Texting and calling friends, playing games, using social media are some of the things teens do on their devices. Usually, people get phones in around middle school, and then, they get addicted. According to the WVEA Help Center, teens usually spend around 9 hours on their phones a day, more than the hours teens spend in school, and it creates less time for them to connect with their parents and other friends.
According to Scholastic, 95% of teens in the U.S. spend time online, and 80% have social media. Teens sometimes multitask: doing homework, and texting friends at the same time. Then, the person finally gets distracted, interrupting their concentration, and then they can’t take any responsibility and initiative for doing homework.
Of course, phones are virtually essential in this world, but too much phone use can cause many problems, such as virtual relationships, which is a big problem. Virtual relationships sometimes do not turn out well online. For example, according to Exploring Your Mind, people may be framing a false identity, people can miss non-verbal messages (like through texting), receiving photos that are not the actual person, people can be vulnerable in cyber relationships, life cannot be satisfactory, and more. Besides virtual relationships being a huge conflict, many other intentional disputes are information overload and online compulsions. These habits can also lead to loneliness, depression, anxiety, stress, disorders, lack of concentration, lack of sleep, an increase of self-absorption, and more effects.
Signs of phone addiction include not finishing tasks that need to be done, distance from family and friends, a fear of missing out on things, getting distracted by the phone, and even worrying about misplacing a phone.
According to NCBI, people should not be absorbed in their phones as it will result in low self-esteem. Some extroverts who suffer from phone addiction develop nomophobia, which is a fear of not having a phone. Nomophobia symptoms may also bring in social phobia, panic disorders, signs of which can be trembling.
As stated from Help Guide, to combat phone addiction, users would need to be aware of the temptations of picking up their phones, drawing the line of difference between the interactions with people in real life and online, and be aware of if their behavior is compulsive. Additionally, many could try to strengthen their support network. Support network refers to the people that help somebody achieve any personal and/or professional goals they set up for themselves. These people may be family members, friends, mentors, and many other people with strong ties to the person. To set up a good support network, people should think back in their lives about receiving support, from anybody. Then, they should keep the support’s contact information and talk to them on a daily basis about dreams, hopes, successes – anything! Others might be able to listen, help, or encourage the goal achiever and will be very helpful in life. But there are so many other things that people can do to get off of their phones: the world provides the means to discover new ideas in a book, play chess, or even take a walk.
It’s not like anybody can never be allowed to be on their phones for the rest of their life. Advances in technology help people, and it influences our world. As long as teens don’t spend heavy amounts of time looking at devices, they will be in good shape and will get further away from the issues with phone addiction.
Written by Qwyen Le of Cabin John Middle School
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