In today’s world, a cellphone can come to play a pretty big role in a teen’s life. This can be seen in the responses that a group of kids between the ages of 12 and 18 gave in a poll on cellphones and cellphone habits.
Among the survey’s results were that, of these kid respondents:
- 80 percent reported checking their phones on an hourly basis.
- 72 percent indicated that texts and social networking messages are something they feel the need to give immediate responses to.
- 50 percent said they felt they had an addiction to their mobile devices.
Now this high level of cellphone dependence does raise some concerns. This includes concerns that teens might get too focused on their phones and other digital devices, to the detriment of other parts of their life.
Another class of concerns the above-mentioned survey results about teen cellphone habits raise are concerns about how able teens generally are to resist the temptation to use and/or check their phones in situations in which cellphone use is problematic. In certain contexts, having one’s attention drawn away by a cellphone can be downright dangerous. For example, being distracted by a cellphone when driving can cause crashes. So, how able teens are to put down their phone can have traffic safety ramifications.
Given this, what sorts of rules a parent has for their teens regarding cellphone use can potentially be very impactful on how safe their teens are behind the wheel. This not only is the case for rules regarding cellphones and driving, but also rules regarding general cellphone use, as such rules could affect what sorts of cellphone habits a teen develops.
Source: CNN, “Half of teens think they're addicted to their smartphones,” Kelly Wallace, May 3, 2016