Two separate studies have provided data suggesting using a smartphone is related to mental health problems, such as depression and attention deficit disorder in teens.
Separating a young person from his/her phone is one of the most difficult tasks you may imagine, but now teens may have to deal with the knowledge that staying glued to mobile devices may be linked to mental health crisis.
Prior to the late 2000s, mobile phones were mostly used by professionals and businessmen. Since then, thanks to variations like the Apple iPhone, they have become a necessity in a rapidly-evolving, digital world.
Virtually everyone owns a mobile phone nowadays and teens are not left out.
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According to British figures, the official age of entry when most young Brits get mobile phones is 10. That is, eight entire years before they can even drive cars.
Teens, by nature, are given to trends more than older demographics. They have that healthy dose of curiosity that is needed to try out new innovations and the success of mobile technology whether devices or apps, is usually dependent on them.
Nobody uses phones like teenagers do
As such, the market for mobile apps and devices targeted at teens is a large one. On your favourite mobile apps, there are thousands of apps targeted directly at teens and young people.
One of such, Musically helps users record quick videos set to music playing on their phones.
Made in China, the app became such a massive viral trend among teens across the world that it was sold for a whopping one billion dollars barely three years into its run.
Beyond this, there are also educational apps like Duolingo; games; social networking apps like Snapchat that can keep a teen occupied for as long as the battery is powered.
However, spending all that time glued to the small screen may be having adverse effects on the mental health of teenagers and young people.
Two separate studies have provided data that suggests using a smartphone is related to the incidence of mental health problems, such as depression, attention deficit disorder, and social awkwardness in teens.
Is there a correlation between smartphone use and mental health problems?
One of such studies was led by Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University, who is the author of a controversial book on young people in the digital age titled “iGen”.
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In the book, she makes the case that persons born after 1995 — who she calls iGen are on the cusp of a mental health crisis due to the overuse of mobile phones and devices.
Her study, published in American Psychological Journal, claims that children who spent more than one or two hours using their phones were less happy on average than kids who spent their time talking to others.
Another study comes to a more worrying conclusion; that the dependence on phones and other mobile technology may be affecting the teens’ brains.
The study conducted by researchers from the Korea University in Seoul found that brain chemistry of young people addicted to smartphones and the Internet may be imbalanced.
This inconsistency leaves them vulnerable to mental health issues like depression and anxiety.
The researchers made the findings by comparing 19 young people who were addicted to their phones to an equal number of people with no addiction.
Welcome to the digital age
Mobile phones have changed our lives in different ways, more than we may be willing to imagine.
Screens have all but replaced books and sheets of papers, and beyond catching a cruise and texting their best mates, young people also use their phones for very productive reasons.
In schools in more advanced countries, mobile tablets and screens have become cursory educational tools as the world moves farther into the digital age.
In Nigeria, this may not yet be the case but more young people are being encouraged to use mobile devices to gather and access information.
Thus, it would be useful to check how these devices can impact young people, especially when they are not used for socialising.
The conservative nature of our society means that few Nigerian parents are willing to hand-over phones to their young teenagers as early as western parents are.
And for good reason.
The internet is an unrestricted space and one, without guidance could do easily fall down a rabbit hole.
Guidance or Control?
To be fair, social networks have helped young people find similar minds and communities that they share interests with. On the flip side, a vulnerable teen could stumble on the wrong website or get in with the wrong crowd on the internet.
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In this sense, staying glued to a smartphone could create a circumstance where the teen becomes too comfortable in the virtual life he has created and avoids reality, instigating mental health problems that could get worse without proper guidance and care.
For a naturally shy kid, his timidity could degenerate into sociopathy where he does not see the need to have relationships with people when he can find comfort in his devices.
The key, in the end, is balance. We cannot do without mobile technology in today's world and as time goes, more devices will be made for every class of persons, including children who already fiddle with game tablets.
“I spent my career in technology. I wasn’t prepared for its effect on my kids,” philanthropist Melinda Gates, whose three children were also born after 1995, wrote August in the Washington Post. “Phones and apps aren’t good or bad by themselves, but for adolescents who don’t yet have the emotional tools to navigate life’s complications and confusions, they can exacerbate the difficulties of growing up.”
The challenge will be as with everything else, getting the best out of these innovations and avoiding everything else.
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