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Half Of Teens Think They're Addicted To Their Smartphones (cnn.com)
An anonymous reader writes: A new poll confirms just how much teens depend on their phones. Fifty percent of teens feel they are addicted to their mobile devices, according to the poll, which was conducted for Common Sense Media, a nonprofit focused on helping children, parents, teachers and policymakers negotiate media and technology. A larger number of parents, 59%, said their teens were addicted. The poll involved 1,240 interviews with parents and their children, ages 12 to 18. "Technological addiction can happen to anyone," said digital detox expert Holland Haiis. "If your teens would prefer gaming indoors, alone, as opposed to going out to the movies, meeting friends for burgers or any of the other ways that teens build camaraderie, you may have a problem."
or the right half?
What does gaming indoors have to do with smartphones? Oh I get it, a "digital detox expert" is trying to make a buck doing nothing with their life.
And the other half are in denial.
Dark Reflection
I thought being online all the time was weird. I was glued to my monitor. Now everyone is doing it with cell phones and saying they are addicted. I kinda miss when you had to be a nerd to get online. It wasn't a social issue back then.
You mean the smartphones they use to socialize with their friends?
How am I supposed to keep my kids from getting addicted to smart phones when my wife snaps at me every time I suggest that maybe she could put her phone down during dinner.
"People Don't Understand What The Word "Addicted" Means"
If your teens would prefer gaming indoors, alone (Well online with hundreds of people who they are interacting with)
as opposed to going out to the movies (Nothing more social going into a big dark room to sit down to watch a movie, and told be quite)
meeting friends for burgers (Nothing wholesome like connecting friendship with the injection of fatty foods. )
or any of the other ways that teens build camaraderie. (camaraderie?!? For teens they are so self absorbed that they never even listen to their friends they all just talk about themselves in turn. Their enemies are the ones who actually listen to them and use what they say against them. )
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
"If your teens would prefer writing poetry, alone, as opposed to going out to the theater, meeting friends for rolls or any of the other ways that teens build camaraderie, you may have a problem." - ancient Rome ~ 0AD
If you're addicted, by all means seek treatment, but honestly, most of this is simply another round of how decadent kids are, and this has been going for many thousands of years, probably since the first ever sucessful hunt. Furthermore, most of this is pales to a real addiction - if your symptoms are that you don't like being around others, how about we talk about being addicted to books? Being addicted to movies? Being addicted to schoolwork? Hell, being addicted to being an introvert? The symptoms are all the same. Undoubtly there are people who truly suffer from this, I'm not saying there aren't, but I suspect much of this to be overblown out of proportions.
"Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
Gaming indoors is the modern teen camaraderie:
- Invites communication & collaborative strategy
- Experiencing win/lose attitudes
Movies are the epitome of anti-social:
- sit silently in the dark, opposing all who talk, to be indoctrinated.
Driving age is over 18 in many areas, or over 19 with passengers, so how are the "teens" supposed to get to this burger place?
Science & open-source build trust from peer review. Learn systems you can trust.
Half of teens think being "triggered" is feeling mildly uncomfortable after reading something they don't like and "depression" is not enjoying getting up early in the morning to go to school. Some definitions and a little bit of perspective might be in order.
Having a mental illness is the new black, don'tcha know. Who needs health professionals when you can self diagnose based on what you read on Tumblr?
Why don't parents just take away the phones?
I heard this story on NPR yesterday before it was posted here. A sizeable portion of the parents of these 'addicted' teenagers are also addicted to their phones.
It's stupid. It's a phone, not a lifestyle; stop making it into one. Just one more thing to add to the list of reasons I'd never want a so-called 'smartphone': being associated with these sort of people. If it wasn't for safety reasons, and if it didn't cost any less money, I'd skip having any sort of wireless phone and just go back to a landline.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
a clue: the problem aren't the smartphones...
"If your teens would prefer gaming indoors, alone, as opposed to going out to the movies, meeting friends for burgers or any of the other ways that teens build camaraderie, you may have a problem."
I'm sorry but this is the same bullsh** parents used to spout when I was a child-
Don't waste your time playing video games!
Go outside and get some sun!
Why don't you go play football or something?
you'll never if you just sit there on that computer all day.
