Wednesday, July 29, 2020
Screen Addiction a Concern for Teenagers
As you know in today's society many people have a phone or have access to a tablet or computer at home when they need to use it. We spend a lot of time on our phones or computers and many parents think that we are addicted to the phone, but sometimes there's a deeper problem that is embedded into why we use our phone constantly. One position is from author Danah Boyd who is a Microsoft researcher and she talks about how society is to blame rather than the screen time. She describes how many of us don't have time to go out and spend time with our friends because they have an enormous amount of homework to do. Evidently, since we don't have time for them the easiest way is for us to facetime them or play video games and have fun that way. Also, parents lock their kids indoor because they believe the physical world is more dangerous than ever and this leads to kids spending their time on a phone or computer. Kids of today also have enormous amounts of pressure on them including pleasing their parents with good grades and also stressing out over getting into college at such a young age. This could lead kids into using their phones as an outlet to relieve this stress and just to forget the problems of their life for a few hours. As studies show in Finland and the Netherlands, many kids that go to school receive little to no homework and they still outperform the U.S in studies. I believe that people turn to their phones as an outlet from all the things going on in their lives; which leads to more screen time. What is your take on this subject, are people just too addicted to their phones or is there a deeper problem that people fail to see? Should schools give out less homework like Finland and the Netherlands or should we keep the amount the same? If you were a parent how would you handle the situation of your child on their phone all the time?
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It would be great if schools gave out less homework, however I don't see this happening in the future. I believe we are too far into using social media and technology that given that opportunity, we'd still face problems of excessive screen time and average academic performance. I also agree that phone addiction is a deep rooted problem much more than the presence of the device alone. It is like you said, a convenient outlet to relieve stress. Whether it be to make friends, or for self esteem, many if not all of us, exploit this outlet to the point we can no longer live (and connect to society) without it.
ReplyDeleteThe problem of being overworked can be applied to parents with full time, 9-5 jobs too. Because of their busy schedule, parents give their children a phone or a tablet to amuse themselves at a young age. At this point in time, a kid that didn't have a phone would miss out on potential friends and be behind on trends that run through most conversations today.
Phone addiction is caused by self- indulgence. We spend less time on our phones when we find more fulfilling things to do in our lives. Invest time in a new hobby, self reflect, spend time with family; the determination to do our best in trying to achieve our goals can make us overlook the simple things we have that can be expressed with more gratitude.