Adolescents and Technology

Adolescents and Technology

Name:

Institution:

Introduction

Technology and diverse uses have spread rapidly in the contemporary society, influencing virtually every age group. However, modern day adolescents constitute a category of the heaviest technology users. Teenagers are invaluable customers of emergent forms of technology, especially in communication. These communication technologies include text messaging, instant messaging (IM), blogging, video and photo sharing, and social networking. Coupled with online gaming and chatting, these technologies significantly influence adolescents' sociological and psychological development (Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, 2008). It is imperative to note that teenagers bear the greatest brunt of technology than older generations, since they are born into an era largely dominated by the phenomenon. For this reason, these young generations undergo a hard time trying to separate themselves from use of technology, since it is extensively intertwined with their social lives. This paper seeks to examine the impact of technology on adolescents, by evaluating technological trends, their advantages, disadvantages and possible solutions to their negative effects.

Hypothesis

With continued increment of time spent on computers, cell-phones, and other technological devices, teenagers risk withdrawing from important in-person social interactions.

Research Questions

The research is built upon several basic questions, all aimed at gaining better understanding of the nature of teenagers' utilization of technology. These questions include:

Which age group is most affected by technology use?

How frequently do adolescents utilize technology or spend time online?

Where do teenagers often access the internet or use technological devices?

Can adolescents only access technology or the internet from one place?

What is the preferred type of technology?

Which activities do they most often engage in when using technology?

What benefits do they gain from technology use?

Are their negative effects they perceive from use of technology?

What are the psychological/sociological effects of technology use on adolescents?

Are there possible solutions to the identified negative effects of technology use among adolescents?

Literature Review

Preferred type of Technology

With increased use of the internet and technology for communication purposes, the utilization of socially interactive technologies (SITs) has also increased significantly among adolescents. SITs include technologies like social networks, text messaging and instant messaging. Teenagers also use technology extensively for gaming and sharing photographs or videos. All the same, teenagers mostly prefer communicating through writing of texts using their cell phones (Richards et al., 2010). This mode of communication between adolescents and their peers or parents, coupled with instant messaging, occurs in greater frequency than face to face interaction (Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, 2008). This rampant utilization of messaging as a mode of communication prevents personal interaction between adolescents and their counterparts. As a result, they lack interpersonal skills; an attribute that prevents them from forming health social connections. This lack of personal connection also denies adolescents a chance to learn about basic social cues that are important if they are to thrive within school or work environments.

Frequency of Technology Use

Based on survey findings by Lenhart et al. (2013), more than 50 percent of adolescents who utilize the internet report that they go online every day. Approximately 24 percent of the said population usually goes online more than one time per day, while 27 percent of the teenagers go online one time each day. The number of teenagers that have relatively low frequency of internet usage is relatively low. Excessive use of the internet is primarily attributable to the fact that it is possible to go online using mobile phones, unlike before when people entirely relied on computers to do this.

Places where Teenagers Easily Access Technology

With the current portability of technological devices, teenagers can easily access the internet anywhere, including at school and at home. It is important to note that these are the primary areas where teens can make friends in-person or expressly discuss their concerns. Therefore, excessive use of technology prevents them from facing these social responsibilities.

Analysis of Age Group most Affected by Technology Use

According to Valkenburg & Peter (2007), approximately 93 percent of children in developed nations, falling within the age bracket of 12 to 17 years make use of the internet. Further, about 75 percent of these youngsters utilize the internet mainly for instant messaging. This is a high statistic, clearly showing the magnitude of the situation, since virtually every teenager has access to technology and is vulnerable to its potentially negative impact. The projected vulnerability is accentuated by the fact that adolescence is a rather challenging and sensitive phase of life. This is because it represents a transitional stage where one changes from being a child to an adult. The period is characterized by numerous physiological changes, emotion and cognition developments, variations in social roles with members of the opposite sex and thoughts about academics and prospective careers. It is also during this stage that youngsters start developing their own identity, in a bid to gain autonomy from family and adapt to their peer groups. If kids and teenagers struggle to deal with these transformations, they are likely to develop psychological disorders like obsessions, anxiety and depression. Reliance on technology or the internet, to provide a support framework during this sensitive period would enhance the incidence of such disorders. This would further hamper adolescents' ability to develop healthy social interactions with people in real life.

Benefits of Using Technology

In many cases, adolescence gets associated with a firm need to have friendships,