Our parents meant well. But they didn't understand that games are the primary training tool for computer interfaces... They didn't see what was possible and thought we were all wasting our time. But now they know differently. Now they are all online and happy to receive pictures of their grandchildren and get to Skype/Facetime/etc with their families and friends. Now everyone wants their child into STEM and interest in football is waning because we've finally realized that repeatedly hitting our children in the head has consequences. At last, being a nerd is no longer a stigma.
If more than half of teens have this supposed 'problem' who is to say it's not the new normal? We ran up to them and handed them a baton and now we don't like which way they are running with it? If my generation had listened to our parent's the PC would have been a flash-in-the-pan fad and the world would look very different right now.
The real question for me is - What amazing things will this next generation do with the technology at their fingertips?
I survived being grounded, without long-lasting repercussions. They'll survive.
Kids need to learn that there are consequences for their actions, while those consequences are relatively minor.
As a parallel, I ended up getting a better job at work because the guy that was the lead tested several of us out, "borrowing" us for some larger jobs. One of the guys that lost-out did so because he couldn't stop texting to focus on the damn job.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
I admit, I was an early-adopter and had a T-Mobile G1 (aka HTC Dream), which was the first production Android phone. Now, I got it because I saw Android as the natural evolution for use of a personal digital assistant kind of device, and I'd carried Palm devices for years. Unlike Palm, the over-the-air synching and other centralized services actually worked right, so the phone acted as a natural extension of my existing e-mail and contacts and calendar and the like, and the actual handset didn't matter since the content that was important was housed centrally.
I don't text all that much, I don't get on the phone all that much. I check the device when I have notifications, but given the nature of my current job and dealing with outages, it makes it convenient to know that something's gone awry quickly so I can address it while handling my other duties.
I would much rather people call me on my landline, and my business cards don't even have my cell phone number printed on them. If someone needs my cell phone number I'll provide it, but that's not usually the case.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Half Of Teens Think They're Addicted To Their Smartphones - the other half are in denial.
Ken
"If your teens would prefer gaming indoors, alone, as opposed to going out to the movies, meeting friends for burgers or any of the other ways that teens build camaraderie, you may have a problem."
Perhaps I hate paying outrageous amounts of money to sit in a dirty theater with stale, overpriced popcorn while some teenagers in upper back row provide braindead commentary and inside jokes with their other friends while theater management simply does nothing. Why are online relationships so much less "social"? I'm not making out with my friends, I'm not a hugger, so tell me why something like Facetime or Hangouts are less acceptable.
But what about the LUDDITES?
they are addicted. If we only had a Reagan to declare The War On Phones.
If you would prefer doing things alone by yourself instead of with other people, the vast majority of whom are shitty and not worthy of your time, there's something wrong with you! /sarcasm
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
After all, they probably just read on their cellphones that they were addicted, so they parroted it back ;D
But to be honest, real addicts DENY that they are addicts. One of the core principles of the 12 steps is to admit your addiction. Same thing for most of the other non-12 step programs.
Real addicts don't admit they have a problem.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
I am similar. I had the G1. Now I am burned out on smartphones and only look at mine when I have to. I think people will eventually burn out on smartphones. They are just "new" to many people. New meaning 1-5 years of regular use.
A good example of this is casual gaming, where "normal" people keep playing the same game year after year even if its the shittiest of games just because it was the FIRST game they ever tried.
Halo comes to mind.
When I was in college, a friend had just come back from the mall where he said that someone in a kiosk as tying to sell him a cell phone (this was in the early days of cell phones). The sales person was going over all the things you could do with it and said 'once you try it, you'll never be able to live without it' to which my friend responded 'that sounds like heroin. Why would I want that?'.
As a parent of kids who are just becoming teens, I can say it is real tough to keep them off of those things. We haven't get bought smartphones for our kids for partly this reason. Judging by how hard it is to keep them away from their tablets at home, and maintain a healthy balance to their lives, teachers will have no chance at it. Once they get phones I can see there will be no going back; they will spend every waking moment on them and we won't be there so there will be nothing we can do. I'm kind of shocked how early parents give these things to their kids to take to school.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Unless you have to do something on it while driving.
They're not entitled to smartphones. Why not take them away?
