Adolescences in a Digital Age

Is the world pushing children to be older than they actually are? Who is to blame, technology companies, or parents? An adolescent used to be around 13 years old. Now the age has moved down to 10 years old. Some of the down falls have come through technology. Madeleine. J. Goerge, and Candice L. Odgers reveals to us in their article, ” The Risks and Rewards of Being an Adolescent in the Digital Age.” Eighty-percent of American adolescents now own a mobile phone, and are texting a staggering sixty times a day.

It is a major concern that it is taking them away from being creative. Plus, what is it doing for their mental health? Adolescents spend around 7 1/2 hours a day on social media. Somethings they spend these hours are on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, snap-chat, playing games, and other platforms. This is due to mobile devices being an easy access to all of the above networks and, what they write and look at is there for the world to see.

What problems will this create for the child’s learning development, and social development? We all have seen this, your on a train, flight, or at the local coffee shop, and at the table a child sitting with their parents. The child is on their phone or iPad, and there is no communication between them. The network has sucked them into a void. Mobile technology has had a negative effect in the world on all young people. Has the mobile phone attached itself on the child? The child feels its part of them. Four out of five teens today own a mobile phone.

Many teens sleep with their phones at night. This can cause problems with their mental health. This can cause going to school with a lack of sleep. It will effect their learning. The Journal from Science Direct, conducted a test. A high percentage of 71.5% out of 6616 adolescents between the ages of 11-12., from 39 schools around London used screen based social media. That is either with the lights on or off. Sleep quality was tested to determine the effects on their health, and quality of life from using screen based media devices.

It is essential for our health that we have enough sleep, and the results suggest that children might have health issues later on in life. Using screen based media devices in the dark, or more than 1 hour every night had staggering results on their health related quality of life. Part of this reason is they lose sleep at night, and stay up longer on the weekends giving themselves no time for recovery.

https://www.apa.org/pi/families/resources/newsletter/2014/12/digital-age

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412018312418

Teenagers and Sleep in the Digital Age

This video shares some positive factors, but they usually come after being effected with anxiety, etc. Social Media offers a form of counseling. The above video explains this.