Let’s see a conversation between Jake and her mother that almost every parent with a child can relate to. (Jake just returned from the birthday party of his friend. And he’s really upset.)
Mother: Hi Jake, How was the party?
Jake: Hi mom, the party was good.
Mother: What happened Jake, you look upset, any problem?
Jake: Mom, almost all of my friends have a smartphone except me. And it is really awkward when they show me their phones and ask me to show them my cellphone.
Mother: Jake, not again. I’ve given you PlayStation. But don’t expect me to give you a cellphone at this early age.
Jake: Mom, it’s not that I’m asking for a cellphone just because I wanna brag in front of my friends. I want it because it’s gonna help me with my homework too. Moreover, the teacher is gonna send assignments on the phone from next week.
Mother: Is that so? Ok, I’ll arrange one for you in one or two days.
Jake: Thank you, mom. It’s really nice of you.
If you have a teen in your house then this conversation might have given you a feel of Deja Vu. It’s really common for students to demand cell phones in their early teenage. But the thing is, are you convinced by your child for providing them a cellphone. And that too without finding out its bad effects on kids, just like Jake’s mother?
If yes, then you need to stop right away and have a look at this list where I have mentioned some of the negative effects of smartphones on students, youth, and teenage. Along with these harms I have also provided some safety measures that you can take to avert these dangers.
Table Of Contents
- Negative Effects Of Smartphones On Students & Teenagers
- How To Tackle These Smartphone Threats
- Effects Of Mobile Phone For Teenagers & Students: Final Verdict
- FAQs
Negative Effects Of Smartphones On Students & Teenagers
1. Physical Fallouts
Not just one or two, there are plenty of serious problems that can be caused by the use of cell phones. Starting from head to toe, almost all body parts get affected negatively by the excessive use of smartphones.
The cellphones emit blue light that can give serious damage to the eyes when used for a long time. This blue light causes chemical reactions in the eyes which can damage the eyes in plenty of ways.
You might notice redness in your child’s eyes, he/she rubbing the eyes continuously, or maybe they can complain about the blur vision too. In the worst case, they might end up permanently damaging their eyes.
Other than that, problems related to joint pain, neck pain, and headache are quite common. It might sound like a fancy talk but in some cases, the kid can develop cancer too. So one of the most negative effects of smartphones on youth is that it slowly deteriorates their physical health.
2. Anxiety And Mental Attacks
Another negative effect of mobile phones on students is addiction. Why do you think cellphone addicts check their phones every few minutes? Simple, they are tightly being held in the hands of anxiety. And the use of a cellphone might also lead your kid on the same path.
The continuous use of the cellphone can easily make the changes in your kid’s behavior noticeable. The teen will start taking the stress and become anxious about every little thing. Mood swings might also occur very frequently.
This kind of behavior can be easily noticed in adults too. So how can you expect teenagers and students to not get affected by anxiety?
You will start noticing their impatience with very little things. Like WiFi not working, not getting immediate replies, video buffering, etc.
3. Cyber Attacks
While using social media platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook kids expose themselves to the whole world. Anyone from any corner of the world can view the profile of your child making it the biggest negative effect of a smartphone.
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Now, what if some anonymous person downloads the photos of your kid, edits them in an inappropriate way, and circulates them on the internet? And we all know how easily things get viral these days.
You might be thinking that the kid can easily make their account private in order to tackle that problem. But what if that person directly hacks the account of the teen? In that case, you’ll see the situation getting out of your hands and you’ll feel helpless. It sounds terrifying but these things are quite common these days.
This was just an overview of the cyber attacks. There are hundreds of other possible ways through which your kid can get trapped by cyber attacks.
So, when they don’t own a smartphone there’s no way they can use social media. Hence, saving themselves from the bite of cyberattacks.
4. Cut-Off From The Real World
Smartphones and addiction are like Tom and Jerry, as the addiction is always chasing the smartphone. Especially when we are talking about teenagers here.
Today smartphones are introduced with hundreds of exciting features that can easily grab the attention of teens for hours. Moreover, social media adds fuel to the fire.
All these things altogether affect the kids in such a way that they totally become unaware of the activities going around them.
They get so much involved in those activities that they start ignoring society, relatives, and even their parents. The worst impact of smartphones on youth is that they start ignoring physical activities too, which can leave a profound effect on their health.
5. Eating And Sleeping Disorders
There are unlimited things to do using a cellphone, but limited hours for sleeping. And that is the main reason for sleeping disorders that take place with the use of cellphones.
I’m not exaggerating the fact here but every 2nd person uses their cellphones late till night, especially the students and teenagers.
Due to the schools and classes in the morning, unwillingly they have to wake up early with an unhealthy sleep. And the same schedule continues every day.
It might not sound like a big issue but sleeping disorders lead to insomnia, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, and other serious problems.
Apart from affected sleep, the other bad effect of smartphones on students is that they develop bad eating habits which in long term take shape of food disorders. This is not at all good for the overall health of the kids.
6. Adult Content
The use of the mobile phone leads to the use of the internet and the use of the internet leads to adult content. And I don’t even need to tell you that adult content can be harmful to kids.
