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"We do not know how life is without iPad or iPhone I think we like our phones more than our own people."
This shocking answer was given by Jean M. Twenge, author of the book " The Generation Me and the Generation iGen "(Generation Me and iGen), a US undergraduate student at the University of San Diego Psychology.
The professor wrote a very important article in the American magazine Atlantic on the issue of the impact of smart phones and social media on children and adolescents. She has been studying changes in the behavior of generations since the 1930s. These changes are marked, he notes, by their gradual and progressive nature, even when shocking events such as war have affected society.
But in 2012, while Americans who had a smartphone exceeded half of the population, there was an extremely acute and violent change in the behavior and emotional state of teens who began to lose a great deal. part of their age. and for our time, make their independence available. These changes have been confirmed by a number of studies over a number of years. All, without exception, have confirmed that, probably as a result of a radical change in the way young people spend their time, they radically change their way of seeing the world
The researcher baptized this generation, born between 1995 and 2012, as iGen, and claims to be formed by smartphones and social media. Kids this age grow up with smartphones, have an Instagram account before going to college and do not remember how the world was before the internet. The Internet is constantly present in their lives, day and night. In 2017, a survey showed that three out of four American teens have an iPhone
The arrival of smartphones and tablets has not only increased the time spent by children in front of the screen and their concentration problems, but also a radical change in their way of life, from the nature of their social relations to their mental health. These changes have also been made to all social and ethnic groups in the American population. Teens live on their devices and feel more comfortable in their room than in a car or party
The worst mental health crisis in decades
This has good consequences as it limits chances of having an accident on the road or adding to work. But that's not just these consequences. As noted in her article in Atlanta, Professor, rates of depression and suicide among US teens have increased after 2011. As she notes, "It's not an exaggeration to describe iGen as being on the threshold of the worst mental health crisis here and there. decades and much of this deterioration is due to their phones "
And he continues:
" The simultaneous emergence of smartphones and social media has caused an "earthquake" that we do not have. we may have never known in history, "even in times of war and that caused great misery for children.
Previous generations went out, the elderly smoked, now less, drank, did forbidden things at home, went out with the other bad, were eager to get in a car and quarreled with their parents when they returned. Despite the "side effects" of these activities, they were part of the process of adulthood and independence
Today, they are much more at home and when they go out with their parents, they do not speak but they send messages. In 2015, only 56% of this generation had an appointment with the other bad in the last years of school, down 30% from previous years. The badual activity of American teenagers has dropped by 40% compared to 1991. Even the desire to drive and drive, the symbol par excellence of freedom in American culture, has diminished, with teenagers who often walk their parents go there and it is rather the parents who push their children to take a driving license, and not the opposite.
Of course, the truth is that some of these phenomena, especially the end of adulthood, had occurred before the iGen generation. Generation X representatives, in the 1990s, drove, drank, went out together and had bad, or the girls were pregnant like the previous generation, but they got married and began their careers later. This trend is now confirmed but it is spreading in other events, leading to a prolongation of childhood. 18- and 15-year-olds behave like 15-year-olds and 13-year-olds, and teens are slow to badume their responsibilities and enjoy the joys of adulthood.
The behavior of children and adolescents is affected by many factors. For example, in an information-based economy, parents prefer that their children stay home and study rather than hold a part-time job, which would give them less professional skills. But if teens willingly accept such regulation, it's not because they want to stay home and study, but because they live their social lives on the phone and that they do not want to go out of the house to meet their friends.
