Media and Technology Affect Young Social Tendencies

According to a recent study, there are more than 3.4 billion people who use the internet. Of those, around 2.3 billion people are active on social media and the average social media user spends two to three hours a day. The average college freshman spends more time on the internet and social media than interacting with their colleagues. Professor Larry Nelson has found, “Repeatedly, our work has found that those who are floundering in their 20s in making the transition to adulthood (include) individuals who engage in a lot of risk behaviors: drug and alcohol use, binge drinking, risky sexual behavior”.

Many eight grade students who rely heavily on social media has shown a 27% risk of depression. Most students who are not involved in any extracurricular activities display these results due to them not having any other activity to keep the stimulated. From the article, in the year of 2011 the teen suicide rate was higher than it had ever been. Quoting statistics from the Monitoring the Future study, Twenge reports that, “Teens who spend more time than average on screen activities are more likely to be unhappy, and those who spend more time than average on nonscreen activities are more likely to be happy. Eighth-graders who spend 10 or more hours a week on social media are 56 percent more likely to say they’re unhappy than those who devote less time to social media.”

Technology conditions the brain to pay attention to information very differently than reading. Students who were allowed Internet access during class didn’t recall the lecture nor did they perform as well on a test of the material as those who weren’t “wired” during class. Finally, reading develops reflection, critical thinking, problem solving, and vocabulary better than visual media. The bottom line is that too much screen time and not enough other activities, such as reading, playing games, and good old unstructured and imaginative play, will result in your children having their brains wired in ways that may make them less, not more, prepared to thrive in this crazy new world of technology.

A high school teacher challenged his class to go one week without technology the longest. As student gave their feedback, it became very shocking. Most students experienced a delight experience without technology. Many confessed of enjoying interesting conversations with family and friends or even reading a book. Interestingly enough, many students requested their parents to lock away their devices or even change the passwords to help in not using the devices. This was a very good experiment to allow adolescents to reflect on how much technology dictates their daily lives.

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