What the Research Tells Us
Our children have a cell phone problem. The evidence has been building over the past decade.
Rising issues with mental health. The increasing lack of social skills and being unable to communicate in-person. The inability to concentrate and focus for any period of time. The growing retreat into the virtual world.
As one Virginian told us, “For these kids, their phones are their identity.”
Research shows that part of the issue is that cell phones and social media are incredibly successful at what they are designed to do. Using the same psychological techniques as casinos and slot machines, they capture their users’ full attention and keep them returning.
Children are especially vulnerable to these tactics. A child’s brain is not fully developed and is susceptible to being rewired to reinforce behavioral patterns that keep kids on their phones for staggering amounts of time.
That’s why so many social media apps are free to use, and, despite terms of service saying users must be older than 13 to set up an account, many social media apps are extremely easy for children to access and use. The likes, shares, comments, shorts, reels, reposts, and streaks built into these applications are there to reinforce the psychological feedback loop that keep children coming back to their social media and staring at their phones all day long.
There is no disputing that these tactics work. Right now, teens self-report that they spend an average of seven hours per day on their phones- nearly 50 hours each week, more than a full-time job. That’s only possible because our children carry their cell phones in their pocket all day long.
This life lived online has severe consequences for our children:
- While our teens say they spend seven hours a day on their phones, recent studies show spending more than three hours a day on social media doubles the risk of poor mental health for adolescents.
It’s not just the research and statistics that show the overwhelming need to take action to reverse these trends. It’s the real-life experience that parents, teachers, family members, and even the children themselves recognize in young people’s behaviors. Cell phones and social media are changing their children’s development for the worse, and our communities are ready to support to our children to help put the phones away.