Mental Health and Teched Out Teens

 By: Caitlin Jensen

Mental health has a great deal to do with our children. There are so many children who suffer from depression in America. In America over 2.2 million youth ages 12-17 cope with severe major depression.¹ While 13.1% of youth report having one major depression episode a year.¹ These are things that do affect our children and as their parents we are responsible for getting them the help they need and trying our best to understand what can worsen or help our children with these unfortunate mental health problems.

Technology has been a source of discussion recently has it is developing, and we try to discover what affects that technology has on teenagers. With technology being such a present part in our everyday lives and especially in our children’s lives. Now technology is required in kindergarten. This advancement and normalization of it in the schools and in the home, it is hard to see the affects of technology on our children. It is hard to see the affects that technology has on teenagers mental health.

The internet has become the most common place for teenagers to “hang out” with their peers.² It is a place where teenagers go to interact with each other. Now having an online presence has become to having a social identity in their groups.² Social media has made relationships the key purpose of online activity. Teens also have multiple accounts across the variety of social media platforms. It is common that teens have different identities depending on the platform in which they are on. It is not an uncommon event.

Different social media platforms have different purposes. Instagram puts pictures as the main importance of the post. Facebook is more word orientated. Also, Facebook is more about families, teenagers tend to think that Facebook is the old person app. Snapchat is more privatized pictures sent to specific people. Instagram is an easy place for teenagers to compare themselves to other people. They see the perfect pictures that have been edited and picked out of many pictures and then they compare their life to what they see. This is normal. Teenagers are at an age where they are trying to see where they fit into society. But when they see all those picture-perfect moments, it is hard for them to look and realize that the person’s life is not as perfect as the picture they have posted on social media. These teenagers are then trying to make their life to be like what they assume this person’s “perfect life” is. But they are never able to achieve it. This causes a sense of not being good enough. They begin to think that they are doing something wrong. Which is not the case but the person who they think is living the “perfect” life, they are having problems to.

There are challenges to teenagers using the internet. Using the internet opens the door to progress certain problems. Some of these problems include cyberbullying and sexting. Cyberbullying is online harassment or aggression. This is described as willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices. There have been studies done on how many teenagers experience cyberbullying. The results suggest that 5% of youth experience online harassment, however few report cyberbullying². This is probably due to the fact that the same teenagers are both being cyber bullied and are cyberbullies. The affect that any type of bullying has on a child is something that stays with the child for years to come. When a person is told repeatedly that they are nothing, that they are worth nothing, that no one loves them, to go kill themselves, that no one would miss them, or any of the other terrible things that teenagers tell each other it leaves a lasting impact. I was bullied in high school over a haircut and it took me five years to get up the courage to cut my hair again.

Teens are heavy users of technology. They are texting, watching videos, and gaming. Seventy-five percent of teens, ages twelve to seventeen, own a cell phone in the United States³. Texting has become the most common form of communication. Teen’s call, talk face-to-face, and email, less than they text. It is their preferred form of communication. Parent’s have reported these observations as what they are seeing in their own homes. They have seen their children texting when they are grabbing a snack, right after getting home from visiting their friend.

Teenagers have attachments to their phones and the attachment is not healthy. The blue light from the phones disrupts the sleep cycle, preventing teenagers from getting the proper amount of sleep. It also affects the quality of sleep. Blue light messes with the bodies ability to prepare for sleep. Blue light blocks melatonin from being produced, melatonin makes you sleepy. Because of the blue light from our phones, it makes us less sleepy, it takes us more time to fall asleep. In fact, light at night is one of the biggest reasons for people not getting enough sleep⁴. There have been a number of studies done in order to see if not getting enough sleep has an affect on mental health.

There is a correlation between the lack of sleep and depression. In fact, therapists will often encourage their clients to get into a sleep schedule. Setting a consistent sleep schedule allows for the body to be able to handle the emotions from the day much better. It is a fact that when children get the right amount of sleep that they are happier. Getting enough sleep helps improve a teenager’s mental health. So, the use of phones that prevent teenagers from sleeping hurt teen’s mental health. It is hurt by stripping them of a natural way of helping improve a teenager’s mental health. But it is not just the phones but also the computer, Xbox, PlayStation, Wii, and TV that they also use before going to bed. It is best that children do not use electronics at least an hour before bed.

Teenagers are learning how to be adults. They want to fit in. They want to be “cool” or “popular”. Teenagers are going to use technology. It is a part of their lives; it has been integrated into their lives. As parents it is your responsibility to understand the effect that technology can have on your children. There are many benefits but there are also challenges. Opening the door exposes children to  cyberbullying and porn and multiple other things. Have communication with your children help them know the rules and the restrictions that are in place to keep them safe. Make sure that they understand that. Make sure that your children are comfortable coming to you when something bad or inappropriate comes up while they are using their technology. 

 

References

1.      2020 mental health in america - youth data. Mental Health America. (n.d.). Retrieved November 15, 2021, from https://mhanational.org/issues/2020/mental-health-america-youth-data.

2.      Rafla, M., Carson, N. J., & DeJong, S. M. (2014). Adolescents and the internet: What mental health clinicians need to know. Current Psychiatry Reports, 16(9). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-014-0472-x

3.      Yardi, S., & Bruckman, A. (2011). Social and technical challenges in parenting teens' social media use. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. https://doi.org/10.1145/1978942.1979422

4.      Blue Light has a dark side. Harvard Health. (2020, July 7). Retrieved November 24, 2021, from https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/blue-light-has-a-dark-side.