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<\/p>\nData shows that teens are spending less time hanging out with friends in person, and more time on their devices.<\/p>\n
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America\u2019s 15- to 24-year-olds spend 35 percent less time socializing face-to-face than they did 20 years ago, The Atlantic<\/em> reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n Instead, American kids and teenagers spend nearly six hours a day looking at screens, according to the Digital Parenthood Initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n Parents\u2019 concern about how kids use tech isn\u2019t new. We saw it with chatrooms in the \u201990s, then with the advent of virtual communication networks in the aughts. But the way teens typically use tech today \u2014 via smartphones and tablets \u2014 is different.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a ton of tech out there. But the one aspect that\u2019s different about this tech is that it\u2019s used in private<\/em>,\u201d says Jeffrey Hall, a professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas. That\u2019s leading to new stress \u2014 often away from parents\u2019 eyes.<\/p>\n Sharing locations isn\u2019t reserved for parents anymore. High schoolers are tracking each other, seeing in real time when their friends are hanging out without them.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not uncommon to have the locations of dozens of peers, especially on Snapchat\u2019s Snap Maps, says Meghan Whitten, a junior at Lincoln High School in Portland, Oregon, who wrote about the phenomenon<\/a> for her school\u2019s newspaper.<\/p>\n \u201cI do get FOMO [fear of missing out] when I see my friends hanging out<\/em>,\u201d Whitten says.<\/p>\n Even if it\u2019s not intentional, \u201cit definitely contributes to anxiety around social situations \u2014 especially during high school, which is all around a stressful time<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n On top of that, the fact that much of teens\u2019 socialization occurs online is contributing to loneliness.<\/p>\n \u201cSpending time with people releases certain chemicals in the brain and boosts our mood. You can\u2019t get the same benefits from texting or even audio or video calls<\/em>,\u201d Hall says.<\/p>\n Interacting with others via group chats or virtual communication posts has even less value.<\/p>\n The latest tech danger teens are facing is the rise of AI chatbots. These AI \u201cfriends\u201d or \u201cromantic\u201d interests have been heralded as a cure for loneliness. But they on the contrary, escalate feelings of isolation, experts say. And they could be especially dangerous for teens who already struggle with depression or anxiety.<\/p>\n The debate over these bots has intensified<\/a> since one teen fell in love with a chatbot and ended up taking his own life<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n Online communication can\u2019t replace in-person hangouts. \u201cYour goal as a parent<\/em>,\u201d Hall says, \u201cis to equip your kids with the tools to handle the media that they have access to<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n yogaesoteric <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Data shows that teens are spending less time hanging out with friends in person, and more time on their devices. America\u2019s 15- to 24-year-olds spend 35 percent less time socializing face-to-face than they did 20 years ago, The Atlantic reports. Instead, American kids and teenagers spend nearly six hours a day looking at screens, according […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1226],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-society-1602-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189928"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":189933,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189928\/revisions\/189933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nFebruary 28, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n