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      • Adderall Guide | Side Effects
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      • Is bipolar disorder genetic and triggered later on?
      • Is cognitive therapy effective for bipolar disorder?
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      • 10 Warning Signs of Teenage Mental Illness
      • Munchausen Syndrome
      • How Does Social Media Affect Teenagers’ Mental Health?
      • Oppositional Defiant Disorder
      • Spotting Types of Depression in Children
      • Teen Suicide
      • Top Tips For Parents
      • Video Game Therapy for ADHD
      • What is a Residential Mental Health Facility for Teenagers Like
      • Why Is Mental Health on the Rise Amongst Teenagers?
    • Is Social Media Ruining Our Self-Esteem? 
    • Mental Health Guide
      • COVID Counseling to Battle Mental Health Issues
      • Guide to Anxiety Medication
      • Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder
      • High Functioning Depression | Signs | Symptoms
      • How Can We Prevent Mental Illness in Youth?
      • How Do You Help Someone with Avoidant Personality?
      • How Does Online Counseling Work for Mental Health?
      • How Can a Mental Health Counselor Help
      • Mental Breakdown
      • Schizoid Personality Disorder
      • Postpartum Depression
      • Types of Mood Disorders
      • The Toll of Grief and How to Cope with It
      • What are The Major Affective Disorders?
      • What Cognitive Psychology Teaches Us About How We Think
      • What Is Clinical Mental Health Counseling
      • What are mental health symptoms you should never ignore?
      • What is Bipolar II Disorder? Symptoms and Treatment
      • What is the Difference Between Manic and Hypomanic?
      • What is schizoaffective disorder?
      • Is seasonal affective disorder (SAD) a mental illness?
      • What is substance induced mood disorder?
      • Is Depression a Permanent Mental Disorder?
      • What is the prognosis for Major Depressive Disorder?
    • Marriage Counseling | Benefits
    • Pandemic Related Issues
      • COVID Counseling to Battle Mental Health Issues
      • Work Stress Post-Pandemic
      • Shocking Growth of Anxiety During the Pandemic
    • Relationship Issues
      • How to deal with toxic relationship?
      • How does a toxic relationship affect your mental health?
      • What is gaslighting in a relationship?
      • What is the best way to help a partner who has trust issues?
      • What’s the best way to work out relationship problems?
      • 10 ways to improve communication in relationships
    • Spirituality in Addiction Treatment  
    • Therapy
      • Can I See a Psychiatrist Without a Referral?
      • DBT Therapy for Adolescents
      • DCBT- Digital Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
      • Deep Brain Stimulation to Treat OCD
      • Do I Need a Referral to See a Therapist?
      • Family Therapy: Definition, Types, Techniques, and Efficacy
      • How Can Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) Help Mental Disorders?
      • EMDR Therapy for Mental Health Conditions
      • Psychiatrist vs. Psychologist
      • Is Therapy Covered by Health Insurance?
      • Psychodynamic Therapy vs CBT
      • Psychotherapy
      • SMART Recovery
      • What Can Psychologists Treat
      • What is Group Therapy
      • What is Internal Family Systems Therapy
      • What Is the Role of the Counselor in Family Therapy
      • What Is Psychoanalysis
    • Trauma Bonding With Intimate Partner Violence
    • Teen Mental Health
      • Can a Minor Go to Therapy Without Parents Permission?
      • Teen Co-Occurring Disorders
      • What are the signs of depression in adolescents?
      • warning signs of suicide in adolescents
      • Mental Health Benefits of Exercise in Teens
      • How is the pandemic affecting mental health in teenagers?
    • Types of Disorder
      • Anti-Social Personality Disorder
      • Autism Spectrum Disorder
      • Avoidant Personality Disorder
      • Bipolar Disorder Symptoms | Causes | Diagnosis
      • Diagnosing and Treating an Adjustment Disorder
      • Histrionic Personality Disorder
      • Intermittent Explosive Disorder
      • Paranoid Personality Disorder
    • Veterans Guide
      • Functional Medicine for Military
      • Service Dogs Help Veterans with PTSD
    • Process Addiction
      • Gambling addiction
      • How do you know if you have an addictive personality?
      • What is Impulse-Control Disorder?
      • Process Addiction

How Does Technology Affect Teenage Mental Health?

How does technology affect teenage mental health? Read on to learn about the impact of technology on teens’ mental health and wellness.

An Overview on Teens and Technology

Technology for teens keeps growing, and its impact is visible in daily living. In some cases, the adverse effects of tech appear to outweigh the positive. According to a 2018 Pew Research Center survey, 95 percent of teens have access to smartphones.1 

The effects of these statistics are noticeable in teens and their behavioral health. Keep reading to know more about how technology affects teenage mental health.

How and Why Teenagers Use Technology

Teenagers use technology for various reasons, which can either cause positive or negative effects. Some technology for teens is to maintain a connection with social groups or increase creativity. Teens and technology impacts on them can affect emotional development and relationship development.

