• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

Michelle's blog

Food allergy and food intolerance, freefrom foods, electrosensitivity, this and that...

  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • FreeFrom Food Awards
  • Foods Matter
  • Walks & Gardens
  • Salon Music
  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • FreeFrom Food Awards
  • Foods Matter
  • Walks & Gardens
  • Salon Music

Smartphone fallout

06/01/2018 //  by Michelle Berridale Johnson//  Leave a Comment

Image from Teensafe.com, supporting parents who worry that their children may have become addicted to their smartphones.

No, for once I am not stressing over the electromagnetic repercussions of the overuse of a smart phone, although I did come across the article through the EMF Refugee site. But this is about the psychological damage that, according American psychologist Jean Twenge, is being done to today’s teenagers by their addiction to their screens.

You can read Jean Twenge’s original article in The Atlantic here – although be warned that it is long. But the headline numbers were pulled out in the EMF Refugee article which had first appeared on a French site, Santé, Nature Innovation….

During the years, 2012 – 2015, the number of teenagers owning smartphones has risen from 2 in 5 to 4 in 5.

Over those years and across all strata of the teenage population (in the US), regardless of income, ethnic background etc:

  • Depressive symptoms have increased by 50% for girls and 21% for boys between 2012 to 2015.
  • The number of girls who committed suicide tripled between 2007 and 2015, and that of boys has doubled.
  • The number of young people who see friends every day has dropped by 40% between the years 2000 and 2015.
  • Currently, 16-year-olds are going out less than 12-year-olds did in 2009. They remain alone at home with their smartphones.
  • In 2015, only 56% of the senior year students were “going out” with someone, compared to 85% of the young people ten years earlier, a figure that had been stable since the 1960s.
  • The number of children who lack sleep has increased by 57% between the years 1991 and 2015.
  • In spite of going out less often, the few times they do go out, they spend their time on Snapchat, Instagram or Facebook. Those who are not invited, therefore feel cruelly excluded: the number of girls feeling rejected and isolated has increased by 48% from 2010 to 2015 and the number of boys by 27%.

However,  Twenge does suggest that maybe we have reached a peak and even the teenagers themselves may be starting (but only starting) to realise the their addiction to their phones may not be the unalloyed delight that they had once supposed.

8th January – this morning bring news that two of Apple’s largest share holders, Jana Partners and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System who control around $2 billion’s worth of Apple shares –  are now so worried about smartphone addiction that they are asking the company to consider developing software that would allow parents to limit children’s phone use.

 

Category: Behavioural conditions / autism, Mental HealthTag: American psychologist Jean Twenge, and that of boys has doubled, Depressive symptoms have increased by 50% for girls and 21% for boys between 2012 to 2015, EMF Refugee, Santé Nature Innovation, smartphone addiction, Teensafe.com, The Atlantic magazine, The number of girls who committed suicide tripled between 2007 and 2015

Previous Post: « Wifi, mobile phones and electrosensitivity – an update – and we need to support Professor Olle…
Next Post: Moderately freefrom in Puglia »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Colliding with a new reality – the hazards of low vision
  • Call for adult allergy sufferers
  • The vegan/allergy labelling issue
  • A gluten free Christmas just could be delicious – not a penance!
  • A food fad won’t kill you – an allergy will

Search this blog

ARCHIVES

Blogroll

  • Allergy Insight
  • Better brains, naturally
  • For Ever FreeFrom
  • Free From (gluten)
  • Freefrom Food Awards
  • Gluten-free Mrs D
  • Natural Health Worldwide
  • Pure Health Clinic
  • Skins Matter
  • The Helminthic Therapy Wiki
  • Truly Gluten Free
  • What Allergy?

TOPICS

A food fad won’t kill you – an allergy will

There has been a predictable outcry in the allergy world this week’s in response to Rachel Johnson’s piece in Thursday’s Evening Standard on ‘dietary requirements’ and food fads. Being charitable, I am assuming that she has never suffered from or lived with someone with a food allergy. However, I do have some sympathy with her …

Bioplastics – a solution or part of the problem?

Everyday Plastic is a social enterprise group using accessible learning and publicity campaigns to reduce the amount of plastics used daily in our society. It was founded by its current director Daniel Webb who, having moved to Margate in Kent in 2016, was horrified to discover that there were no plastic recycling options on offer.  …

FreeFrom Christmas Awards – the Winners

Since they were launched two years ago the FreeFrom Christmas Awards have been a great success. And how lucky are ‘freefrom-ers’ these days!  From Advent calendars to gifts, party food to Christmas dinner, there is no longer any need for them to miss out. Indeed, the whole family can happily eat freefrom and never know …

Do not extradite Julian Assange to the US

Julian Assange is being sought by the current US administration for publishing US government documents which exposed war crimes and human rights abuses. The politically motivated charges represent an unprecedented attack on press freedom and the public’s right to know – seeking to criminalise basic journalistic activity. Assange is facing a 175-year sentence for publishing …

What to believe – applying critical thought

For the average citizen evaluating the claims made for cure all – or even improve all – health products and procedures has always been difficult. Not only is it an area in which we have minimal expertise but most of us have a vested interest in finding a miracle intervention that will solve our health …

Could wireless monitoring devices be killing racehorses?

Regular readers may remember that back in August last year I alerted you to a posting on Arthur Firstenberg’s Cellphone Task Force site about phone masts and bird flu. Could there be a connection between the fact that the two wildlife sites in Holland and Northern France which had suffered catastrophic bird flu deaths were …

Site Footer

Copyright © 2025 · Michelle's Blog · Michelle Berridale Johnson · Site design by DigitalJen·