Slashdot Mirror
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."
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.
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.
"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.
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!
"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.
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
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.
real tough to keep them off of those things
Stop paying the bill.
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.