Teenagers believe smartphones make them more popular and less depressed
Teenagers believe smartphones make them more popular and
less depressed
By ALESSANDRA MALITO Published: Sept 12, 2018 1:52 p.m.
ET
Teenagers say social media and smartphones make them
happier, but that may be a dangerous sentiment considering the weight of
evidence showing otherwise.
The share of teenagers who use social media has jumped
dramatically in the last six years, from 34% in 2012 to 70% in 2018, according
to a self-reported survey of more than 1,000 teenagers by Common Sense Media, a
San Francisco-based nonprofit focused on safe technology use for families. In
2018, just 32% of teens said they prefer to communicate in person, down from
49% six years ago.
Perhaps most concerning is their belief that social media
actually helps improve their mental health, experts say. Of the teenagers
surveyed, a significant number said social media made them feel more popular
(21%), more confident (20%) and better about themselves (18%), the report
found. Far fewer said it made them feel more anxious (8%), more depressed (3%)
and more lonely (3%).
‘It is troubling
that youth at the highest risk are the ones who care the most about social networking
and online communities.’
Harold Koplewicz, president of the New York-based Child
Mind Institute
However, a higher number of vulnerable teenagers (11%) —
who scored at the lowest end of the researchers’ “social-emotional well-being
scale” — said social media made them more depressed and 29% said it made them
feel less depressed. “It’s possible that the beneficial effects of social
media, for vulnerable teens, have increased over the past six years,” the
report found.
“It is troubling that youth at the highest risk are the
ones who care the most about social networking and online communities,” Harold
Koplewicz, president of the New York-based Child Mind Institute, wrote in the
report. “These are the children who can be the most negatively affected by cyberbullying
and who can become distraught over the expectations built into curating their
online selves.”
“But they are also the kids who benefit from finding
communities to embrace them, from being able to interact freely and practice
social skills in a safe space online,” he added. Koplewicz said social media
can also make teens feel less lonely and more confident. “This is our
experience as mental health professionals, when children and adolescents are
allowed to have developmentally appropriate, time-limited access to positive
social media and online content.”
Puppy face filters and bursting digital confetti aside,
however, these platforms can become a dark place, especially for teens.
Smartphone addiction among teenagers is linked with higher scores in
depression, anxiety, insomnia severity and impulsivity, a report presented by
the Radiological Society of North America last year found. (Some 93% of
teenagers own a smartphone, up from 50% in 2013, according to a separate report
released by Deloitte last year.)
Children who spend more time on their phones have more
disruptive sleep and more symptoms of depression, according to a survey of
3,134 adolescents presented at the annual meeting of the Associated
Professional Sleep Societies, a joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep
Medicine and the Sleep Research Society in June. Social media, surfing and
watching TV and playing games all contribute to these depressive symptoms.
Gaming was the biggest culprit.
Social media can be a harsh place for young people who
are just starting to form their own sense of self, said Sierra Filucci,
executive editor of parenting content at Common Sense Media. They may label
themselves as less attractive or less cool if they don’t have the latest
designer clothes or discover they weren’t invited to a big party that’s
splashed all over Instagram. They may even be introduced to bad habits like
smoking or unhealthy dieting.
Teenagers who spend more time on their phones or looking
at screens, like computers and video games, were unhappier than their
counterparts who spent time outside, read magazines, or socialized
face-to-face, according to a report by Jean Twenge, a San Diego State
University psychology professor. Twenge and her colleagues crunched surveys of
more than 1 million students from the 8th, 10th and 12th grades about their
time on devices.
The good news: Some teenagers are aware of their
dependency on to the smartphone. More than half of teens were worried they
spent too much time on mobile devices, according to a Pew Research Center
report released in August, and they were attempting to fix it. Some felt
anxious when they left home without their phones, or felt lonely or upset when
they were without one.
Solutions include engaging more with family members and
friends face-to-face, removing their phones from the dinner table and putting
the phone in another room before it’s time for bed, Filucci said. Parents can
help their children set limits or create screen-free times and areas in the
home, too. “Teens and parents can specifically focus on how to be more mindful
of their device use,” she said.
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