Smartphones and Young People: Three Troubling Impacts

Smartphones clearly have much to offer us today.

They allow nearly instant communication with just about anybody.

They’ve got a convenient camera installed — so we don’t need to sling a separate gadget over our shoulders ever again.

And smartphones offer a plethora of helpful apps, various forms of entertainment, and a world’s worth of information at a moment’s notice.

But there’s plenty of evidence out there that there are other issues to beware of — here are a few that parents, families, and all of us, no matter who we are or where we are in our lives, must know.

1.) Depression and anxiety. Since 2013, there’s been a 33 percent increase in depression diagnoses.

The diagnoses for teens aged 12-17, along with millennials, are even more shocking, with an increase of 63 percent and 47 percent respectively.

The instant and unwavering social media access provided by smartphones all but forces people, especially teens and young adults, to compare themselves constantly to others. Instagram, in particular, has become a popularity contest, as users stress over the quality of their postings in pursuit of likes and followers.

Many new studies are showing that adolescents are increasingly experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety. This apparent sudden increase came in 2012, eerily enough, right about the time smartphones shot up in popularity.

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