And then what? Okay so you've taken the phone away, it is not like they are just going to say, "Oh gee, my phone is gone, I guess I'll do things that I don't normally do." It's like people who yell, "Oh just take food stamps away and people will magically get jobs." People just don't magically change overnight and just simply taking a phone away for any short length of time isn't fixing a perceived problem. Allow them to use it for only an hour a day? That's not going to fix jack all that does is make the whole effort an exercise in futility.
What needs to be done, is to teach a level of responsibility that is required to use these devices. You know how you have to teach a kid to drive like a sane human being? And how that just doesn't happen overnight? Yeah, it's like that. Except we've had cars for quite some time now so we're all pretty on the up and up about what responsible "is". Not so much for phones (we are getting there though). What's the responsible level? Using the phone only to answer calls? Allow at least thirty minutes outside? There's not even a rough outline as to what "responsible" is for phone usage, the only thing people can squarely lay their fingers on is what ISN'T responsible. Like don't use it while watching a movie, don't use it while driving, get out of the house every once and awhile (how often being highly subjective) And so on.
So all of that said, we're still in an infant stage of smartphones and yeah, we're going to be complete morons when it comes to them, congrats CNN for pointing out the blindingly obvious about the human condition. But arbitrarily saying, "Oh just take them away" is also NOT going to solve jack crap. We're going to have to develop through trail and error what we think is best and that's going to take a lot of time to eventually figure that out. And that is the reason "just take them away" does not work, it arguably runs counter to everything we know that might actually work. We're just going to have to grin and bear it and work though this as painful as that sounds.
Which brings me more to the point of...
If your teens would prefer gaming indoors, alone, as opposed to going out to the movies, meeting friends for burgers or any of the other ways that teens build camaraderie, you may have a problem.
Building friends and have a close network of peers is clearly a more favorable position than the opposite. However, the thing I have a problem with is the idea that we still need to go out to the movies or get burgers or any of that other crap to build those things. The methods for how people have met, developed friendship, and created long lasting bonds has always evolved. Note how we don't usually go out on fox hunts with hounds and horseback nonsense to get our monthly get together in. Or how we have a lot fewer formal balls. Etc. We change how we do these things as time marches forward. Am I saying that Facebook is a perfect replacement? Not By A Long Shot. Are we too entrenched into phones? Yeah, more than likely. But saying that the way to counter all of that is to just put the phone down and ignore that the last 30 years happened is just silly. We don't have the answer to how to bring society out of the zombie inducing smartphone era, but I assure you, we're going to have to get use to the idea that the answer very well might include the smartphone in some sort of fashion. Better or worse we've got this new thing and it isn't leaving anytime soon.
So TL;DR the answer to "Why not take them away?" Because it won't work. That's just not how humans operate. For better or worse we're going to have to slowly and painfully figure this crap out and society as a whole will slowly evolve the answers. CNN's piece is so infuriating because it is devoid of anyone talking about actual solutions. It just keeps repeating over and over, "this is a problem, this is a prob
IKids need to learn that there are consequences for their actions, while those consequences are relatively minor.
They aren't going to do that if mommy and daddy micromanage their lives. Kids socialize. Get over it. My 15 year daughter spends a lot of time on her phone. That is her choice. She isn't out drinking, or using drugs, or getting pregnant, and her grades are good. So she is doing a lot better than I was at her age.
If you seriously believe that too much texting and photo sharing is an existential crisis, then please don't have kids.
...half of teens don't know what "addicted" means.
"Digital detox expert" cracked me up. I'm a Psychologist by education, and as far as I know, "digital detox expert" is not legit. I strongly doubt it is addiction in the same way we mean when we say, "Bob is addicted to opiates". Do teens go through physical withdrawal symptoms when smart phone use ceases? I mean, aside from being angsty and pissy (normal teen behavior).
Sure, using a toilet a few times a day is quite comparable to spending hours and hours on a phone. Now if you sat on your toilet for hours and hours...
Brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.
It's not meaningless, it's just used incorrectly. Do teens go through physical withdrawal symptoms when they are forced to stay off of their mobile devices? I very much doubt it. Do they engage in risky or illegal activity to ensure they can continue using mobile phones? Does their mobile phone use severely impair their ability to function socially, academically, or otherwise? Possibly, but nowhere near the extent to which something like heroin or alcohol. Thus, one can't be addicted to a phone.
