The latest dangerous “addiction” parents need to worry about: Mobile devices

Follow me at @drClaire For parents of teens, “addiction” is a scary word. It brings to mind all sorts of things we never want to have happen to our children, from overdoses to arrests — and so we talk to our kids about drugs and alcohol. But is there another addiction we should be worrying about, too? The Merriam-Webster definition of addiction is “a strong and harmful need to regularly have something (such as a drug) or do something (such as gamble).” Using that definition, you could make a real argument that many teens are becoming addicted to their mobile devices. You could make the same argument about their parents — and plenty of other people, too. Common Sense Media recently published a report on a survey they did on 1,240 parents and teens (620 parent-child pairs). The findings are not a big surprise to anyone who, well, looks up from their phone. They found that: 50% of teens feel that they are addicted to their mobile devices (and 28% think that their parents are too) 27% of parents feel that they are addicted to their mobile devices (and 59% think that their teens are too) 66% of parents feel that their teens spend too much time on their mobile devices — and 52% of the teens agree with them 48% of parents and 72% of teens feel the need to respond immediately to text messages and other notifications 69% of parents and 78% of teens check their devices at least hourly half of parents and a third of teens at least occasionally try to cut down the time the...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Addiction Behavioral Health Children's Health Parenting Source Type: news