No social media before age 16.
Phone-free schools – place in locked location for the entire school day.
More independence, free play and responsibility in the real world.

Please implement them and talk to your school district and community about them, not just for your child or my girls, but for the future of our world.

Dr. Padget Skogman is a pediatrician in Cedar Rapids.

Source link

Click to comment

Iowa

Iowa DOT to rebuild I-35 between Huxley and Ames. When will it start?

Published

4 hours ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Iowa DOT to rebuild I-35 between Huxley and Ames. When will it start?

Ames commuters: Now is the time to send in your feedback for proposed changes to Interstate 35.

The Iowa Department of Transportation is proposing new construction to widen I-35 between Huxley and Ames and rebuild sections of U.S. Highway 30 as part of a multi-year plan.

What’s in the Iowa DOT’s construction plan for I-35 between Huxley and Ames?

The Iowa DOT has been planning these changes for more than ten years. Around 2005, about 35,000 vehicles using I-35 south of U.S. 30. In 2024, that number’s now at approximately 47,000 vehicles — and expected to continue growing.

Some of the improvements include:

Replacing and widening I-35 bridges over U.S. 30 in Ames
Lowering U.S. 30 to improve clearance for I-35 bridges
Reconstructing ramps at the U.S. 30 interchange
Widening I-35 to 6 lanes between Huxley and the U.S. 30 interchange in Ames

How much will I-35 improvements between Ames and Huxley cost?

The cost of the project is expected to total $100 million.

When will construction start on I-35 in Story County?

Construction is expected to begin in spring 2027 and be completed by the end of 2030. The project also requires permanently closing 564th Avenue south of Ames between 280th and 290th Streets.

The public input period concludes at the end of December. You can submit questions and comments on the DOT’s website.

Lucia Cheng is a service and trending reporter at the Des Moines Register. Contact her at lcheng@gannett.com or 515-284-8132.

Source link

Iowa

Local business highlights Iowa agriculture impact during Iowa Secretary Mike Naig visit

Published

16 hours ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Local business highlights Iowa agriculture impact during Iowa Secretary Mike Naig visit

CENTERVILLE, Iowa (KYOU) – A state innovation grant is helping a local meat processing facility serve area farmers and strengthen Iowa’s food supply chain.

Country Roads Meat Processing received funding through Iowa’s “Choose Iowa” butchery innovation grant program to update equipment at their facility.

Owner Melanie Seals said the business processes beef from multiple local farmers.

“Probably at least purchase beef from at least 20 to 25 different farmers,” Seals said.

Seals, who grew up on her family farm butchering meat, now runs Country Roads Meat Processing with her husband.

On Monday she gave Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig a tour of the facility.

“I mean we both grew up on farms we always butchered our own meat, and we just want to the local movement ally just excel and to grow,” Seals said.

The Choose Iowa butchery innovation grant helps small meat processors update and expand their operations. Seals used the money to update the facility’s equipment, which she said helps supply an important link in the food chain.

Seals said the grant is also helping the business increase visibility for more farmers in the community.

“We like to get as many as we can on the board up there so that way more people can know,” Seals said.

Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig said he wants to see this kind of success statewide.

“What we’re seeing is a reasonable investment on the part of the state results in a significant investment locally which again drives more businesses,” Naig said.

The success matters as farmers continue to face challenges ahead.

“Were optimistic for another good growing season but that the marketplace will respond,” Naig said.

For Seals, the grant represents a solution that pays off by investing in the future for local farmers.

“We like to help those people that are local have their own businesses and we just kind of want to be a hub for all of that,” Seals said.

Source link

Iowa

Iowa National Guard identifies 2 soldiers killed in ‘ambush’ in Syria

Published

1 day ago

December 15, 2025

Press Room

Iowa National Guard identifies 2 soldiers killed in ‘ambush’ in Syria

The Iowa National Guard on Dec. 15 identified the two soldiers killed by a gunman with suspected ties to the Islamic state in Syria.

They are Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, and Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25.

The two sergeants killed were members of an Iowa Army National Guard unit deployed to the Middle East as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S. military’s counter-ISIS mission, the Iowa National Guard said in its announcement.

The soldiers were killed alongside their interpreter in an “ambush by a lone ISIS gunman,” U.S. Central Command said in a Dec. 13 statement. “The gunman was engaged and killed.”

Three servicemembers were also injured in the attack, according to the statement.

Howard’s father, the chief of the Meskwaki Nation Police Department in central Iowa, shared on Facebook that his son was one of the soldiers killed.

“My wife Misty and I had that visit from Army Commanders you never want to have. Our son Nate was one of the Soldiers that paid the ultimate sacrifice for all of us,” Chief Jeffrey Bunn wrote in a post on Dec. 13.

Bunn identified the interpreter killed as Ayad Sakat.

The troops were killed while they were on a “key leader engagement” in Palmyra, a city in central Syria, chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said on X. “Partner forces” killed the attacker, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on social media.

The shooter was a member of the country’s security forces who had been investigated and assessed to harbor possible extremist views just days before the attack, according to Syria’s government.

President Donald Trump vowed to retaliate after the attack. “There will be very serious retaliation,” he wrote in a social media post.

Trump has tightened ties with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaida fighter who toppled his predecessor, Bashar al-Assad, in a stunning overthrow late last year.

Source link