Interesting study looked at how the happiness of girls was related to multiple variables, including how much time they spend on their phones and how much they communicate with their parents. The investigators did not find that spending a lot of time on screens had much impact by itself. Instead they found a much bigger effect from whether girls said they could talk to their parents about their problems.
Parent-child communication dominates the model . . . .
Phones do matter, but their role is often misunderstood. Instead of operating as a primary source of distress, heavy phone use appears to function as a compensatory behavior. When young people lack reliable sources of support or connection, they turn to tools that provide stimulation or regulation. Heavy screen use fills gaps left by unmet material and psychological needs.
My question would be, why don't some girls think they can talk to their parents? Is that based entirely on the strength of the relationship, or does it depend on what their problems are? If you are so involved in online life that most of your problems are online, and you know your parents frown on that, does that keep you from talking to them about it? I don't see these as independent variables.
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I'm sure there's a new problem of children and teens who want to talk about the distress online life causes them, and who feel they can't talk about that with their parents. But difficulties of communication between children and adults predate online life. The skill of being a receptive and supportive listener isn't necessarily a common one among humans.
When televisions were new, people fretted over young people watching too much television.
When radios were new, people fretted over young people listening to too much radio.
When the Charleston was new, people fretted about young people dancing too much.
When the novel was new, people fretted about young people reading too much.
It turns out that enjoyable activities that offer escape from less enjoyable aspects of life are appealing to young people - particularly those with poor family dynamics, who don't feel they can talk to their parents.
People are generally unhappy when they aren't in control of their own lives. Minors as a rule have very little control of their own lives, and thus their happiness depends largely on the choices of their parents. If their parents' choices about how they must live are making them unhappy, that's likely to result in a poor relationship and the child feeling they can't talk to their parents (or more accurately, that the child's wishes won't be accommodated). If they are unable to convince their parents to make changes which will promote their happiness, they will seek whatever scraps of self determination or escapism they can find elsewhere.
That's all it is. That's all it ever has been. Parents who don't earn and keep the trust of their children end up with children who seek to get away from their parents - and whatever new technology or trend is around which can facilitate that, will.
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