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Think about the people you know—especially teenagers—and how they interact with their electronic devices. What do you notice?
Do you see occasional and casual usage, or something more compulsive? Does their use of technology affect how they interact with people? Their moods? Their activities? How they drive?
These question are important because digital addiction is a real thing, and it is becoming more and more of a problem. Which makes it worth our time to learn about it, especially if we are a parent.
Part 1 of this article showed how digital addiction could become the next epidemic in our communities, and in our families. The magnitude of the problem, and the dangers involved, are growing at an alarming rate.
The question is: will we—as a society, as parents—do anything to prevent the epidemic from getting worse?
How Can Parents Know There’s a Problem?
In a poll featured on CNN and conducted by Common Sense Media, research showed that 59% of parents already feel their teens are addicted to their mobile devices. And that’s not just a parent thing because 50% of the teens themselves also say they are addicted.
“Technological addiction can happen to anyone,” said digital detox expert Holland Haiis, and she goes on to describe technology as “the new 21st century addiction.” “If your teens would prefer gaming indoors, alone, as opposed to going out to the movies, meeting friends for burgers or any of the other ways that teens build camaraderie, you may have a problem.” (Consciously Connecting: A Simple Process to Reconnect in a Disconnected World)
Psychology Today suggests that parents should become proactive about dealing with the growing danger in an article titled “Does Your Child Have a Digital Addiction?” They cite new research about how parents can assess where their child is along a range of addiction behaviors such as:
- It is increasingly difficult to pull my child away from screen media.
- The amount of time my child wants to use screen media keeps increasing.
- My child does not engage in some positive activities due to using screen media.
For parents, it starts by simply becoming more aware of what our kids are doing.
How Can Parents Prevent Digital Addiction?
An ABC 20/20 interview with Kevin Roberts, author of Cyber Junkie and Escape the Gaming and Internet Trap, was covered in People magazine. To stop bad habits from forming, Roberts advises parents to be careful early on. “We want to start considering screen use from a very young age,” he says and adds, “I would not use technology as babysitters.”
Mr. Roberts goes on, “Require outdoor activities, sports, and performance in school as requisite behaviors that you have to accomplish and achieve in order to use technology.” And consider the example we are setting: “You have to model the behaviors that you want in your children.”
How are we doing in terms as being an example for our kids? In the Common Sense Media poll, it was found that 27% of parents feel they are also addicted to their mobile devices. And their kids know it as well, because about the same percentage of teens say their parents are addicted.
Compounding the problem, many parents encourage their kids to use digital technology. Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, the addiction specialist from Part 1 of this series, says: “In the US, there is a national effort to give kids screens at younger and younger ages as parents worry that their little ones may somehow be ‘left behind’ in the education technology arms race—the data be damned.”
And this behavior is reinforced and amplified in the schools. Dr. Kardaras goes on to say, “If screens are indeed digital drugs, then schools have become drug dealers. The entire classroom landscape has been transformed over the past 10 years into a digital playground.”
If you are a concerned parent, you can learn what to do if your teenager is developing an addiction problem, digital or otherwise. You can be a great parent, and be there for your kids, by focusing on: setting goals and boundaries, maintaining your relationship with them, serving as a good example, encouraging positive activities, and teaching them the way they should go.
If we had seen previous addiction epidemics coming, we could have done more to prevent them. Hopefully, parents and communities will wake up soon, because we can get ahead of the next one.
Question: Do you feel that any of your kids, or you, may have an issue with digital addiction?
Action: Re-read the 2 parts of this article and consider how your family uses digital devices.
