Health links between adolescent depression and phone abuse

(International News Press Agency) - Health, links between adolescent depression and mobile phone abuse. After the Japanese study on the possible delays in the development of children due to 'screen time', the siren is now being sounded by the scientist Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist and professor at New York University who in one of his texts reports a doubling of cases of depression among children teenagers and 20 year olds. Dr. Giulia Zanzariello, clinical and developmental psychologist, analyzes yet another 'alarm raised' by science. In the aforementioned book, 'The Anxious Generation', previewed in the magazine 'The Atlantic', through graphs and diagrams, prof. Haidt reports a worrying “epidemic of mental suffering”.

According to the author, the cause is to be found in the abuse of technological devices and in particular smartphones. The solution? “It's easy” not to give middle school teenagers cell phones, so that they return to a previous form of socialization. According to recent studies, the excessive use of smartphones and social media has in fact favored the development of real forms of addiction, not only generating the classic symptoms of "withdrawal" but also a greater and more subtle form of social isolation, known as “phubbing”. The term derives from the union of two Anglo-Saxon words "phone" and "snubbing" and is the creepy tendency to look at the mobile phone while being in a group of people.

Should we therefore totally prohibit the use of technological devices? "As always, the answer is not in black or white, but in the shades of color in between. Parents, as well as teachers and educators, can act as a functional model for the new generations and propose alternative ways to pass the time, even using the phone. After a nice walk and a good ice cream, nothing stops us from playing a game of Brawl Star with our son, so that even the moment on the cell phone becomes an opportunity for sharing", concludes Dr. Zanzariello's analysis. (Italia News Press Agency - www.italianews.org)