Page 5 - Screen Addiction: A Teen Epidemic

cisco, reported that the amount of time teenagers spent in front of
screens for non-school-related purposes—including gaming, tex-
ting, video chatting, browsing the internet, interacting with social
media, and watching movies, videos, or television shows—had
more than doubled during the pandemic, from 3.8 to 7.7 hours
per day.

The Potential Harms of Digital Dependence
Mental health professionals found the sudden increase in screen

time alarming because it was accompanied by increases in the
number of teens reporting anxiety, depression, and suicidal think-
ing. The amount of time that teens were spending with their elec-
tronic devices was so concerning that the US surgeon general,
Vivek H. Murthy, discussed it when he issued a formal advisory
in December 2021 alerting the medical community to a mental
health crisis among America’s youth. “Digital technologies can ex-
pose children to bullying, contribute to obesity and eating disor-
ders, trade off with sleep, encourage children to negatively com-
pare themselves to others, and lead to depression, anxiety, and
self-harm,” stated the surgeon general’s report. “Technology com-
panies must step up and take responsibility for creating a safe
digital environment for children and youth.” 2
For teens like Lev
For teens like Lev, large amounts of , large amounts of
time spent in front of a screen can ont of a screen can
time spent in fr
morph into an addiction to elec- “Digital technologies can ex-
tronic devices and the activities pose children to bullying, con-
they make possible. A 2020 tribute to obesity and eating
study by Oxford University found disorders, trade off with sleep,
that half of all teen and young encourage children to nega-
tively compare themselves to
adult cell phone users say they others, and lead to depression,
feel addicted to their devices. anxiety, and self-harm.” 2
The World Health Organization —Vivek H. Murthy, US surgeon general
(WHO), an agency of the United
(WHO), an agency of the United
Nations that is concerned with global
Nations that is concerned with global

5