A World Beyond Our Screens by Jane Bolton
“Around 2012, I noticed abrupt shifts in teen behaviors and emotional states.” Jean Twenge is a professor of psychology at San Diego State University who studies and writes books on the smartphone generation. “The gentle slopes of the line graphs became steep mountains and sheer cliffs, and many of the distinctive characteristics of the Millennial generation began to disappear.”
What caused these mountains and cliffs? Although we don’t know for sure, we do know that this abrupt shift happened in the year of 2012-- the year when over half the population owned a smartphone.
With smartphones, teens don’t feel the allure of independence and freedom as much as previous generations. “The shift is stunning: 12th-graders in 2015 were going out less often than eighth-graders did as recently as 2009.” says Professor Twenge in the Atlantic. The decline of teens getting together in person with their friends has also become more noticeable, dropping by 40% and continuing to decline steeply.
Along with this shift, driver's licenses and paid jobs have lost their attraction as well. The majority of teens in previous generations had their driver’s license by their senior year in highschool. Nowadays, many teens don’t get their license until the end of highschool after a good amount of nagging from their parents. Along with this decrease, less teens are searching for jobs because they don’t value the independence it brings as previous generations did. Simply put, smartphones are prolonging childhood. “Across a range of behaviors—drinking, dating, spending time unsupervised— 18-year-olds now act more like 15-year-olds used to, and 15-year-olds more like 13-year-olds. Childhood now stretches well into high school,” according to Professor Twenge.
As smartphone and social media usage increases, teens are at more risk of having health issues. Teens that spend more time on their smartphones are likely to suffer from sleep deprivation (less than 7 hours of sleep), more illness, and weight gain. “In just the four years from 2012 to 2015, 22 percent more teens failed to get seven hours of sleep.” reports Professor Twenge.
Teens who spend more time on their smartphones and social media are also more likely to have mental health issues. They tend to be unhappy and lonely, fall into depression and anxiety, and even commit suicide. “Eighth-graders who are heavy users of social media increase their risk of depression by 27 percent, while those who play sports, go to religious services, or even do homework more than the average teen cut their risk significantly,” according to Professor Twenge’s research. As depression increases, so does the risk of suicide.
Interestingly, some teens have started to link their problems and frustrations to the smartphone as well. Have you ever gotten together with your friends and tried to start up a conversation only to have them ignore you and keep texting on their phones? Has it happened with your family? Although we don’t need to abandon this new technology, we do need to realize that there is a world outside our smartphones. A world with people. A world that is so much bigger than our screens.
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