So, you're not Todd Palin then.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I'm not sure that there is much of a difference between going out to eat burgers with friends, or playing a game online with friends. They're both social events...
Hey I love my smart phone. I can make calls on it, it fits perfectly between the top of the ashtray and bottom of the radio in my car, it plays music that I can connect to my car radio, it functions as a gps when I am going to unfamiliar areas, functions as a USB thumb drive in a pinch, and it has a better alarm feature than previous cell phones I have had. Other than that I could care less so I guess I am not the target market.
Time to offend someone
so how the hell are they getting addicted?
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Taking someone's phone is macro-managing, wanting to know each text or conversation is micro-managing.
But both are bad parenting. By the time a kids are in high school, they are ready to start making their own choices. Parents should give guidance and step in when there is a problem.
Here is a checklist of things that are, and are not, major teenage problems:
Is a problem:
1. Drug addiction
2. Binge drinking
3. Drunk driving
4. Flunking out of school
5. Juvenile detention
6. Pregnancy
7. HIV
8. Suicide
Not a problem:
1. Sharing cat videos with her friends
Well, that your first examples DO have in common, is that they were both putting people you were interacting with, conversing with, BONDING with...in physical proximity to each other. During these events, you physically did things together, physically went new places together, and physically interacted with one another.
You don't do that through FB or the cell phone.
I'm meeting more and more young kids, that just don't seem to have any people skills whatsoever. I'm not talking about just not being polite, I'm talking about being too shy to talk, not knowing HOW to talk or interact with a person or even a small group of folks.
The cell phone and other media is good for helping get folks together to DO something...it is troublesome that the tool is becoming and end unto itself and replacing youth learning how to deal with persons and people in meatspace in a real and meaningful way.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I suspect I'll get downmodded to -1 so people can avoid the question and pretend like it's not here.
We just don't think it's a problem, and we want them to have phones to call us or text us when shit gets too real.
When I was a teen, I thought I was addicted to Green Day.
They'll be fine.
I agree. I believe this is why so many teens "go crazy" when they leave home for university. They've spent 17-18 years being sheltered and micro-managed by their parents, and suddenly they're left more-or-less on their own to make important decisions and manage their lives. Making decisions _for_ your kids isn't helping them become well-adjusted adults.
Apparently wizard is not a legitimate career path, so I chose programmer instead.
Teens build camaraderie through online interaction and not going out to movies these days.
To an out of touch parent it may appear your child is gaming alone. In reality they likely have a chat and/or voice connection to their friends and are playing a game together through the net. This is no less social or camaraderie than sitting in a room playing a board or video game together but parents would see one as social interaction and the other as isolation.
"Addicted to technology" and "If your teens would prefer gaming indoors, alone, as opposed to going out to the movies, meeting friends for burgers or any of the other ways that teens build camaraderie, you may have a problem." You might be describing most of slashdot and the linux crowd?
Most people aren't thought about after they're gone. "I wonder where Rob got the plutonium" is better than most get.
I'm in the same boat. My phone is my watch, ebook reader, email client, media player, camera, and atlas. And it also lets me get internet on my laptop when I'm on the train. I have very little desire to "socialize" with it, but for practical purposes, a good smartphone is amazing.
Apparently wizard is not a legitimate career path, so I chose programmer instead.
But going into a restroom stall to play Solitaire on a phone (bad wireless coverage for anything else) is something one can enjoy for hours and hours, at least while being paid by the hour.
I've met countless people hunting - albeit not usually for fox. Also fishing... I've been to many formal dinners and even some fancy engagements that you'd probably call a ball - as dancing and drinking, while appropriately attired, was the goal and with a live small string quartet or even a marginally larger band. If you want to count the Birthday Ball then I've actually been to quite a few balls. But no, I don't think I've ever met anyone while hunting for fox. Deer? Yes. Fox? No. I do believe I'm allowed to hunt them but I can't actually imagine why I'd shoot one. It's not like I can eat it. Well, more like it's not like I am going to eat it.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
That's the Austrian branch. *nods*
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Clearly you have a toilet addiction. You should get that looked at.
Brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.
In other news, half of teens don't understand what the word "addicted" means.
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.