The Dangers of Phones

In recent years smartphones have become more useful and more common. Smartphones can now be used to contact people within seconds, access the internet, use social media, and record videos or take photos.

While smartphones are useful, it has been found that smartphones have negative connotations as well. The negative effects include lack of sleep, higher dopamine plateaus, cyber bullying, and exposure to graphic material.

In an anonymous poll taken at our school 13 people out of the 36 responses said they spent 4-7 hours on a screen outside of school. The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry recommends that teens have no more than 2 hours of recreational screen time a day.

It is recommended that teens get at least eight hours of sleep a night. Lack of sleep can cause mental disorders later in life such as dementia, stroke, heart problems, and obesity.

Social media has also been correlated to a higher dopamine plateau. Dopamine is an essential chemical that plays a role in how we feel pleasure. The more dopamine the happier you are. When you get things such as likes or follows on social media you get dopamine. The more dopamine you get over time the harder it is to match those feelings raising your dopamine plateau.

Smartphones give easy access to the internet which includes graphic materials.

Jason Williams, a Senior Vice President and the Chief Mental & Behavioral Health Officer at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, says “Seeing anything graphic out of normal experience is hard to put into context of the actual world. That can be detrimental to a developing brain such as a teen’s. If they start to have trouble then they need to see a healthcare professional about it.”

Bobby Shell, a school resource officer and a deputy sheriff, said “As cell phones have become more popular, fights have been organized online. When they are organized online it is harder to stop them before they start. Also bullying happens online because people feel they can’t get caught from behind a screen.”

Cell phones can be dangerous when used inappropriately, but if parents set screen time limits and monitor their child’s activity then they can be useful tools.