Recent national surveys project that 53% of children will own a smartphone by age 11. While the reality of a child being able to utilize the features of a smartphone has provided many new benefits to both them and their parents, the harm of unlimited access to smartphone technology on a child’s mental health has many experts worried.
According to a recent systematic review conducted by researchers at King’s College London, roughly one in four children and young people who own a smartphone display what mental health experts call “problematic smartphone usage,” which can be further described as “behaviors linked to smartphone use that resemble features of addiction.”
While many people think of addiction as a behavior driven by things such as drugs, alcohol, or tobacco, the concept of addiction to technology has become a serious reality in recent years, which has caused people to display behavior similar to those with dependence on hard or soft drugs.
In their findings, the researchers sought to identify several different features of addiction to smartphone technology, including specific behaviors such as: “having an intense urge to use your phone,” “feeling panicked if it runs out of battery,” “neglecting other more important things to use it,” “spending more time on it than you first intended to,” “having other people complain about how much someone used their phone,” and “continuing to use it despite knowing how much it affected other areas of your life, including sleep or school work.”
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6 comments:
My kids are! I admit it, I fell into they need a phone trap and now see it daily the behaviors associated with it. I always thought I would have a handle on it, but as a parent it can certainly get a way from you quickly, even with the best intentions.
Knowing what I live and see daily it saddens me to no end to see toddlers, some who can't even speak with a phone or tablet in their little hands while in a stroller or grocery cart.
The kids want a new law that will allow them to Marry their significant other, their cellphone!
Don't laugh, they will probably get it, did any of us ever think in our country we would see the day men could marry men and vice a versa?
It's not just the kids. I have a bunch of middle-aged to almost retired-aged men at my job who you would think were teenage girls. Bunch of phone princesses, gonna get them a rhinestone covered pink case for their phones so they can look cute playing candy-crush and looking at cat videos on Facebook when they should be working. Gotta get back to work now - lunch is over, LOL!
It's not just kids! Every age human that is capable of using one is generally addicted. It's the new smoking habit.
Walk thru the mall. Everyone at the eatery has out their smartphone. Walk behind a group. They constantly are individually taking their phone out and checking. Sometimes 3 or 4 times a minute.
I leave mine home or off in the car. If you need to talk to me, I'll get back to you.
Thank you 3:48
I'm the same way
In fact I sometimes get strange looks for not having my phone
I just tell them it can wait
NO the problem is you are just not good parents, plain and simple... First off, they should never have even touched such a device at that age, but you let them... You can't miss something you never had, think about that... Then to add on to it, you fail to have control of your kid over the device! This is what makes you a bad parent... You probably did it to buy their love or to get them to SHUT UP right? The fact that they act badly when you take it away or say they can't use it is the evidence... I bet you people don't even discipline your kids do you?
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