There’s no denying we’re living in a different world than the one we grew up in. Many of us lived most of our adolescence without a cellphone. We also remember the days of dial-up internet and paying by the minute on a shared family computer. Our kids can’t even fathom not having access to the entire world at their fingertips all the time. Technology has undoubtedly made life more convenient, but is it better? And what has all of this access and screen time done to our kids? A new study by the Pew Research Center reveals some staggering statistics.
According to the New York Times, the study looked at the screen time habits of 1,458 teens ages 13 to 17. If you’re a parent of a child in that age range, the results might not surprise you much. Researchers found that kids at this age scroll on their phones almost constantly, primarily focusing their time on YouTube and TikTok.
“Roughly a third of teens say that they’re on at least one of the five almost constantly — and that number has stayed steady for several years now,” Michelle Faverio, the lead author of the new report, explained.
YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram are most popular among Black and Hispanic Teens. Teenage girls like Snapchat and Instagram, and boys spend more time on Reddit and YouTube.
The use of chatbots is also on the rise, with 64% of teens in the study reporting daily usage of sites such as ChatGPT. The results aren’t surprising to many, like Eileen Kennedy-Moore, a psychologist in Princeton, New Jersey. She wasn’t part of the study, but the results were consistent with her own experience.
“Online life is very much part of kids’ lives,” she said, per the Times. “It’s not that watching any one YouTube video is going to turn them into a pumpkin, but if they are on it almost constantly, what are they missing?”
Kennedy-Moore also pointed out that it’s essential to monitor screen time by age and look at potential signs of addiction and physical change. Too much time spend on screens can affect sleep and physical activity levels.
“If your child is young enough to have a bedtime, their devices need a bedtime too,” Kennedy-Moore said, according to the Times. “I can tell you as a clinician, nothing good happens on those devices in the middle of the night.”
That’s solid advice that we should be following, too. Doomscrolling before bed does us no good. It’s time to go back to reading a book and getting a good night’s sleep.
