Parents' fears about their teenagers' heavy use of cell phones and social media may be exaggerated as the youngsters' online worlds may be an extension of their offline lives, a new study suggests.
"We see young people constantly on their phones and assume ill effects, but much of the research to date tells a more positive story," said lead researcher Candice Odgers from Duke University.
"When we look closely, we see considerable overlap between the underlying motivations and content of online versus offline communications and activities," Odgers explained.
Rather than connecting with strangers, most adolescents use digital media to interact with friends and acquaintances in their face-to-face social networks.
"The overlap between offline and online connections is so striking that viewing what happens online as somehow separate from teenagers' 'real lives' is a false distinction," said co-researcher Madeleine J. George.
Although cell-phone use may take away time spent with parents, if the existing relationship is strong, the new technology can allow more frequent, positive parent-child contact, researchers suggested.
However, parents' fears about sleep loss are well founded, the authors noted.
Those who use their phones after lights out were twice as likely to report being tired the next day as those who did not.
"Watching people who get their first smartphone, there's a very quick progression from having a basic phone you don't talk about to people who love their iPhone, name their phone and buy their phones outfits," said Lisa Merlo, director of psychotherapy training at the University of Florida.
The increasing dependence comes as more Americans ditch their iPods, cameras, maps and address books in favor of the myriad capabilities of a smartphone. After all, companies have rolled out thousands of applications that do everything from track your heart rate to guide you through the streets of New York City. While smartphones have made life easier for some, psychologists say the love of them is becoming more like an addiction, creating consequences that range from minor (teenagers who communicate in three-letter acronyms like LOL and BRB) to major (car accidents caused by people who text while driving).
Merlo, a clinical psychologist, said she's observed a number of behaviors among smartphone users that she labels "problematic." Among them, Merlo says some patients pretend to talk on the phone or fiddle with apps to avoid eye contact or other interactions at a bar or a party. Others are so genuinely engrossed in their phones that they ignore the people around them completely.
"The more bells and whistles the phone has," she says, "the more likely they are to get too attached."
"As the first generation of digital natives progress through young adulthood, we need to move beyond our fears and design studies that can test whether, how and for whom online worlds are creating new risks, presenting new opportunities, or both," Odgers said.
The journal appeared online in Perspectives on Psychological Science.
Source : articlesbase.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment