Teenage Obsession with their phones is psychologically damaging?

[Fire_Monkey]

Here's the deal.....................

My wife is a middle school nurse. So she deals with kids between the ages of around 13 and 15 every day. She tells me--get this--that girls (sometimes boys, but 90% girls) are having actual Panic Attacks when they forget or lose their cell phones! Not just, "Oh damn! I don;t have my phone!" but physiological panic attacks requiring medical intervention. Rapid breathing and heartrate; hyperventilation; crying jags..etc.

To this I just saw.......Wow. Really?

These kids HAVE to have their phones. To not have them in many instances causes them more psychological and emotional turmoil than anything else, up to and maybe even surpassing physical harm. So this is my question...........has there ever before in HIstory been an item, and entity, a possession of kids that was so cricual to them and their well-being as their phones?

And also, if say, tomorrow, all the phones and social media of these kids was taken away from them, say for a week, would we have an epidemic of clinical psychological breaks? Like Panic attacks and breakdowns?

(My wife answers those two questions "No" and "Yes", fwiw.)

What say you?

 

[Kilgore Trout]

I suspect that it's not specific to phones, but rather a result of many kids not being parented in a way which teaches or promotes such things as resilience and self-regulation. There is certainly an addictive/obsessive element to smart phones/social media, which isn't limited to just kids, so that could definitely exacerbate their lack of ability to handle disappointment.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Here's the deal.....................

My wife is a middle school nurse. So she deals with kids between the ages of around 13 and 15 every day. She tells me--get this--that girls (sometimes boys, but 90% girls) are having actual Panic Attacks when they forget or lose their cell phones! Not just, "Oh damn! I don;t have my phone!" but physiological panic attacks requiring medical intervention. Rapid breathing and heartrate; hyperventilation; crying jags..etc.

To this I just saw.......Wow. Really?

These kids HAVE to have their phones. To not have them in many instances causes them more psychological and emotional turmoil than anything else, up to and maybe even surpassing physical harm. So this is my question...........has there ever before in HIstory been an item, and entity, a possession of kids that was so cricual to them and their well-being as their phones?

And also, if say, tomorrow, all the phones and social media of these kids was taken away from them, say for a week, would we have an epidemic of clinical psychological breaks? Like Panic attacks and breakdowns?

(My wife answers those two questions "No" and "Yes", fwiw.)

What say you?

Disconnected from the hive. A mental wilderness....alone.....afraid.

Teen cannot think....doesn't know what to do. ...

Getting dark now.

Ghost in the machine.

 

[Brickjectivity]

Maybe its related to the fear that they may have lost a phone full of personal information that can reveal things about themselves to any doofus who wants to screw with them.

 

[4consideration]

I think there's something to the phones being rather addictive, and some of a panic reaction would likely be due to that.

The thought of having accidentally lost something, or thinking you might have lost something, can be really upsetting. Some phones are really expensive. They might be worried about their parents being upset and/or whether or not the item can be replaced, or feel bad that it would be costly to their parents.

When I was a kid there wasn't anything that valuable common for kid to be carrying around all the time.

 

[Curious George]

I think that it is easy to point fingers at adolescents, but I am pretty sure that full grown adults are in the same boat. Addiction is addiction, and I don't think age is a preventative measure in this case.

 

[Quetzal]

Here's the deal.....................

My wife is a middle school nurse. So she deals with kids between the ages of around 13 and 15 every day. She tells me--get this--that girls (sometimes boys, but 90% girls) are having actual Panic Attacks when they forget or lose their cell phones! Not just, "Oh damn! I don;t have my phone!" but physiological panic attacks requiring medical intervention. Rapid breathing and heartrate; hyperventilation; crying jags..etc.

To this I just saw.......Wow. Really?

These kids HAVE to have their phones. To not have them in many instances causes them more psychological and emotional turmoil than anything else, up to and maybe even surpassing physical harm. So this is my question...........has there ever before in HIstory been an item, and entity, a possession of kids that was so cricual to them and their well-being as their phones?

And also, if say, tomorrow, all the phones and social media of these kids was taken away from them, say for a week, would we have an epidemic of clinical psychological breaks? Like Panic attacks and breakdowns?

(My wife answers those two questions "No" and "Yes", fwiw.)

What say you?

Nahhh.

 

[allfoak]

 

[Stevicus]

Here's the deal.....................

My wife is a middle school nurse. So she deals with kids between the ages of around 13 and 15 every day. She tells me--get this--that girls (sometimes boys, but 90% girls) are having actual Panic Attacks when they forget or lose their cell phones! Not just, "Oh damn! I don;t have my phone!" but physiological panic attacks requiring medical intervention. Rapid breathing and heartrate; hyperventilation; crying jags..etc.

To this I just saw.......Wow. Really?

These kids HAVE to have their phones. To not have them in many instances causes them more psychological and emotional turmoil than anything else, up to and maybe even surpassing physical harm. So this is my question...........has there ever before in HIstory been an item, and entity, a possession of kids that was so cricual to them and their well-being as their phones?

And also, if say, tomorrow, all the phones and social media of these kids was taken away from them, say for a week, would we have an epidemic of clinical psychological breaks? Like Panic attacks and breakdowns?

(My wife answers those two questions "No" and "Yes", fwiw.)

What say you?

We didn't have cellphones when I was in school. The school had a payphone for students to use. Oh, and we walked to school barefoot in the snow.

