Generation Z and smartphone addiction: digital detox tips

Three scientific studies confirm that the unregulated use of smartphones causes psychological and physical disturbances in younger and younger children. Which do not spare even adults.

Teenagers and younger children with their heads down with their eyes lost inside the smartphone screen, always checking the notifications of the thousand chats and updating social networks, from Tik Tok to Facebook and Instagram, or even watching movies and cartoons on Netflix or on kissanime and Amazon prime. At the table with relatives, in the park with friends (instead of playing football), at school at the break, even while doing homework.

The side effects of smartphone abuse

It is now known that the effects of smartphone abuse are deleterious on the mental and physical health of anyone, but especially that of children and young people. Anxiety, depression, irritability, and nervousness are the first symptoms to watch out for. And then headaches, visual disturbances, and even tremors. Now the definitive confirmation comes from three scientific studies: the unregulated use of the smartphone causes important psychological and physical disorders.

If parental rules aren't enough

If the complaints of parents are not enough to change the bad habits of children, perhaps the results of three scientific studies on the subject will. According to a survey published on the British portal The Independent, Generation Z kids i.e. those born between the second half of the 90s and the end of 2000) check the notifications on their smartphones 28 times a day, to an average of almost once an hour and 10,000 times a year.

Sad and depressed about too many social networks

Another research published on the same portal, which involved over a thousand British children, found that 41% said they felt sad and depressed after the massive use of social media. Data aggravated by the results of a study in the American Journal of Health Promotion published in Psychology Today, the negative effects of the unregulated use of technology do not concern only the emotional and psychological sphere, but negatively affect health and manifest themselves with frequent disorders of the attention, causing states of anxiety and unhappiness.

Envy

Research from the University of Copenhagen published on the BBC also showed that continuing to look at the social profiles of other users, especially on Instagram, can cause a sense of insecurity

Easily manipulated

"One of the major causes of individual and collective suffering consists in the illusion of possessing independence and freedom, an idea conditioned by a culture that makes manipulation and superficiality its main weapons of control".

Insomnia and dissatisfaction

Thought shared by Erin Vogel, professor of psychiatry at the University of California: «Numerous researches have shown how a disproportionate use of social media can distort the perception of reality, creating a sense of constant dissatisfaction due to the pursuit of perfection. In addition, there are negative consequences on the normal regularity of sleep because the use of mobile phones before going to bed suppresses the release of melatonin, a hormone that is essential for regulating fatigue ".