Dr Michelle Dickinson: Nanotechologist on the addictive impact of cell phones on teenage users

Mobile phones are designed to be addictive, encouraging users to pick them up often thanks to the constant buzzing of notifications. A new study shows how the design of phone apps are affecting teenagers, with up to 4500 notifications a day sent to their phone.

The study carried out by Common Sense Media installed an app into the devices of 203 young people aged 11-17 for one week.  

The app collected data about which apps were used and when, as well as how many notifications appeared on the screen of the device and how many times the phone was picked up. 

The study found that the many of the teenagers used their smartphones during the school day as well as during overnight hours with a total average smartphone use of over 4 hours per day. Over half of teens used their phones overnight on school nights for social media, gaming, or watching videos on YouTube. 

While one quarter of phone notifications appeared on the teenagers phones during the school day, the use of phones during school time differed depending on the policy of the school. Some schools banned or limited phone use on site, which lowered the amount of interaction the students had with their phones during the day. 

The worst apps for notification bombardment were Snapchat, Discord and Instagram and the teen group checked their phones on average over 100 times per day. Some of the teens in the study picked up their devices a whopping 498 times per day unable to resist the temptation of the buzz! 

While the study didn’t look into the psychological effects of the content being viewed by the teens or the effects of using phones during school hours, it did paint a frightening picture of how smart devices and their apps are integrated into the lives of teenagers in a way that hasn’t been seen before. 

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.