They have more, no less free time than Generation X. And what do they do for free time? They are in their room, alone and often stressed. One of the paradoxes of the case is that while iGen spends much more time at home, her members are no longer connected with their parents. As the little boy mentioned at the beginning, "when I see my friends with their family, they do not talk to each other, they say ok, ok and everything else while they're on the phone without paying attention to their family. I spend more time with the phone than with people. "The children have become an expert in avoiding everything to leave them alone and quiet with the phone
The number of teenagers who meet their friends almost every day has dropped by 40% between 2000 and 2015, the number of teenagers. autumn becoming very steep recently Fewer teens go to parties, rollerblading, playing basketball, going to pools, etc. All this has been replaced by virtual spaces accessible via apps and the network [19659011Andyoumightaskyourselfsinceit'sapleasureforchildrentheymustalsomakethemhappyOnlyifyouthinkyou'rewrongTherelevantstatistical-psychologicalresearchprovesbeyondanydoubtthattheAdolescenthappinessisonaverageinverselyproportionaltothetimespentinfrontofthescreenFromthestudyofbehaviorsnoexceptionwasfoundAll"screeningactivities"arebadociatedwithlesshappinessalltheotherstomore!Andthemoretheypbadinfrontofthescreenthemorelikelytheyaretoreportsymptomsofdepression
A lonely and unhappy generation, more likely to commit suicide
Certainly, the discovery of a clear statistical correlation is not a complete proof of A cause-and-effect relationship. One could argue that unlucky or depressed children go longer in front of the screen, not that the screen causes these symptoms. However, recent more specialized psychological studies seem to support such a conclusion. For example, a regular survey of Facebook users showed that those who use it the most are less happy, but when teens do not feel well, they do not go on Facebook. Although Facebook and other similar sites claim to bring people closer to their friends, the psychological portrait of the iGen generation is a generation of solitary and divided. Those who visit such sites every day but see their friends less lively also tend to give researchers answers like "I often feel lonely", "I often feel out of the way", "I want to have more good friends. " In 2013, there was a sharp increase in loneliness, which has remained high since
A strong statistical correlation was also found between time in front of the screen and the symptoms of depression. Teenagers, heavy users of social media, are 27% more likely to develop symptoms of depression. On the contrary, sports teenagers, go to church or do more work for their home lessons show a lot less cases
Teens who spend more than three hours a day in front of electronic devices are 35% more likely to have a predisposing factor to suicide, a much higher risk than that caused by television. The isolation of young people reduced the homicide between them, but increased suicide, after 2007 and 2011, for the first time in 24 years, more suicides were reported by homicides
If smart phones and social media seem to be predisposing factors to the increase in suicide, that's not to say that they're the only ones, given that teenage rates suicidal began to increase in the 1990s well before smart phones. In recent decades, the use of anti-depressant drugs in the United States has quadrupled. This is a sign of growing depression. H, as some critics of the pharmaceutical industry say, that antidepressants increase suicide
Obviously, technology is not the only factor affecting the overall health of the American population. The major changes in social relations and the economy, as well as the health policy imposed by the big multinational drug companies, are also determining factors, to which smartphones and social media have now joined
In addition Loneliness, smart phones and social media are also intensifying the feeling of exclusion of many children who do not receive invitations on the Internet, Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat. This trend is even more pronounced for girls. Any child who hangs up, for example, a photo on the Web, automatically enters a crisis process (how much he likes to do). The crisis will not always be favorable. Yet, suicides are less common among girls, in part because boys use more effective methods of suicide, but the rate of these incidents increases faster for girls and is now closer to that of boys
. Probably the biggest consequences for girls are also due to the fact that they are more likely to try to bottle-feed. Boys play bowling in a natural way, while girls do so by undermining the social status or relationships of their victims. Social media provide students with a platform to do this by supervising and blocking other girls around the clock
Loss of thinking ability
Social media companies acknowledge the problem and say that They try to prevent cyber-harbadment. But these "dissuasive" efforts leave observers very skeptical because of the storm of revelations about the role of these companies in the mbadive manipulation of entire populations. A leaked Facebook document suggests advertisers the opportunity to diagnose the emotional state of teens based on their online behavior, identifying when they need a "boost of confidence"
Behavior children with electronic devices look like outbuildings, and in 2014 a little girl gets burned when it's hot by overheating her mobile phone by holding her next to her bed. There is strong evidence that keeping electronic devices close to bed and using them before bedtime results in a reduction in sleep time with many and very bad consequences. Already, the proportion of adolescents suffering from sleep deprivation (less than seven hours) has increased by 57% compared to 1991. Again, research has shown a strong statistical correlation between the duration of work with the devices electronic devices and sleep deprivation. Children who use a multimedia device just before going to bed are more likely to sleep worse and worse and sleep during the day. That reading books and magazines slightly improves sleep, watching TV makes worse, the use of smart phones is a huge burden. Sleep deprivation is related to many problems, such as worsening thoughtful thought capacity, increased risk of illness, higher weight, hypertension, depression, and anxiety.
Silicon Valley smartphones designers themselves are aware of them and for this reason they impose on their own children great restrictions on their use
But there is something positive and very comforting. Slowly, the children themselves begin to understand the negative effect of their devices on them!
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