Today’s digital culture poses unique challenges to the mental health of adolescent girls.

Nonstop media coverage makes teens more aware of dangers, more frightened, and more risk-averse.

In today’s virtual community, digital devices replace personal interactions.

In 1994, psychologist Mary Pipher published a New York Times bestseller, Reviving Ophelia, to guide parents, teachers, and therapists in helping adolescent girls navigate a difficult culture. Twenty-five years later, she and her daughter published an updated version to explore what has and hasn’t changed.

The 1990s culture was poisonous to teenage girls. Contrasted to post-World War II culture, 1990s life was fast-paced, less protected, and sexually active. A global corporate culture, which blatantly sexualized women and promoted “junk values,” replaced family and community, where once children played together, read, and felt safe.

Twenty-five years later, girls are coming of age in a digital world. Nonstop media coverage makes teens more aware of dangers, more frightened, and more risk-averse.

In some respects, modern girls are doing better. The authors report reductions in casual sexual activity, unplanned pregnancies, substance abuse, eating disorders, racism, and conflicts with parents. However, in today’s virtual community, digital devices replace personal interactions. We see:

Deep loneliness: Girls don’t venture out with friends, but sit alone in their rooms with smartphones and Netflix. Digital devices mean less need or time to connect with family, community, and nature. And virtual relationships afford little experience or confidence with real, face-to-face relationships.

Sleep deprivation: Feeling pressure to stay connected, many girls sleep with their phones.

Comparisons and pressure to be perfect: Social media presents unrealistic ideals of beauty, pleasure, popularity, and worth. Friends post images of ideal vacations. Instagram is a contest of the most likes. At a time when they are struggling to discover themselves, many adolescent girls fall prey to feelings of inadequacy for........

© Psychology Today