Children, Stress and Social Media
In the fast-paced world we’re living in today, one of the driving forces that affect our society’s functioning in everyday life is stress. According to Johann Hari in chapter 10 of “Stolen Focus,” 48% of people find that stress is what affects people’s everyday focus. As I read this, it made me wonder how much technology and social media affect stress in not just adults, but also children.
According to the American Psychological Association, social media and modern technology has created the “constant checker,” a person who constantly checks their phone for emails, texts, social media and more. I personally am guilty of being a “constant checker.” I find myself always opening my notifications, emails, texts, etc. As I’ve gotten older and gained more confidence in the person I’ve become, I have been able to develop some control of my use of technology by turning off my notifications and becoming less anxious over texts, emails and other notifications. However, this mindset I’ve developed is fairly recent and still dependent on technology but is leaps and bounds beyond the mindset I carried as a young adolescent. In chapter 10 of “Stolen Focus,” Hari studied the stresses and attention span of children who experienced trauma.
As I read the chapter, I began to remember my own experiences as a child and how stress affected me. Although I did not experience trauma to the degree of children going through divorce or abuse, a part of the chapter that resonated with me was when Hari wrote:
“Your attention is focused on cues for potential danger, as opposed to being focused on being present with what’s going on, or the lesson you’re supposed to be learning, or doing the work you were supposed to be doing. It’s not that [people in this state are] not paying attention. It’s that they’re paying attention to any cues or signs of threat or danger in their environment. That is where their focus is."
Hari 175
As a child, I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), which made it harder for me to focus in class. During this time period, something I did experience that left a mark on my childhood was being bullied. I was picked on by peers and would sometimes be singled out by my own teachers, to the point where I’d walk into my 6th-grade history class shaking. Kids would make fun of the way I walked, the way I spoke, how I dressed, and would just simply tease me. Teachers would abruptly tell me to “snap out of it” when I would “zone out” during class lessons or would flip my desk to shake all my books and folders out when I’d leave an assignment at home. Looking back at it all, I think the anxieties of what I would face that day, whether it be being yelled at by teachers or teased by my peers, affected my paying attention in school as well as my confidence.
Many of these challenges were at their prime for me when I was between six to twelve years old before I owned a smartphone and would scroll through social media. This made me wonder how social media can affect a child’s development and perspective on the world. How much will their stress levels be affected due to the added technology and where will their minds “wander?”
Recent studies have shown that 50% of children 10 to 12 years old and 33% of children 7 to 9 years old use social media apps. Social media doesn’t just affect a child’s social skills, but also their behaviors and mental health. The addiction of social media can cause a child to be more irritable, anxious and lower their self-esteem. Some dangers children can be victim of through social media include cyber-bullying, online predators, sharing too much information, false marketing and dangerous viral trends.
All of these factors can be huge distractions for children, especially cyber-bullying. Being bullied in person is hard enough, but having to also think about what people say about you online or what they could message you behind a screen doubles the stress. Some statistics have shown that about 50% of children have experienced cyberbullying. Research has found that 32% of children who are victims of cyberbullying report experiencing some sort of stress, aside from feelings of sadness, powerlessness and hopelessness, which reports have also found to be 93% of victims of cyberbullying.
Technology causes stress amongst not just adults, but is now causing stress amongst children. In “Stolen Focus,” Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, former Surgeon General of California, said, “We have to create an environment. We have to limit the amount of scary or stressful things that [your child] is experiencing and witnessing,” (Hari 178).
If parents teach their children how to limit their use of technology and social media, it can help with the child’s overall mental development, mood, self-esteem, stress levels and focus.
References
American Psychological Association (APA). (2017). Stress in America: Coping With Change. Retrieved September 27, 2022, from https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2017/state-nation.pdf
Gordon, S. (2022, July 22). Learn to recognize the real-life effects of cyberbullying on children. Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://www.verywellfamily.com/what-are-the-effects-of-cyberbullying-460558
Hari, J. (2022). Cause Eight: The Surge in Stress and How It Is Triggering Vigilance. In Stolen focus: Why you can’t pay attention–and how to think deeply again (First Edition ed., pp. 171-184). Crown.
Ranch, I. (2022, April 28). Effects of cyberbullying on social media [& how to prevent it]. Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://www.youthranch.org/blog/social-media-dangers-and-the-effects-of-cyberbullying
Schneik4. (2021, December 03). Effects of social media on children. Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://health.clevelandclinic.org/dangers-of-social-media-for-youth/
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