About 90% of the content on the internet is related to nudity and pornography. Even if the kids are not willing to go for the sensual content, sometimes the content appears automatically on the mobile screen.
Moreover, lying about the age and entering these sites is a piece of cake. Sometimes, these sites ask for personal details too like email id, credit card details, etc. and it can be even more dangerous.
There are keen hackers spread all over the internet. These hackers are willing to use the personal information of others for some personal benefit. And they don’t care even if it distorts other’s life.
Why just the web, even social media platforms like Instagram, and Facebook are packed with off-color content. So, allowing the child to use the cellphone, without taking precautions is no less than a sin for the parents.
So access to adult content is one of the most harmful effects of mobile phones on students and teenagers.
7. Peer Pressure
Peer pressure is common in students and teenagers, most kids start taking drugs due to peer pressure only. Similarly, when they see that their friends are owning the latest and most expensive smartphones they might start demanding it from you. If you don’t fulfill their demand they might become aggressive and in some cases, teenagers commit suicide or crime just because their parents refused to give them a new smartphone.
8. Reduced Comprehension & Learning ability
It is proved in research that kids learn better from real books than from their digital copies. However, with the rise of smartphones, kids like to read everything from their smartphone screen which has reduced their learning and comprehension abilities in the long run. So it is also one of the harmful effects of mobile phones on youth.
9. Irrational Expectations
One of the main side effects of cell phones is that teenagers expect that everyone should give instant replies to their messages and calls. However, in real life it’s not always possible to reply to someone instantly, kids don’t understand that and it can affect their friendship or relationship with their friends or parents.
10. Hard To Make Friends In Real-Time
These days you can meet millions of people from the comfort of your home and make anyone your friend online. However, when it comes to meeting someone in real life and making them your friend becomes really tough for the kids. It is one of the most common dangers of smartphones these days.
How To Tackle These Smartphone Threats
Keeping aside the negative effects of cell phones on teenagers, they have some positive effects too. It can act as a source of knowledge, entertainment, and other basic features like a clock, alarm, or a reminder that is truly helpful in day-to-day life.
On top of that, smartphones are very necessary for teenagers to cope with society. So putting a restriction on the use of a cellphone is not gonna do any good for your kid. In fact, it can cause differences between you and your child.
All you need to do is tackle these threats. And once it’s done, you don’t need to worry about anything else.
1. Monitoring Apps
This one thing can do wonders for you as well as your kid. A good monitoring app like FlexiSPY comes with features that can resolve all the issues related to the negative impact of smartphones on students.
Problems like cellphone addiction and eating disorders can be easily resolved by blocking the apps remotely with the spying app. You can also set the timer for using the apps. The apps will not open once the time elapses.
Monitoring apps also make it possible to block the sites that are not appropriate for the kids. If the child uses some abusive words while talking to someone on social media, they can easily be tracked with the keylogger.
The searches made by the kid on the browser and social media platforms will also appear to you. You can also keep an eye on the type of feed that the kid likes to watch on social platforms.
You will be able to keep a complete watch over your child remotely. So you can protect your kids from the dark sides of Tinder, Snapchat, WhatsApp, and other social media apps.
2. Personal Guidance
All the other safety measures taken are on one side and personally guiding your child is on another side. It is always suggested to the parents to talk to the kids about how are smartphones affecting teenagers?
Personally talking to the kids can leave a profound effect on their minds of the kid. And they will themselves try to avert doing the things which are not in their favor.
Also, tell them how monitoring apps can be in their favor and how they will always be secure with them. It will surely help you secure your kids while maintaining a healthy relationship between the two of you.
3. Take Cellphones At Night
The night is made for sleeping. So don’t let your kids break this rule of nature and simply take away their smartphones at night.
You can’t keep a watch over your kid at night, even with the monitoring apps. And the cellphone is like a magnet that always grabs the attention of the teens and students.
Moreover, the radiation from the phone can be very dangerous for the kids when they sleep, keeping their cell phones by their side.
So it doesn’t matter whether they feel bad about it or not, but make sure that your child doesn’t have a cellphone at night.
Effects Of Mobile Phone For Teenagers & Students: Final Verdict
So here we rest our article about the negative effects of smartphones on teenagers and students. Reading this article might change your mind and you might not be giving the smartphone to your kid.
But you don’t need to panic because these solutions might look limited but they are perfect to save your kids from the adverse effects of cell phones.
If you think you have some other suggestions too then don’t forget to share them in the comments below.
FAQs
What Are Some Negative Effects Of Smartphones?
Some of the negative effects of smartphone on youth is that it's addictive, it make them susceptible to hacker attacks, and it reduces their physical activities.
At What Age Should A Child Get A Phone?
There is no right or wrong age for it, whenever you feel that your kids needs a smartphone you should give it to them but be aware of it's negative effects.
How To Prevent Teenagers From Negative Impact Of Cell Phones?
Talk to your children about the bad effects of smartphones and teach them how to use it properly. You can also install a monitoring app on your kids phone to track all their activities.
