Modern Technology's Negative Effects On Adolescents

Modern technology is a rapidly increasing danger to the ever-changing minds of today’s younger generations. This paper explains how Tmental health is being detrimentally affected by the constantly growing accessibility of social media and other similar such technologies detrimentally affects mental health. Social media is then analyzed as an outlet for narcissistic tendencies and how those tendencies affect adolescents and their mental health. Behavior and social skills are also evaluated in how they are negatively impacted by such technology as well. Modern technologies, (particularly social media sites), provoke psychological disorders in adolescents due to their accessibility, their potential to encourage narcissistic behavior, and their

“Aided by the convenience and constant access provided by mobile devices, especially smartphones, 92% of teens report going online daily — including 24% who say they go online ‘“almost constantly’ ”” (Lenhart N.Pag.). In 1993, a study conducted by HomeNet discovered that when the internet was first introduced to their homes, the average weekly number of hours spent online for adolescents predicted an increase in depressive symptoms one to two years later. However, this study was more recently repeated with college students and discovered that daily use of Facebook was correlated with lower life satisfaction and more depressive symptoms by the end of the week (George N.Pag.). The recent increase of social media and internet use and its associated accessibility has drastically caused detrimental effects to generations. The availability of social media, and other modern technology allows adolescents to judge and be judged much more easily. Cyberbullying and online judgement affects 84% of the U.S. adolescent population (“Cyberbullying” N.Pag.). Almost two-thirds of online judgement is based off of appearance. However, other factors such as religion, race, or sexuality also take a major role in being the reason for cyberbullying (“Cyberbullying” N.Pag). Depression, anxiety, phobic anxiety, and headaches are all side

Duke Ph. D, Madeleine J. George, lead a study at Duke University studying how “More use of technology is linked to later increases in attention, behavior and self-regulation problems for adolescents already at risk for mental health issues” (Jones N.Pag.) The study conducted by Madeleine George resulted in technology linking to later increases in attention, behavior and self-regulation problems for adolescents already at risk for mental health issues (Jones N.Pag.) “Adolescents who reported more time spent using digital technologies and sending more text messages across the EMA exhibited higher levels of conduct problems at the follow-up assessment” (George N.Pag.) “The adolescents spent an average of 2.3 hours a day using digital technologies. More than an hour of that time was spent texting, with the adolescents sending an average of 41 texts a day” (Jones N.Pag.). When many adolescents are at risk for other mental illnesses due to social media, their risk for behavior problems skyrockets. This puts at risk kids in an even tougher situation that is far harder to get them out of. Depression and anxiety symptoms in social settings were reported less when high-risk adolescents spent more time texting (Jones N.Pag.). However, more time online resulted in a lack of self control in adolescents 18 months later (Jones N.Pag.). Although a