Teenage girls spend up to six hours on their mobile phones, study finds | Technologies

“I deleted myself from Instagram and Tik Tok,” says Inma Rojas, who just turned 18 and is a sophomore in high school in Seville. “I realized it was taking up a lot of my time,” explains this student, who faces the dreaded university entrance test in two weeks. According to him, before making this decision, he devoted more than three hours a day to rest and entertainment. Their hours of mobile phone use exceed the World Health Organization’s recommended maximum of 120 minutes per day, but fall short of the six recorded by teenagers who took part in…

“I deleted myself from Instagram and Tik Tok,” says Inma Rojas, who just turned 18 and is a sophomore in high school in Seville. “I realized it was taking up a lot of my time,” explains this student, who faces the dreaded university entrance test in two weeks. According to him, before making this decision, he devoted more than three hours a day to rest and entertainment. Their cell phone hours exceed the World Health Organization’s recommended maximum of 120 minutes per day, but fall short of the six recorded by teenagers who took part in a study published in Archives of diseases in childhoodfrom the British Medical Journal and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. The consequences of such abuse include lower grades, increased anxiety, poorer body image, and poorer well-being.

A study conducted on a thousand students aged 15 to 16 years in Finland, using real-life measurements and information provided by participants, found that the average time of daily smartphone use was about six hours. Other studies among Swedish teenagers showed an average of 161 minutes, or almost three hours. In Spain, according to the Pazos Foundation, on weekdays there are about 200 minutes a day and 300 on weekends.

Although the data varies, the key point is that all analyzes agree on widespread abuse, which Finnish study author Silja Kosola says causes “anxiety and other mental health problems, especially among girls, which contribute significantly to adolescent morbidity.” . -country of income. Among these disorders, social media addiction stands out.

Daily time spent doing so is also associated, according to Kosola, with lower grade point averages, poorer body image, poor health and mood, greater fatigue and greater feelings of loneliness.

The researcher herself admits that “this is an observational study, and therefore no clear conclusions about causal factors can be drawn.” However, he concludes that “the implications are serious, and policymakers must persuade tech companies to prioritize safety and health.”

Psychologist Gadi Lissak, in a previous, more comprehensive study published in Science Directagrees with the conclusion: “Excessive use of digital media by children and adolescents is an important factor that may hinder the development of strong psychophysiological resilience.”

Lissack highlights the effects of mobile device use and analyzes not only time, but also content, time of day and types of use to identify twenty physical harms, from insomnia to obesity and cardiovascular problems; psychological, such as depression and addiction; and neuropsychiatric, suggesting changes in the structure of the brain.

Poorer body image perceptions, especially among adolescents, found in the Finnish study coincide with the results of a study presented to the American Academy of Pediatrics by Cassidy Foley of the University of Florida. Foley also attributes some of the body image issues to social media and admits that “women tend to be a little more dissatisfied or uncomfortable with their body image than men.”

“All that hours of screen time in young people leads to a heavier heart and, as we know from studies in adults, increases the likelihood of heart attack and stroke,” says Andrew Agbae of the University of Eastern Finland and study author. European Society of Cardiology study.

In Spain, devices are also part of the daily lives of minors, according to data from ONTSI (National Observatory of Technology and Information Society), which shows that 98% of them regularly use the Internet, and seven out of ten have a mobile phone. (39% under 11 years of age).

The consequences of abuse are common. Report The influence of technology on the lives of SpaniardsThe study, produced by cybersecurity company Kaspersky, shows that almost 70% of the population are dependent on technology, and 46% admit they should reduce their use, although only one in 10 went to therapy to achieve this. The most addictive features are instant messaging apps (32%), social networks (22%) and online video platforms (11%).

Despite this reality, 26% of parents admit that they do not have enough information to teach their children how to use the Internet safely and responsibly, and 75% believe that their children are not prepared or do not have enough knowledge to do so. Internet usage, according to a survey conducted by the same company.

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