what percent of teenagers are attached to their phone

Story highlights

• 50% of teens and 27% of parents feel they're addicted to their mobile devices, poll says
• Near 80% of teens bank check their phones hourly; 72% experience the demand to respond immediately

Kelly Wallace is CNN's digital contributor and editor-at-large covering family, career and life. Read her other columns and follow her reports at CNN Parents and on Twitter @kellywallacetv.

(CNN)I don't have teenagers all the same, but watching my eight- and 10-twelvemonth-olds spend endless amounts of time on iPads during bound intermission makes me worried about the mean solar day -- hopefully years from now -- when they have their ain devices.

A new poll that confirms but how much teens depend on their phones gives me even more to worry about.

50 pct of teens feel they are addicted to their mobile devices, co-ordinate to the poll, which was conducted for Common Sense Media, a nonprofit focused on helping children, parents, teachers and policymakers negotiate media and engineering. A larger number of parents, 59%, said their teens were addicted. The poll involved 1,240 interviews with parents and their children, ages 12 to 18.

"Technological habit tin can happen to anyone," said digital detox practiced Holland Haiis, who describes applied science equally "the new 21st century addiction" in her book "Consciously Connecting: A Elementary Process to Reconnect in a Disconnected World."

"If your teens would prefer gaming indoors, alone, as opposed to going out to the movies, meeting friends for burgers or whatsoever of the other ways that teens build esprit, you may have a problem."

How many teens are truly fond to their devices and the Internet? It is difficult to say. A 2011 review of 18 research studies constitute that Internet addiction might impact between zero and 26% of adolescents and college students in the United States, according to Mutual Sense Media. And, while Cyberspace addiction is viewed as a public health threat in other parts of the globe, information technology is not yet a recognized disorder in the U.s.a.. Subsequently reviewing all the existing inquiry, Common Sense Media concludes that more written report is needed to determine how real digital addiction is, and what the signs and consequences could be.

Whether it is an addiction or not, two-thirds of parents -- 66% -- feel their teens spend too much time on their mobile devices, and 52% of teens concord, according to the poll.

'Teenage zombies' consumed by phones

Near 80% of teens in the new survey said they checked their phones hourly, and 72% said they felt the demand to immediately respond to texts and social networking messages. Thirty-six percent of parents said they argued with their child daily well-nigh device use, and 77% of parents feel their children get distracted past their devices and don't pay attention when they are together at to the lowest degree a few times per week.

Terry Greenwald, a father of three grown children, works every bit a custodian at a loftier school in Homer, Alaska, and said the hallways are frequently one-half-filled with "teenage zombies who are glued to their phones."

They ofttimes walk well-nigh the walls so they can motion from class to class without looking away from their screens, he said. "It gets interesting when they get to the stairways and the walls stop for the stairway," he said. "They don't want to look up and they don't way to tumble down the stairs but oftentimes only slow way down and inch along until they accomplish the wall just past the opening. They are often late to the side by side class, simply that'southward OK considering they were successful at not diverting attention from their phone."

Janis Elspas, founder of Mommy Blog Expert, believes the rules and boundaries parents set for their children when they get their commencement prison cell telephone or smartphone might be helpful in heading off whatsoever addictions subsequently on.

Her children, 18-year-onetime triplets and a 20-year-old, didn't own their first cell phones until they were at least a inferior in high schoolhouse and had a part-fourth dimension job to pay for part or all of the monthly phone service. She also has a no-phone policy at the dinner table, which extends to her and her hubby.

"This rule besides applies to the kids' friends who might be sitting at the table with united states of america," said Elspas of Los Angeles. "Sometimes they are shocked when I reprimand them for bringing their phone out and if there'due south a notification or information technology rings, I ask them to turn off their device."

Such a rule tin can evidence to kids, firsthand, that they tin can "survive" without having to run into or utilise their smartphone constantly, she added.

There are signs that some teens may be getting that message and realize too much time on their devices isn't necessarily a good thing. More than than one-tertiary of teens, 37%, said they very often or occasionally effort to cut downwardly the amount of fourth dimension they spend on their devices, the Common Sense Media poll plant.

Parents have a trouble, too

Parents might complain near the corporeality of time their teens spend on their phones, only they admit they have their own difficulties when it comes to unplugging.

20-seven percent of parents feel they are addicted to their mobile devices, while nearly the aforementioned number of teens, 28%, believe their parents are fond, according to the poll.

Sixty-nine pct of parents cheque their devices at least hourly compared to the 78% of teens who say they do that, and nearly half, 48%, of parents feel they demand to immediately answer to texts and social networking messages. More than half, 56%, of parents admit checking their mobile devices while driving and about the same number, 52%, very frequently or occasionally try to cut downward the corporeality of fourth dimension they spend on devices.

GG Benitez, a mother of iii, said that equally the founder and main executive officeholder of her own public relations business firm, she feels the pressure to always be available due to the fear of losing any potential press opportunities for her clients.

While she is often praised by her clients and her family unit and friends for her "immediate response" to texts, emails and social media posts, she said this constant need to be connected can be taxing. Nonetheless, even when she tries to stay off her phone in the evenings for at least one 60 minutes, she has a tough time.

"I had taken my son to a movie, and he turned around to me and said, 'Are y'all serious, Mom? We are at the movies and you are still on your phone?'" said Benitez, who has a ten-yr-erstwhile son and two daughters, ages 11 and 22.

Haiis, the digital detox practiced, said one style to effort to curb an addiction to digital devices is to resist endless hours of surfing the Cyberspace. "We have constant access to new information and this is alluring, intriguing and exciting, merely without setting limits for yourself, it's a slippery slope," she said.

She besides said to limit posting on social media to 3 to v times a week, if possible, which volition make you more specific virtually what you post and will lead to less fourth dimension spent looking at other people's posts.

And, when y'all are at dwelling house and feel the urge to attain for your device, go outside, take a walk or practise, she said. "The dopamine in our brains is stimulated past the unpredictability that social media, emails and texting provide," said Haiis. "It'southward a brutal cycle and in society to suspension that cycle, you lot need to find the same unpredictability and stimulation which is out in that location if you are exercising. Y'all never know what's around the bend when out for a jog, bike ride or walk."

Benitez, the public relations executive who finds it difficult to stay off her telephone, said she has taken steps to curb her own digital addiction, such as setting aside the phone during mealtime.

"I have consciously fabricated the determination to be more 'nowadays' and will place the phone on silent and away from my vision, but not without the anxiety that I may be missing something of import," she added.

She also hopes in the future to try to "shut down" at a decent hour when it comes to work, but isn't quite prepare to have that stride yet. For her friends and family who have get accustomed to her immediate responses, she has thought most sending them a text telling them that she is going to try to reduce her phone addiction and request them to be understanding if she doesn't reply within her normal two seconds.

"I call up," she said, "that by explaining to everyone around me why I may not be my 'usual cocky,' that it volition lower my own anxiety of feeling the need to be so responsible."

Do you recall your teen is addicted to his or her cell phone? Are you fond? Share your thoughts with Kelly Wallace on Twitter @kellywallacetv .

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Source: https://www.cnn.com/2016/05/03/health/teens-cell-phone-addiction-parents/index.html

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