How are Tweens Affected?
Junior High School is the prime age in which tweens experience their first taste of freedom. They are no longer in elementary school with young children. They feel older and more experienced. Junior High is considered the beginning of teenagehood, a vital time in a person’s life. It is when you make personal connections and relationships. These relationships carry over to High School. For many people Junior High is the beginning of your path to discovery, the path to finding yourself and establishing who you are. The couple of years spent in Junior High School are important years both mentally and physically. Young boys and girls go through puberty around Junior High age. This growth spurt defines your future. While going through all these changes, both in the outside world and physically inside, technology use can affect your mental wellbeing. It can also affect your dynamics in school, with friends, and eventual romantic relationships. During this period of time in which you are preparing for adulthood you need to develop the skills to be successful. By abusing technology these skills can be comprised.
Scientifically How Are They Affected?
Some ways technology can affect your mental wellbeing are
- Sleep- technology at night can make you lose sleep
- Depression- constantly your phone can eventually cause depression and loneliness
- Addiction- the pattern of constantly checking your devices
- 24/7 Stress- 24/7 you are checking your devices so you don’t have the time or ability to relax or unwind
- FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)- by not checking your devices you can develop the fear of missing an important message
- Isolation- spending so much time with technology can isolate yourself from the world
- Incivility- lack of social interaction can cause rudeness and no self awareness (can also cause cyberbullying)
- Insecurity- constantly comparing yourself to others can develop insecurity about yourself
- Anxiety- by comparing yourself to others you become anxious that your life isn’t as exciting
According to:
(http://www.lifewithteensmag.com/parents-and-teens-the-social-media-gap/)
The children in today’s day and age are “Digital Natives”. Since they’ve never known life without technology they are born accustomed to navigating technology. Their parents, however, did not grow up with the privilege of having technology. The struggle between relating to your child, and battling trying to figure out technology as well, is a debate among experts now.
- Listening to music while on the computer
- Different websites they view daily
- Social media
- Work vs. play
- Facebook chat vs. email
A main issue surrounding tweens and technology is the issue of multitasking (http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/25/tech/social-media/multitasking-kids/). According to this study by Stanford, multitasking was often associated with negative experiences. Tweenage girls were surveyed and the results were obvious that technology has affected this generation of preteens. Results said that there were similarities between multitasking and social behaviors. The results of the study were that these young girls had difficulty with memory, social and emotional development and mostly face to face communication.
Researchers say the most important age for “social development in girls” are the ages 8 to 12.
What Does Their Future Look Like?
In the Stanford study, researchers said that the key to
maintaining tweens’ emotional development is “face-to-face communication”. They can still use media but it is a matter
of keeping your social skills. In the
future, as long as we continue our social development we should be aright.
According to:
(http://www.williamsburgfamilies.com/technology-and-todays-tween-or-teen-is-it-hurting-our-future-generation-2/)
Some ways in which we can coexist with technology in our future is if we:
- Decrease stress for ourselves and our tweens
- Make time to be emotionally present and connect with our tween
- Everything in moderation
- Parents follow the rules too- lead by example
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