Page 8 - Screen Addiction: A Teen Epidemic

CHAPTER ONE

The Fear of

Missing Out

“When I was 14, I got an LG Optimus smartphone, passed on
from a school friend. It had a touchscreen and felt like it was
from the future,” remembers Moya Lothian-McLean, an editor
with the online British magazine gal-dem. “No longer could my
mum boot me off the computer. . . . I could talk with my friends
into the wee hours, refreshing the Facebook browser page
every minute to see if their latest missive had come through.
Never had I felt so alive. At the time, the entire world was at
my fi ngertips, anytime, any place.” Now, however, Lothian-
McLean realizes that she cannot control her use of electronic
devices. She continuously switches between screens, unable

to focus on her work:

I fi nd myself reaching for my phone every few minutes,
snatching it up when I get stuck on a sentence I’m typ-
ing and need to “reset” my mind by blankly scrolling.
Sometimes Twitter will be open on a laptop screen in
front of me and I’ll fi nd myself idly pulling up the little
blue bird app on my phone too. A great feeling of dis-
tress runs through me when I cannot spot my phone
where I think I left it. 3

A Basic Need
Lothian-McLean’s screen activity is not driven by curiosity or
any rational motive. It is a compulsion, fueled by anxiety. She

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