Recently, Pew Research Center released findings from a Fall of 2023 study with important stats that can help inform our parenting and spark essential conversations with our youth.
The survey gathered responses from 1,435 teenagers aged 13 to 17 and their parents. Today, I'll concentrate solely on the teenagers' responses, but in a future blog, I'll highlight the parents’ responses.
I’ve structured today’s blog to state the findings first, and then I write about the solutions after. Be sure to read through this to get the most out of it.
The study found that 69% of teens feel their smartphones help them with their hobbies and interests.
I wanted to start with this finding since it is something positive about tech. Communication science tells us that starting off on a positive note lessens defensiveness by teens.
Tech, including our phones, has three main functions: tool, treat, and talk. Using phones as a tool to expand on interests and learn new hobbies — how fantastic! The other day, I learned from one of the women on our Screenagers team that her son learned to crochet from online videos.
What about the 31% of teens who didn’t say their phone helped them with hobbies and interests? In the "Solutions Section," found below all the findings, I offer a solution.
The study found that 7 out of 10 teens report feeling peaceful and/ or happy when they don't have a phone with them. Their answers suggest that they welcome breaks from their phones and other devices.
I am not surprised by this statistic. Many young people have told me this over the years.
This is a wonderful reminder to all of us parents that the work we do to ensure time off devices is positively experienced by teens.
And what about the 3/10 who do not report feeling peaceful at times when they don’t have their phone? Many people experience different levels of anxiety without phones, such as FOMO, not being reachable, not having all the tools in the phone, and so forth. A solution is offered in the “Solutions section” below all the findings.
On average, almost 40% of teens feel they are on their phones too much. This is a great figure to discuss within our homes. That is almost half of kids--millions of teens. Given this fact, how can we help them? And if your teen says, well, that is not me, “I feel I am on my phone the perfect amount.” A solution is offered in the “Solutions Section” found below all these findings.
In the survey, young teen girls ages 13 and 14 were more likely to say that the harm from smartphones outweighs the benefit than older teen girls or teen boys in general.
This is an important finding to discuss. Few other studies have reported on females' vs. males' opinions about the benefits vs risks of social media.
This data gives parents extra confidence in lovingly using their authority, along with collaborative rule setting, to ensure screen time breaks are happening.
Learn more about showing our movies in your school or community!
Join Screenagers filmmaker Delaney Ruston MD for our latest Podcast
Learn more about our Screen-Free Sleep campaign at the website!
Our movie made for parents and educators of younger kids
Learn more about showing our movies in your school or community!
(31% of teens who didn’t say that their phone helped them with hobbies and interests)
This will be a great discussion starter. Does your child (or students) use their phone (or other device if they don’t own a phone) to expand their hobbies and interests?
Some people might initially disagree, but I'm convinced that when you deeply discuss their interests, it's evident that their online activities and the content they encounter play a significant role in nurturing these interests.
This is a good time to talk about the tool aspect of tech — one such tool is being a teacher. Is there any hobby they would like to try (maybe darts, disc golf, embroidery, or cooking a new recipe)? Talk about how tech that could help with that.
(Teens not feeling peaceful / or happy without their phone)
(Many teens do not think they are on their phones too much)
This is a great time for some calm discourse to understand why they are saying what they are.
It could be that you have family limits, and indeed, they are not overly on their phones. If this is not the case, and you think they are on the way too much, then this is a time to review some past TTTs on resetting. This one is a good starting point: Spring Reset: 4 Steps to Setting New Screen Limits
(13 and 14-year-old girls more likely to report harms outweigh benefits)
Talk with your child/family/students about why they think that younger teen girls were more likely to report feeling harms outweigh benefits.
Learn more about showing our movies in your school or community!
Join Screenagers filmmaker Delaney Ruston MD for our latest Podcast
Learn more about our Screen-Free Sleep campaign at the website!
Our movie made for parents and educators of younger kids
Learn more about showing our movies in your school or community!
With new videos posted every Tuesday and Friday, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Here's our latest videos!
