New Study: Too Much Time on Social Networks, Texting Leads to Depression, Alcohol Abuse in Teens
A new study by Case Western Reserve shows a link between
high volume texting and spending a lot of time on social networking sites and a host of undesirable behaviors and conditions in teens, such as skipping school, alcohol abuse, smoking, depression, drug abuse and eating disorders.
It's not the texting itself that causes all the trouble, reports The New York Times. Scientists say there are two factors here: 1) kids who have that much time to text have parents that are more permissive and who aren't monitoring the teens' behavior, and 2) teens that are that obsessed with texting tend to be obsessed with fitting in and are terrified of not conforming, even if that means engaging in risky behaviors.
Dr. Scott Frank, the lead author of the study says that these technologies make it easy for insecure children to try too hard to "fit in" with other kids, making them especially susceptible to unfavorable outcomes.