They didn't even let us go to the school nurse for panic attacks. I wish we could have; I could have gotten out of a lot of tests that way.

But even before cellphones, I do recall that if a student lost or broke something that their parents bought for them which was really expensive, then they might have had a panic attack because they're worried their parents might go ballistic. I can see that happening.

 

[Fire_Monkey]

I think there's something to the phones being rather addictive, and some of a panic reaction would likely be due to that.

The thought of having accidentally lost something, or thinking you might have lost something, can be really upsetting. Some phones are really expensive. They might be worried about their parents being upset and/or whether or not the item can be replaced, or feel bad that it would be costly to their parents.

When I was a kid there wasn't anything that valuable common for kid to be carrying around all the time.

Thanks, but no, my wife said it's not panic of losing the phones. It's not a fear of monetary loss. It of privacy info being comprised. Rather, they feel disconnected and alone and scared. Panic attacks often have feelings of death being imminent.

Actually, that above post which was like a poem from Nowhere Man...... Feeling lost, alone, disconnected......Is the most accurate answer so far as to what I hear these kids experience without their phones. It's a very strange and real problem and just wait, you'll one day see what happens when these kids are deprived of their life lines. If and when that ever happens. I predict mass suicide.

 

[Debater Slayer]

Maybe its related to the fear that they may have lost a phone full of personal information that can reveal things about themselves to any doofus who wants to screw with them.

This. I've skipped a heartbeat or two on occasion when I thought I had lost my phone precisely due to the above concern, and not just because of the low-quality selfies on my phone.

 

[columbus]

My partner is 54. I made a 45 minute round trip a couple of months ago to take his phone to him while he was at work. I asked him (calling from a coworkers phone) what he could possibly need it for at work with other people around in an emergency. I didn't really get an answer. He just really wanted it in his pocket ASAP.
Tom

 

[Brickjectivity]

Possibly the phone companies add some kind of addicting noise to their phones, like a subliminal hypnotic tune. No, not seriously; but if you can show that the phones are addicting then you can imply that it is worth researching. After all, companies would do it if they thought they could get away with it.

 

[Deathbydefault]

If all of the sudden I couldn't smoke or drink caffeine anymore, I'd probably have a panic attack too.
I rely on those things to get me through a day much like a younger teenage kid might rely on their phone.

 

[QuestioningMind]

Thanks, but no, my wife said it's not panic of losing the phones. It's not a fear of monetary loss. It of privacy info being comprised. Rather, they feel disconnected and alone and scared. Panic attacks often have feelings of death being imminent.

Actually, that above post which was like a poem from Nowhere Man...... Feeling lost, alone, disconnected......Is the most accurate answer so far as to what I hear these kids experience without their phones. It's a very strange and real problem and just wait, you'll one day see what happens when these kids are deprived of their life lines. If and when that ever happens. I predict mass suicide.

I really doubt it would be as serious as you fear. Yes, there would be lots of anxiety for a week or two, but once people are released from the grip of such technology I suspect that they'd adjust pretty quickly. My son had something akin to an addiction to video games for awhile. When his system broke down he went through withdrawal for 7-10 days, but after that he didn't miss it a bit.

 

[Revoltingest]

My partner is 54. I made a 45 minute round trip a couple of months ago to take his phone to him while he was at work. I asked him (calling from a coworkers phone) what he could possibly need it for at work with other people around in an emergency. I didn't really get an answer. He just really wanted it in his pocket ASAP.
Tom

Before you complain about it, remember
that you practically demanded that I post it.

 

[SomeRandom]

Teenagers are hormonal and often over dramatise everything. I remember at that age (whilst we did have phones, they were the old Nokia 3310/3315s) girls would have honest to god panic attacks if they forgot their makeup and couldn't do touch ups at lunch. I think it's important to remember how big a deal every single solitary thing was at such an age. And that with previous generations (even "Gen Y" millennials like myself) mental health acknowledgement was different. Today it is getting more and more exposure. So we're just more aware of such instances when we wouldn't be before.
Add in the helicopter parents deliberately not exposing children to harsher negative emotions (even Beatrix Potter is being censored for young kids these days, and she wrote for 5 year olds!) and you end up with kids not able to deal with negativity in a healthy manner.
It's all very easy to blame the evil addictive phones, and while I do think it's better to limit access for young teenagers and teach them how to be safe online, I think there's more going on.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

What say you?

It's difficult to say as never before have we had a generation raised with such communication standards. This forgetting of the phone may indeed feel a "lost part" as the communication they have always known is impaired and/or removed.

 

[columbus]

Thinking about this a bit, I wonder how much the panic in young people is due to the loss of status. Being "unconnected" is definitely a social demotion. If all your friends lost it at the same time it might not be nearly so traumatic for a young insecure person.
Tom

 

[VioletVortex]

Yes, of course it's psychologically damaging. Phone's replace the mind in many tasks, and when this happens, the brain loses its familiarity with certain regions. The level of neural activity there goes down, and possibly, bloodflow decreases, which would theoretically cause the nerves to lose their conductive properties, as well as slight atrophy of that area of the brain. Also, texting seems to be addictive to some people, and psychological addition diminishes activity in the area of the brain responsible for moderation.

On a greater note, with the mind being replaced by technology, the need for people to be intelligent is diminishing, and thus being lost to artificial selection. When we no longer have the resources for such technology, most of us will die.