Highly Addictive

  • 46% of teens say they’re on their phones “almost constantly”. Click here to read more.

  • Just over half of U.S. teenagers (51%) report spending at least four hours per day using a variety of social media apps such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), a Gallup survey of more than 1,500 adolescents finds. Click here to read more.

  • Given the sociodemographic differences in problematic screen use, digital literacy education strategies can focus on at-risk populations, encourage targeted counseling by pediatricians, and adapt family media use plans for diverse backgrounds. Click here to read more.

  • A new report from Common Sense Media that analyzed data from young people's phones and gathered insights from conversations with teens themselves shows how smartphones impact their school days, sleep routines, and stress levels. Click here to read more.

  • Turns out, smartphones and sugary foods do have something in common with drugs: They trigger surges of a neurotransmitter deep inside your brain called dopamine. Although drugs cause much bigger spikes of dopamine than, say, social media or an ice cream cone, these smaller spikes still influence our behavior, especially in the long run. Click here to read more.

  • From Psychology today. Technology is an integral and growing part of our lives. It is key for efficient functioning in many aspects of our lives and vital for social connection for many. Our smartphones are constant companions for many of us. However, excessive, compulsive or out-of-control use of various types of technologies is an increasing area of concern. Click here to read more.

Harmful Content

  • For our study, Center for Countering Digital Hate researchers set up new accounts in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia at the minimum age TikTok allows, 13 years old. These accounts paused briefly on videos about body image and mental health, and liked them. What we found was deeply disturbing. Within 2.6 minutes, TikTok recommended suicide content. Within 8 minutes, TikTok served content related to eating disorders. Every 39 seconds, TikTok recommended videos about body image and mental health to teens. Click here to read more.

  • Advertisers of merchandise for young girls find that adult men can become their unintended audience. In a test ad, convicted sex offenders inquired about a child model. Click here to read more. (requires a subscription)

  • Nearly two-thirds of Generation Z teens and young adults, in six countries, said they or their friends have been targeted in online “sextortion” schemes, new research from Snap Inc. shows.

    65% of Gen Z teens and young adults, on all platforms and devices – not just Snapchat — said they or their friends were targeted in online “catfishing” scams, or were hacked by criminals who stole explicit personal imagery or other private information. Click here to read more.

  • This site contains lots of resources on this topic. Click here to read more.

  • Instagram allows teen users as young as 13 to find potentially deadly drugs for sale in just two clicks, according to a Tech Transparency Project (TTP) investigation that adds to mounting questions about the dangers the platform poses to children. Click here to read more.

  • Tougher rules are required to crack down on betting firms’ use of “sneaky” social media postings and campaigns that may lure young people into gambling, warns a new report. Researchers at Bristol University have reported a rise in gambling promotions that typically blur the line between advertising for a betting company and popular cultural references, from ET to Gladiator. Click here to read more.

Disruptive in the Classroom

  • Today, students across the country use computers to learn English, Math, Science, and History. Tech companies and curriculum developers claim that this is helping them. Personal devices and digital platforms, they say, increase student engagement and have huge educational benefits. Yet in my experience as a speech-language pathologist, digital programs are ineffective and distracting for kids.

    Click here to read more.

  • Any teacher or parent reading this knows the conversation around smartphones in the hands of children has never been more critical. As educators, parents, and conscious observers of the evolving educational landscape, we are increasingly aware that phones are hurting kids. While the convenience and instant access to information that smartphones offer can be beneficial, it’s crucial to examine the flip side of this coin. The debate isn’t just about keeping students focused in the classroom—it extends to the deeper implications smartphones have on our children’s overall development. Click here to read more.

  • Smartphone usage is widespread in college classrooms, but there is a lack of measurement studies. We conducted a 14-week measurement study in the wild with 84 first-year college students in Korea. Click here to read more.

  • Schools are losing teachers for a variety of reasons, and phones factor into decisions to leave. Dozens of teachers have told me they spend more time policing kids’ phone use than they do teaching. For Rutherford—a 35-year-old teacher who once embraced technology—seeing kids checked out and, in his view, addicted, robbed him of the joy of teaching. Click here to read more. (requires a subscription)

  • People are permanently surrounded by distractions, such as the smartphone. To suppress an impulse like “I want to play on my smartphone now!”, a higher instance must control this impulse to be able to perform. The ability to organize, plan, analyze, and compare past and present actions and to control impulses are described as executive functions2. The executive function, as part of a working memory model, was firstly mentioned by Baddeley (1974). In the context of this model, Baddeley proposes that cognitive resources are limited. Click here to read more.

  • Lewis’s school will soon participate in a pilot program requiring that cellphones be stowed during class in nonlocking pouches that block cell signals. Clark County, the country’s fifth-largest district, will require all students in sixth through 12th grades to keep phones in the pouches starting next fall. Click here to read more. (requires a subscription)

Mental Health

  • Company Documents Show - its own in-depth research shows a significant teen mental-health issue that Facebook plays down in public. Click here to read more. (requires a subscription)

  • Sapien Labs, which runs an ongoing global survey of mental health with nearly a million participants so far, released a “Rapid Report” on a question they added in January asking young adults (those between ages 18 and 24): “At what age did you get your own smartphone or tablet (e.g. iPad) with Internet access that you could carry with you?”  When they plot the age of first smartphone on the X axis against their extensive set of questions about mental health on the Y axis, they find a consistent pattern: the younger the age of getting the first smartphone, the worse the mental health that the young adult reports today. Click here to read the full substack.

  • 59% of U.S. teens have been bullied or harassed online, and a similar share says it’s a major problem for people their age. At the same time, teens mostly think teachers, social media companies and politicians are failing at addressing this issue. Click here to read more.

  • While Big Tech fights regulations that would protect children, its leaders apply a different standard for their own offspring. Click here to read more.