This episode of The Screenagers Podcast takes us inside Snapchat from the perspective of two young adults. They share with me pitfalls to look out for, and I offer advice to parents and teens on how to best navigate the dangers of illicit content and scores that can leave users feeling less popular.
Listen to the full episode here: Apple Podcasts // Spotify // Website // YouTube
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Please click here to share your thoughts with us in our community survey. It only takes 5–10 minutes, and everyone who completes it will be entered to win one of five $50 Amazon vouchers.
Recently, Pew Research Center released findings from a Fall of 2023 study with important stats that can help inform our parenting and spark essential conversations with our youth.
The survey gathered responses from 1,435 teenagers aged 13 to 17 and their parents. Today, I'll concentrate solely on the teenagers' responses, but in a future blog, I'll highlight the parents’ responses.
I’ve structured today’s blog to state the findings first, and then I write about the solutions after. Be sure to read through this to get the most out of it.
The study found that 69% of teens feel their smartphones help them with their hobbies and interests.
I wanted to start with this finding since it is something positive about tech. Communication science tells us that starting off on a positive note lessens defensiveness by teens.
Tech, including our phones, has three main functions: tool, treat, and talk. Using phones as a tool to expand on interests and learn new hobbies — how fantastic! The other day, I learned from one of the women on our Screenagers team that her son learned to crochet from online videos.
What about the 31% of teens who didn’t say their phone helped them with hobbies and interests? In the "Solutions Section," found below all the findings, I offer a solution.
The study found that 7 out of 10 teens report feeling peaceful and/ or happy when they don't have a phone with them. Their answers suggest that they welcome breaks from their phones and other devices.
I am not surprised by this statistic. Many young people have told me this over the years.
This is a wonderful reminder to all of us parents that the work we do to ensure time off devices is positively experienced by teens.
And what about the 3/10 who do not report feeling peaceful at times when they don’t have their phone? Many people experience different levels of anxiety without phones, such as FOMO, not being reachable, not having all the tools in the phone, and so forth. A solution is offered in the “Solutions section” below all the findings.
On average, almost 40% of teens feel they are on their phones too much. This is a great figure to discuss within our homes. That is almost half of kids--millions of teens. Given this fact, how can we help them? And if your teen says, well, that is not me, “I feel I am on my phone the perfect amount.” A solution is offered in the “Solutions Section” found below all these findings.
In the survey, young teen girls ages 13 and 14 were more likely to say that the harm from smartphones outweighs the benefit than older teen girls or teen boys in general.
This is an important finding to discuss. Few other studies have reported on females' vs. males' opinions about the benefits vs risks of social media.
This data gives parents extra confidence in lovingly using their authority, along with collaborative rule setting, to ensure screen time breaks are happening.
(31% of teens who didn’t say that their phone helped them with hobbies and interests)
This will be a great discussion starter. Does your child (or students) use their phone (or other device if they don’t own a phone) to expand their hobbies and interests?
Some people might initially disagree, but I'm convinced that when you deeply discuss their interests, it's evident that their online activities and the content they encounter play a significant role in nurturing these interests.
This is a good time to talk about the tool aspect of tech — one such tool is being a teacher. Is there any hobby they would like to try (maybe darts, disc golf, embroidery, or cooking a new recipe)? Talk about how tech that could help with that.
(Teens not feeling peaceful / or happy without their phone)
(Many teens do not think they are on their phones too much)
This is a great time for some calm discourse to understand why they are saying what they are.
It could be that you have family limits, and indeed, they are not overly on their phones. If this is not the case, and you think they are on the way too much, then this is a time to review some past TTTs on resetting. This one is a good starting point: Spring Reset: 4 Steps to Setting New Screen Limits
(13 and 14-year-old girls more likely to report harms outweigh benefits)
Talk with your child/family/students about why they think that younger teen girls were more likely to report feeling harms outweigh benefits.
With new videos posted every Tuesday and Friday, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Here's our latest videos!
This episode of The Screenagers Podcast takes us inside Snapchat from the perspective of two young adults. They share with me pitfalls to look out for, and I offer advice to parents and teens on how to best navigate the dangers of illicit content and scores that can leave users feeling less popular.