Teens and technology impacts cause significant time on a screen-based activity. These include tablets, gaming consoles, smartphones, televisions, and PCs. According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, children between ages 8 and 12 in the US spend around four to six hours daily watching or using their screens.2 

Common Warning Signs in Teens

Various warning signs may depict that teenagers overuse technology. Some of these signs showing the impact of technology on children include:

  • Extreme mood swings
  • Drug or alcohol use
  • Severe changes in sleeping habits, personality traits, and behavior
  • Difficult time concentrating
  • Extreme sense of worry or fear during daily activities
  • Attempting to harm oneself or thinking about it
  • Partaking in risky behaviors that may lead to harming themselves or others
  • Feeling withdrawn and sad
  • Signs of addictive behavior regarding the internet

Impact of Technology on Teens' Mental Wellness

Technology can affect teenagers in various ways. Below are some of the positive impacts and consequences of inappropriate internet use.

Identity, Self-Esteem, and Body Image

Technology for the better can help improve a teenager’s sense of identity and self-esteem. Media plays a role in developing a teen’s body image, self-perception, and weight apprehensions.

The mainstream media, including social media platforms, includes diet culture. In some cases, teens and technology impacts cause them to find edited images of men and women, weight loss messages, and advertisements for diet products. It can make it challenging to differentiate between reality and what’s falsified.

Relationship Development

Relationship development is commonly done via screens for teenagers. Instead of physical activities and interaction, society is shifting more towards online engagement. Most individuals are naturally social and require social interactions and physical stimulation. Due to technology affecting social skills, the lack of in-person interaction becomes a challenge for the teen in physical activities.

Lack of Empathy

One of the major problems with technology is that it desensitizes teens and other individuals. With time, desensitization can lead to problems in giving perspectives and developing empathy for other people. Making derogatory comments to others may not seem as bad when through a screen.

Emotion Development

People using technology can experience a negative impact on socialization and the development of emotional attachment through physical interaction. Teenagers often want to experience the instant gratification of constant entertainment, which may cause attachment to tech than to people.

Like how people get addicted to pain medication, teens may also face challenges controlling their internet use.

Positive Impacts of Technology on Teens' Mental Wellness

On the positive side, technology can help teenagers’ mental wellness by improving identity development, social group connection, and creativity. For instance, people using technology via social media can connect with friends from different locations worldwide. Here are some of the other positive impacts of useful technology in daily life activities:
  • Helping them learn
  • Preparing for future tech careers
  • Improved multitasking
  • Improved visual-spatial development
  • Improved problem solving and decision making

Negative Effects of Technology on Teens' Mental Wellness

People using technology often get exposed to various negative effects, either physical or psychological. Common challenges such as eyestrain and problems with concentration are common among these young adults. Moreover, technological advances have made cyberbullying more prevalent. Technology can also cause the following:
  • Lower attention span
  • Increased risk and lack of privacy
  • Risk of depression
  • Obesity
  • Falling grades
  • Bullying
  • Social interaction problems

What is a Healthy Limit to Set for My Teenager?

how does technology affect teenage
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the average teenager’s screen time is nothing more than two hours daily.3 However, it’s important to note that there shouldn’t be a strict recommendation about the required number of hours for an average teenager’s screen time. It’s only imperative to ensure that teenagers use screen time in moderation to avoid too much technology.

Parents and technology impacts cause the need to find out where their teens go looking for information. It’s also important for them to confirm if it’s good quality.

Teenagers and the Internet

Teenagers typically make quick decisions and may not always think about the consequences of their actions. Hence, it’s always important to know where your teen gets important life information on the internet. If those sources are inappropriate, calmly speak to them about the possible consequences of their actions. Ensure to make teens understand and not overly enforce ideas on them.

Teenagers and Their Exposure to Apps and Games

Another imperative detail to observe is the kind of games and apps the child uses.4 When selecting the best types of teenage online games, it’s advisable to consider factors like the teen’s age, needs, and maturity level. To avoid too much technology, consider introducing teens majorly to educational apps to help them stay organized or teenage online games that teach self-control.

Teenagers and Screen Time

When parenting the modern teenager and trying to reduce your teen’s screen time, it may be crucial to know whether their devices are sources of distraction. Some teenagers may find it challenging to organize their time appropriately and often procrastinate by using their phones or watching TV.

Stay in Touch with Your Teens

Teenagers are naturally adventurous and risk-taking. Hence, their need for constant excitement could make them take wrong actions or act impulsively. These impulsive tendencies are one of the reasons why parents and technology need to stay in touch with their young adults. When parenting the modern teenager, avoid back-and-forth arguments with them. Allow them to see the reasons for the steps you take.

Resources

  1. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/05/31/teens-social-media-technology-2018/
  2. https://www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/FFF-Guide/Children-And-Watching-TV-054.aspx
  3. https://www.aap.org/en/patient-care/media-and-children/
  4. https://home.dartmouth.edu/news/2014/08/new-study-video-games-and-teens-behavior

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