Buzz! Beep! Ping!
Phone pop up a lot. They tell a person there’s something to see on their phone. A message came in. A video went up. There is breaking news. It’s hard not to look. Experts wanted to know how phones impact young people. So, they studied teen and preteens.
A group called Common Sense Media did this study. It got data from about 200 people, ages 11–17. The teens checked their phones more than 100 times a day. More than half of the teens got at least 237 notifications each day. And some teens got nearly 5,000.
Most of the notifications come from apps. The teens spent the most time on TikTok. That’s a video app.
The phones affected sleep — in both good ways and bad. Some teens play calming noise to help them drift off. But others stay up late scrolling. They don’t get enough rest.
James Steyer leads Common Sense Media. “Teens are struggling to manage their phone use,” he said. This can hurt “their ability to focus.”
Jenny Radesky is an expert in children’s health. She said phones are always on. But she added that “teens are working to set ."
There are many ways to cut down on phone use. People can turn off notifications. They can set time limits for apps. It can help to move social media icons off the main phone screen. That way they are harder to get to.
The experts talked to young people. One teen remembered losing their phone. “I didn’t have a phone for a week. And that week was amazing,” the 11th-grader said. “Not having a phone takes this weight off you. It almost sets you free."
Updated September 28, 2023, 5:01 P.M. (ET)
By Ashley Morgan
