In many territories and jurisdictions, the advent of technology has been marred with boon and, at the same time, gloom. Within various liberal societies that do not regulate the uptake of technology among their citizenry, the youth remain severely exposed to the dire consequences of technology addiction. This essay seeks to provide an in depth critique analysis of the Impact of Technology Addiction on Adolescent Well-being.
The contentious question of whether excessive use of technology—such as video games, social media, or the internet—can be categorized as a mental health condition is examined in the article by Susan Ladika. The author offers a fair summary of the claims and supporting data from a variety of viewpoints, including those of addiction experts, business insiders, child advocates, legislators, and researchers. (Ladika, S. 2018).
The article also looks at potential treatments and methods to deal with the issue, as well as the ethical and social ramifications of classifying excessive use of technology as an addiction. Moreover, to bolster the assertions and arguments, the author draws on a wide range of sources, including pertinent tales and instances, to highlight the effects of technology addiction and usage in real life. (Ladika, S. 2018).
The author explicates a case study that resonates with the subject in question. Charlie Bracke, who spent a large portion of his youth playing video games, realized that his compulsive gaming as an adult was out of control. According to him, he had lost his girlfriend, failed three colleges, and failed as a real estate agent.
The 29-year-old from Redmond, Washington, remembers that he attempted to stop gaming twice. Then, he claims, one day when he was contemplating suicide-a quick fix to his frustrations in his life, his parents unexpectedly walked up and discovered him and his flat in disarray. Within the confines of psychology, addiction happens when anything dominates over the life of an individual and conflicts with relationships, sleep, job, hobbies, or eating habits, among other things. Similar to all other “rewards,” technology can overindulge and destroy neurons, releasing in copious amounts the neurotransmitter dopamine, resulting in addiction.
In context, according to some addiction experts, excessive use of social media, video games, and other internet technologies may trigger the same detrimental impacts on the brain as drug or alcohol addiction. However, some specialists dispute whether compulsive technology use qualifies as an addiction according to clinical definitions.
They contend that excessive reliance on technology is usually a symptom of an underlying illness, such as attention deficit disorder, anxiety, or depression. Industry insiders claim that tech giants like Facebook intentionally create addictive products, a claim that corporate leaders refute.
Notwithstanding the opinions of professionals regarding the existence of tech addiction, a January survey revealed that almost 50% of parents with children under the age of 18 were concerned that their children were addicted to their smartphones. More than a quarter of the parents admitted to being addicted to their smartphones, and over 10% expressed extreme or great anxiety about how the devices were hurting their kids’ mental health.
The World Health Organization has consistently pointed out that there are “documented cases of excessive use, which often has negative health consequences” in relation to the rising use of technology. In 2017, the WHO conducted its fourth annual meeting on tech addiction. The World Health Organization opined that technology addiction on adolescent well-being the problem has reached the magnitude of a significant public health concern in an increasing number of nations and regions.
A number of former engineers of internet industry giants like Google and Facebook claim that the businesses purposefully developed user-engaging technology so they could profit from the sale of user data. Tristan Harris, a former Google design ethicist, has charged the company with producing software that is highly addictive.
It is imperative to bear in mind that there has always been concern about the effects of technology. When radio first became popular in the 1920s, experts were worried that it might discourage children from reading and impair their academic achievement.
In 1936, the journal Gramophone asserted that radio was “upsetting the equilibrium of their children’s easily agitated minds.” Then, when television gained popularity following World War II, some people worried that it would negatively impact family life, reading, and conversation as well as “result in the further vulgarization of the American culture.” Edward R. Murrow, a well-known American television journalist, said in 1957 that television was culminating into the “opiate of the people.”
The extent of this problem is slowly but surely getting out of hand, so much so that Concerned financiers penned an open letter to Apple stating that, when texting and talking are excluded, the average American child obtains their smartphone at age 10, and teenagers use them for more than 4.5 hours per day. Nearly eighty percent of teenagers claimed to check their phones at least once every hour. This highlights the significance of the impact of technology addiction on adolescent well-being.
To date, the far-reaching effects of the overuse of technology in tandem with underlying psychological issues such as attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder or anxiety have driven behavior in every case. It is more common for boys to overplay video games than for girls to misuse social media. Individuals who misuse social media typically experience anxiety, whereas gamers typically suffer from attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. However, when it comes to binge-watching porn and information, the women are evenly divided.
The primary objective of the specialist program development teams at tech firms is to maintain users’ regular engagement. In the same vein, industry insiders claim that digital companies, especially social media giants like Facebook, which offer free services in exchange for users’ data that the businesses later sell, actually base their business models on keeping people as involved as possible. On the other hand, some who contest the idea that programmers purposefully created addictive goods assert that developers only created tools that motivate users to continue using them. However, some users develop an obsession with them. They dispute. That is not the same as individuals who are clinically addicted.
The time is neigh and ripe for technology reforms by the government despite the industry raking profits to the tune of billions of dollars in the United States economy. Following disclosures that Russia extensively used social media to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election, tech companies have come under heightened scrutiny.
Executives from Facebook, Google, and Twitter visited Capitol Hill in October and admitted their involvement in the meddling. Following the British data collection firm Cambridge Analytica’s access to the personal information of over 50 million Facebook users—including Facebook chairman and executive assistant—during President Donald Trump’s election campaign, Facebook also encountered political and consumer backlash over its privacy policies.
In conclusion, others would contend that the government is utterly incompetent in establishing just laws and enforcing limits. Rather, the government ought to invest more in enlightening and enabling people to enhance their digital literacy and proficiency by adopting a vigorous agenda for the regulation of digital firms that manipulate consumers, particularly adolescents.
References
Ladika, S. (2018). Technology Addiction: Is Obsessive Computer Use a Mental Health Disorder? CQ Press.
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