‘I don’t think my brain should have gone through that’: five young people on their experience of smartphones as teens

What do people who got – and one who didn’t get – internet-connected phones in their adolescence actually think about the impact they had on them?Debate and anxiety about teen and preteen access to smartphones and social media is raging. One paper has likened smartphones to a “parasite” on our brains, while another study suggests moderate use of social media does not have a harmful effect on young people. In the US more than 100,000 parents have joined an online pledge to delay giving children smartphones until at least the eighth grade and in Australia a ban on under-16s using social media will come into effect in December. Despite all this, OECD figures released in May show 70% of 10-year-olds and 98% of 15-year-olds have internet-connected smartphones.So is giving teenagers smartphones that big a deal?To find out, we asked four twentysomethings who got a smartphone at some point in their teen or preteen years – and one who didn’t

Felicity Whittaker obituary

No one who met my friend Felicity Whittaker, who has died aged 96, could ever forget her. Not the dozens of disadvantaged and often troubled children whom she cared for, nor fellow protesters from Ban the Bomb days to Extinction Rebellion marches. And certainly not the many friends who enjoyed her lively and engaging company in Highgate in north London and later in Bedford.Felicity was born in London to Lydia Bilbrook, an actor, and George Harrison Brown, a journalist. Her parents separated when she was a small child, and she and Lydia moved to Santa Monica Canyon, near Hollywood, where Lydia was part of the British actors’ community and appeared in several films

Triple threat of smoking, drinking and weight ‘puts a million in England at risk of early death’

One in 50 people aged 16 or older in England are at risk of an early death because they smoke, drink too much and are overweight, research has found.This “triple threat” increases the risk of diseases such as cancer and diabetes and in some cases means people dying 20 years earlier than they should, a senior doctor has said.About 1 million people in England are living with that threat, an analysis of the Health Survey for England by the charity Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) has revealed. They are the 2.2% of the population who use tobacco, drink more than 14 units of alcohol a week and are overweight or obese, as judged by having a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or more

As a carer, I’m not special – but sometimes I need to be reminded how important my role is | Natasha Sholl

When I started watching the Disney+ show Dying for Sex, I was wary that the cancer storyline might hit a bit too close to home, after our teenage son was diagnosed with cancer in 2022.The series follows Molly (Michelle Williams) who decides to leave her marriage and pursue sexual pleasure after being diagnosed with stage four cancer. And yet while it’s a difficult watch for obvious reasons, it wasn’t the “cancer stuff” that hit me where it hurts (everywhere); it was the portrayal of Nikki (Jenny Slate), Molly’s best friend, who takes over as carer when Molly leaves her husband. Nikki loses her job, her relationship, her house, her own mental health. And it’s very rare that we see the role of a carer highlighted in pop culture in this way

People dying early of cancer costs UK economy £10.3bn a year, study finds

People dying early of cancer costs the UK economy £10.3bn a year, more than any other health condition, a study has revealed.That is the total cost of the 350,000 years of lost productivity recorded across Britain every year because adults have died prematurely of the disease, according to Cancer Research UK (CRUK).Each early death costs the economy an average of £61,000, according to the charity’s first research into how much the country loses as a result of the growing toll of cancer diagnoses and deaths.In 2021, cancer caused the loss of more productive years of life than any other condition – 350,000 years