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Frequent Smart Phone, Internet Use Linked To Symptoms Of ADHD in Teens (npr.org)
Most teens today own a smartphone and go online every day, and about a quarter of them use the internet "almost constantly," according to a 2015 report by the Pew Research Center. Now a study published this week in JAMA suggests that such frequent use of digital media by adolescents might increase their odds of developing symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. From a report: "It's one of the first studies to look at modern digital media and ADHD risk," says psychologist Adam Leventhal, an associate professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California and an author of the study. When considered with previous research showing that greater social media use is associated with depression in teens, the new study suggests that "excessive digital media use doesn't seem to be great for [their] mental health," he adds. Previous research has shown that watching television or playing video games on a console put teenagers at a slightly higher risk of developing ADHD behaviors. But less is known about the impact of computers, tablets and smartphones.
Being able to multitask, which is now required for success in many cases, is also an ADHD behavior. Maybe we shouldn't judge people in the present based on how pre-technology people existed.
No-one can "multitask". Some people can serially mono-task, switching from one to the other frequently. But you cannot convince your brain to do two tasks that are not pure repetition at the same time, and even when that works, the error rate goes up considerably.