Electronic devices might have contributed to an uptick in symptoms of depression and suicidal thoughts over the last several years among teens, especially among girls. Jean Twenge, psychologist, who led the study agree this sort of research can only establish a correlation between long hours of daily screen time and symptoms of alienation and she thinks the findings should be a warning to parents. Four to five hours and beyond that’s where there’s much more significant risk of suicide attempts, thinking about suicide and major depression. Twenge and her colleagues took a hard look at national surveys that asked more than a half million young people, ages 13 to 18, questions that get at symptoms of depressions. By far the biggest increase was among girls who were six times more likely than boys. Financial stresses and anxiety related to academics and homework are often cited as factors in teen depression. Twenge has found that when people spend less time on electronic devices they tend to be happier and less lonely.