Smartphone & Teenage Problems

Just about anyone can observe that teenagers have become essentially inseparable from devices like smartphones and tablets, but do you know how bad could be the mobile devices for the teenagers?

In 2015 study was conducted by the University of Basel reported that when smartphone usage is extended, especially during the night ,teenagers are associated with an increased risk of sleep problems, depressive symptoms, and their academic performance gets severely affected. Besides neurological effects, smartphone also affects teenagers and leads to poor concentration level, getting victims of social media, bully etc

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So the question is how parents can save their teenagers from the bad effects of  mobile devices.? Psychologist and counselor Shivani Misri Sadhoo suggest the following parenting tips on this:

1.Prior talking to your son/daughter give yourself time to understand what smartphones, social media, and social  chat mean for your teen’s generation.  Understand teenage is the time where adolescent fights for establishing their personal identity and independence.

2. Check your smartphone behaviour first, before you punish your Teen. A lot of times it has been found that parents themselves set bad examples for the kids unknowingly.  Unless you change your behaviour your words will hold little value to your teenager if you ask them to check their smartphone usage.  So before your talk to your child regarding smartphone, ask yourself the following questions:

-How many times per hour do you check your phone?

-Have you ever checked your cell phone in the middle of a conversation with your child?

-How late at night do you stay with your phone?

-How often do you respond to work emails using a smartphone while you spending time with your child?

3. If you meet the above points, then talk to your teenage daughter or son about the harmful effects of the same. Try to keep the open discussion and as much as possible ask your son or daughter for solutions to protect themselves from harmful effect of the smartphone.