US Study on smart phones and teenage mental health
In the USA, digital technology has caused the biggest changes to teenage life in many decades. According to surveys, an average american teenager spends half her day on the smartphones. They are on the phones when they are alone at home and when they are hanging out with friends.
This transformation has had wider consequences and logically reshaping of life by digital technology has pushed for this. If we look at teenage girls, mental health has deteriorated since 2008. The suicide rate for girls and boys began rising around then. Feelings of loneliness and sadness began rising as well. The amount of time teenagers spend socializing in person has declined. According to Kathleen Ethier, a senior C.D.C. official ‘ young people are telling us their in crisis. Releasing the results of a large survey.
The release of this report in the USA in 2022 raised a large debate amongst experts and journalists about the role of technology.
Text summary by DigitalPause based on an article from the New York Times written by David Leonhardt, 27.02.23.