Does your teen wake up exhausted, even when he or she retired to bed at a reasonable hour?
Its probably because your child stayed up all night on his or her smartphone.
A new study from the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research found that about 1 in 5 teens will wake up in the middle of the night to check his or her smartphone for updates or to post statuses, according to The Telegraph. These same students will almost always go to school the next day feeling tired, The Telegraph reported.
Similarly, a study from Glasgow University found that teens who wake up in the middle of the night to check their phones are more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety issues, according to The Guardian.
The study, which surveyed 460 teens in Scotland about their social media and nighttime phone-use habits, found that teens also checked their smartphones early in the morning, contributing to their tired minds, The Guardian reported.
This isnt surprising since smartphones may be like a new drug for your child. A recent study from Baylor University found that smartphones, for youngsters and adults, can be as addictive as drugs and alcohol because smartphone users demonstrate behaviors that are similar to those shown by alcohol and drug addicts.
Just as some drug users become so hooked that it puts a strain on their personal, social, and professional lives, the same can happen for true smartphone addicts, according to Android Authority, a tech news blog. They can find themselves ignoring work, children and other responsibilities just to check their Facebook feed one more time or to play that extra bit of 'Clash of Clans.'
University of Connecticut researcher Nancy Petry noticed this trend back in 2010. She said smartphone users arent being medically diagnosed with addictions because of smartphones, but they often demonstrate what people might call addictive tendencies toward things like smartphones, according to Fortune.
To help children avoid smartphone addiction, researchers of the Glasgow University study said parents should teach their children how to moderate their social media and smartphone use.
While overall social media use impacts on sleep quality, those who log on at night appear to be particularly affected, Cleland Woods, who worked with the study, told The Guardian. This may be mostly true of individuals who are highly emotionally invested. This means we have to think about how our kids use social media, in relation to time for switching off.
There are a number of ways parents can do this, including limit the amount of text and data usage available to children, according to child therapist Signe Whitson.
Setting limits on usage from the start can help prevent technology from becoming all-consuming for kids, Whitson wrote.
It also may be a good strategy for parents to encourage their children to embrace real life friendships, since thatll keep them from spending too much time on their phones to communicate with the virtual world, Whitson wrote.
For your new smartphone user, give him the gift of learning how to truly be present with the friend in their presence to put away their gadget and engage the person they are with, she wrote.
Parents may also want to encourage their children to take a tech timeout, which includes shutting down their smart devices for specific period of times, like dinner or conversations with family members, according to CNNs Kelly Wallace.
This may make children a little less invested in their social media lives and embrace the real world, Wallace wrote.
"A major thing is our topic of conversation is no longer what someone else posted on Facebook, which it often would be," said Amanda Humphreys, who lives in Sussex County, New Jersey, to CNN. "I think we all kind of realized we didn't know what to talk about besides, 'Oh, did you see so and so's photo on Instagram?' We actually, I think, have a better idea of what's going on in each other's lives and it's really nice."
Its probably because your child stayed up all night on his or her smartphone.
A new study from the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research found that about 1 in 5 teens will wake up in the middle of the night to check his or her smartphone for updates or to post statuses, according to The Telegraph. These same students will almost always go to school the next day feeling tired, The Telegraph reported.
Similarly, a study from Glasgow University found that teens who wake up in the middle of the night to check their phones are more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety issues, according to The Guardian.
The study, which surveyed 460 teens in Scotland about their social media and nighttime phone-use habits, found that teens also checked their smartphones early in the morning, contributing to their tired minds, The Guardian reported.
This isnt surprising since smartphones may be like a new drug for your child. A recent study from Baylor University found that smartphones, for youngsters and adults, can be as addictive as drugs and alcohol because smartphone users demonstrate behaviors that are similar to those shown by alcohol and drug addicts.
Just as some drug users become so hooked that it puts a strain on their personal, social, and professional lives, the same can happen for true smartphone addicts, according to Android Authority, a tech news blog. They can find themselves ignoring work, children and other responsibilities just to check their Facebook feed one more time or to play that extra bit of 'Clash of Clans.'
University of Connecticut researcher Nancy Petry noticed this trend back in 2010. She said smartphone users arent being medically diagnosed with addictions because of smartphones, but they often demonstrate what people might call addictive tendencies toward things like smartphones, according to Fortune.
To help children avoid smartphone addiction, researchers of the Glasgow University study said parents should teach their children how to moderate their social media and smartphone use.
While overall social media use impacts on sleep quality, those who log on at night appear to be particularly affected, Cleland Woods, who worked with the study, told The Guardian. This may be mostly true of individuals who are highly emotionally invested. This means we have to think about how our kids use social media, in relation to time for switching off.
There are a number of ways parents can do this, including limit the amount of text and data usage available to children, according to child therapist Signe Whitson.
Setting limits on usage from the start can help prevent technology from becoming all-consuming for kids, Whitson wrote.
It also may be a good strategy for parents to encourage their children to embrace real life friendships, since thatll keep them from spending too much time on their phones to communicate with the virtual world, Whitson wrote.
For your new smartphone user, give him the gift of learning how to truly be present with the friend in their presence to put away their gadget and engage the person they are with, she wrote.
Parents may also want to encourage their children to take a tech timeout, which includes shutting down their smart devices for specific period of times, like dinner or conversations with family members, according to CNNs Kelly Wallace.
This may make children a little less invested in their social media lives and embrace the real world, Wallace wrote.
"A major thing is our topic of conversation is no longer what someone else posted on Facebook, which it often would be," said Amanda Humphreys, who lives in Sussex County, New Jersey, to CNN. "I think we all kind of realized we didn't know what to talk about besides, 'Oh, did you see so and so's photo on Instagram?' We actually, I think, have a better idea of what's going on in each other's lives and it's really nice."