Listen to the full episode here: Apple Podcasts // Spotify // Website // YouTube
Sign up here to receive the weekly Tech Talk Tuesdays newsletter from Screenagers filmmaker Delaney Ruston MD.
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Recently, Pew Research Center released findings from a Fall of 2023 study with important stats that can help inform our parenting and spark essential conversations with our youth.
The survey gathered responses from 1,435 teenagers aged 13 to 17 and their parents. Today, I'll concentrate solely on the teenagers' responses, but in a future blog, I'll highlight the parents’ responses.
I’ve structured today’s blog to state the findings first, and then I write about the solutions after. Be sure to read through this to get the most out of it.
The study found that 69% of teens feel their smartphones help them with their hobbies and interests.
I wanted to start with this finding since it is something positive about tech. Communication science tells us that starting off on a positive note lessens defensiveness by teens.
Tech, including our phones, has three main functions: tool, treat, and talk. Using phones as a tool to expand on interests and learn new hobbies — how fantastic! The other day, I learned from one of the women on our Screenagers team that her son learned to crochet from online videos.
What about the 31% of teens who didn’t say their phone helped them with hobbies and interests? In the "Solutions Section," found below all the findings, I offer a solution.
The study found that 7 out of 10 teens report feeling peaceful and/ or happy when they don't have a phone with them. Their answers suggest that they welcome breaks from their phones and other devices.
I am not surprised by this statistic. Many young people have told me this over the years.
This is a wonderful reminder to all of us parents that the work we do to ensure time off devices is positively experienced by teens.
And what about the 3/10 who do not report feeling peaceful at times when they don’t have their phone? Many people experience different levels of anxiety without phones, such as FOMO, not being reachable, not having all the tools in the phone, and so forth. A solution is offered in the “Solutions section” below all the findings.
On average, almost 40% of teens feel they are on their phones too much. This is a great figure to discuss within our homes. That is almost half of kids--millions of teens. Given this fact, how can we help them? And if your teen says, well, that is not me, “I feel I am on my phone the perfect amount.” A solution is offered in the “Solutions Section” found below all these findings.
In the survey, young teen girls ages 13 and 14 were more likely to say that the harm from smartphones outweighs the benefit than older teen girls or teen boys in general.
This is an important finding to discuss. Few other studies have reported on females' vs. males' opinions about the benefits vs risks of social media.
This data gives parents extra confidence in lovingly using their authority, along with collaborative rule setting, to ensure screen time breaks are happening.
Many adults keep their phones by the bed — it feels harmless, even necessary. But what if that habit is quietly affecting our sleep and the example we set for our kids? In this week’s blog, Dr. Ruston shares two key things every parent should know about sleeping next to a phone, and how small nighttime tech changes can make a big difference for the whole family.
READ MORE >
From Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto to violence and gunfire in movies and shows, aggression is a constant backdrop in boys’ media diets. And with various influencers and online personalities framing success through the lens of strength, competition, dominance and winning, boys are being handed a narrow script for masculinity. As parents, one of the most important things we can do is offer a counterweight. We can help boys strengthen empathy, compassion, and respect as core traits of masculinity, so they have a broader, healthier vision of who they can become.
READ MORE >
Last week we introduced you to our Screen-Free Sleep campaign! Since then, we’ve been flooded with emails and calls, and most are asking the same question: How can we get this spreading in our school? Today’s blog has the answers.
READ MORE >for more like this, DR. DELANEY RUSTON'S NEW BOOK, PARENTING IN THE SCREEN AGE, IS THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE FOR TODAY’S PARENTS. WITH INSIGHTS ON SCREEN TIME FROM RESEARCHERS, INPUT FROM KIDS & TEENS, THIS BOOK IS PACKED WITH SOLUTIONS FOR HOW TO START AND SUSTAIN PRODUCTIVE FAMILY TALKS ABOUT TECHNOLOGY AND IT’S IMPACT ON OUR MENTAL WELLBEING.
