by Melanie Hempe, BSN, with Psychiatrist Dr. Adriana Stacey, MD
Speaking to BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg ahead of the launch of her new Channel 4 film, I Am Ruth, Kate Winslet admitted that parents feel ‘utterly powerless’ about how to help their children navigate social media. I Am Ruth addresses this problem because Winslet tells the story of a mother who does everything to help her daughter as her mental state was ruined by social media. It is one thing that Winslet is trying to illuminate this problem with her star power.
I got this same sense of powerlessness when I watched a recent video discussion with four therapists. I was pretty shocked by what I heard. The topic was teens and smartphones & social media.
They lamented that smartphones are causing problems for tweens and teens, but the therapists’ consensus was:
- Tech is here to stay, so we are all in misery.
- Our teens are the most miserable of any age group.
- We must allow it because this is where all their friends are.
The therapists’ answer to the teen smartphone dilemma: have more conversations about the dangers and potential problems smartphones cause for our teens.
What were their tips?
- Continue to address each digital mishap with them even if everyone is miserable.
- Find a counselor you like and keep going to counseling.
What terrible advice! ScreenStrong has a solution. Don’t try to live with the problem. Remove it.
The fix is not just circling the problem and talking more about it with our kids. The answer is doing something about it and preventing the situation in the first place. At ScreenStrong, we take a bold stand against the serious practice of giving teens (especially 8th graders) smartphones.
Listen to the podcast: Why 8th Grade is Not Smart for a Smartphone
Here are a few of the many reasons smartphones are not smart for 8th graders:
1. Teen Brains Seek Novelty (and this keeps them online)
2. Teen Brains Are Remodeled During Adolescence
The brain embarks on a remodeling period during adolescence. This remodeling process is a result of neuronal pruning. What is neuronal pruning? It is the process of removing neurons that are no longer used or useful in the brain. Pruning means “that the abundance of neural connections achieved during the sponge-like soaking in or knowledge during the childhood period will be whittled down, shaped like a garden.”
Adolescence is the time for teens to use it or lose it when building their brains. This season begins just before puberty and continues into their mid-twenties. Circuits that are used will be reinforced; those that are not will be lost. That is why, during the adolescence period, teens should be involved in activity that would develop their brains. When you want your teen excelling at a sport, speaking foreign language or playing a musical instrument, then they must practice on this. ScreenStrongs educational resources will even demonstrate to you how to substitute screentime with healthy hobbies.
Teens won’t develop critical neural pathways if they stare at smartphones all day. This means that unless they are socializing face-to-face the neural pathways that would enable social interactions, such as the skill of using eye contact and reading body language will be removed.
During adolescence, teen brains are in the process of rapid development. Brain control There is a direct impact to the brain development because of using smartphone and the negativity is associated with the growth. Teens do not need smartphones.
3. Teen Brains Need Sleep
Sleep is critical at this stage in life. Adolescents require greater sleep due to the fact that they are in the second phase of cognitive maturation, and obesity, impulsive behavior, and dysregulation are a direct consequence of the lack of sleep. Fatigue impairs memory and concentration and, worst of all, motivation (the urge to achieve something). If teens are up at night texting friends, scrolling, posting, and responding to notifications, they interrupt an essential brain health need: sleep.
4. Teen Brains Are More Prone to Addiction
The teen brain is more susceptible to addiction. If teens become addicted to a substance or behavior early, they have an increased risk of forming other addictions as they grow into adulthood. Childhood is the causation of ninety percent of adult addictions. High reward deciding, such as playing games and social media posting are meant to hook the user, and end up being addictive.
5. Teens Must Learn to Use Time Well
Time is a valuable resource. Teach your teens to use it well.
Lastly, adolescents should start using time management skills that they will require when they grow up. It is also during adolescence that the teenage learn to cope with being uncomfortable, resolve relationship problems and experience time management. It is difficult to quit habits that are developed. Can your teen complete all the required chores of adulthood without your presence to remind him or her?
Phones are fighting against our adolescents. They are devouring their time and preventing them to acquire skills necessary to guide them into adulthood successfully. Teens are not geniuses with the smartphones.
6. Teen Brains are Impressionable and Impacted by Negative Content
Sexual interest is peaking for both boys and girls by 8th grade, and the smaller the screen, the more exposure there will be. 62% of teens and young adults have received a sexually explicit image and 41% have sent one (usually from/to their boy/girlfriend or friend).
Smartphones allow increased access to the world of pornography—80% of porn viewing occurs on smartphones. Indeed, porn is chasing them. 56% of teens seek out porn once a month, and it will appear in the most seemingly innocuous places. Your teen will stumble across porn as they search for craft pins and anime cartoons or enter user-created worlds on popular video gaming sites.
The brain is competitive, meaning it maps for new exciting images at the expense of what was previously attractive. Content heavily impacts the teen brain. When porn fills a teen’s masturbation sessions, the images rewire his brain maps.
Teen brains hold tightly to these associations once new connections form. Our most powerful and lasting memories, along with our best and worst habits, arise in adolescence. Every day that goes by without porn is a win.
7. Teen Brains Are Not Pre-wired With Parental Values
Since the brains of teenagers hold on tightly to new connections, adolescence is a critical time to ensure your teens are not getting 24/7 access to influences that undermine your family values. Remember, our values are not genetic. This means your child is not born with your wisdom; you must teach it. Is the online world the place where you want them to learn values and be the most influenced? Most likely not.
Besides unwelcome sexual content, there are many harmful and dangerous influences in the form of social media challenges, unmonitored chat rooms, and exposure to other unhealthy addictions. Don’t let the negative influences on social media platforms shape your teen’s values.
8. Teen Brains Are Susceptible To Mental Health Problems
Smartphones exacerbate and may even cause teen mental health issues. How?
Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, addiction expert and author of Glow Kids and Digital Madness: How Social Media is Driving Our Mental Health Crisis – And How to Restore our Sanity, writes, “We’re living in the Age of Digital Social Contagions. It’s a time when certain illnesses aren’t spread by biological transmission but by a digital infection that attacks the psychological immune system. Using algorithms that find and exploit our psychological vulnerabilities, kids get sicker as Big Tech gets stronger.” He points out that “many of our young people are simply attempting to find a tribe or community to belong to via their online explorations and demonstrating what psychologists call ‘sociogenic’ effects; that is, effects caused by social forces — in this case, digital social forces.” What teen discover online influences them as they try to fit in with peers and find community. Listen to Dr. Kardaras’s ScreenStrong Podcast here.
Frequent encounter of negative elements, ideas and social rejection on the internet is bringing about a wide range of psychological issues. Our teens are especially disproportionately represented by record levels of depression, suicide, social anxiety, loneliness, overdoses, mass shootings, gender dysphoria, and addictions.
Dr. Stacey, one of the ScreenStrong partner, a psychiatrist, states that her patients with overuse of smartphones report to be more likely to present with issues of mental health concerns. Parents worry that kids won’t fit in if they don’t have smartphones, but what about when smartphones cause them to suffer from mental health issues? Smartphones exacerbate and may even cause mental health issues, so why are we giving them to our 8th graders at the worst possible time? Smartphones are not smart for 8th graders.
9. Teen Brains Are Searching For Identity
Adolescence is the time for identity formation, and where they spend their time will play an essential role in this process. Online influencers and peers have a significant effect on who they will become.
Not only is adolescence the peak time for identity formation, but it is the peak age for feeling rejection pain. Rejection by peers at this age is especially devastating. Social media magnifies rejection pain as teens try to manage the world of social media comparison. Moreover, when teens feel inadequate it derails the process of securing their identity. They begin to question who they are as they compare themselves to strangers and friends on the virtual stage.
The social needs of teen brains did not find fulfillment on the smartphones
Adolescence is a time to enrich social-emotional skills. Teens should not be sitting and gazing at their screens at this time. Rather, they require genuine face-to-face situations which would enable them to express their voices and ensure that they develop their social skills.
Adolescents require training in socialization skills with a view of entering the adult world of job interviews, career success, dating and adult relations. They require avenues of creating strong social bonds. We do not practice talking on a screen. In real life, we learn them through watching other people; facial expression, tone, inflection and body language. In order to develop effective social skills, it is essential that the teens socialize and spend time in groups, meet with people physically face-to-face, and learn the art of reading the room.
Takeaways
It is the parents who can transform the culture at home and take their children out of the fire of the virtual world- unless they do; they will become burned. Why subject them to the worst the digital world has to offer during the most vulnerable stage of their lives?
Smartphones are not smart for 8th graders because:
- Teen brains seek novelty
- Teen brains are remodeled during adolescence
- Teen brains need sleep
- Teen brains are more prone to addiction
- Teens must learn to use time well
- Teens are impressionable and impacted by negative content
- Teen brains are not pre-wired with parental values
- Teens are susceptible to mental health problems
- Teens are searching for identity
- Teens do not get their social needs met on smartphones
These are the reasons why ScreensStrong empowers parents to take a counter-cultural approach and replace the time spent on social media and smartphones with more productive and fun activities for teens. When the ScreenStrong community has your back, your family will benefit. Everyone wins when parents become the coach, discover a new game plan, and strengthen family connections!
Want more information?
- Join the ScreenStrong Community and get the FREE 7-Day Challenge
- Explore our Lifestyle Course with the bonus 30 Day Digital Detox
Listen to the podcast with Dr. Stacey: Why Smartphones Are Not Smart for 8th Graders
If you liked this post, you may also like this one: Digital Stress is Hurting Our Kids
