Our parents were right. It was those phones. When we were kids we would laugh when we heard “It’s that Snapgram and Tok Tik.” We always thought we knew better than they did because we had the world at the tip of our fingers. We scrolled through the trash presented to us through a screen and reflected that into our everyday lives.
Going on our phones was not always a regular thing, but it is now everything to us — it can seem that our whole lives are on them.
If we did not get enough sleep at night, what did our parents blame? Our phones. If we did badly on a test, what did our parents blame? Our phones. If we were struggling mentally, what did our parents blame? Our phones.
In almost any bad situation, our parents will just blame our phones for causing it.
If I’m being real here, they were not wrong. We still stay up late on our phones when we finally have time for ourselves. Instead of studying, we take a “quick break” on our phones that suddenly turns into two hours. We tend to let our phones consume our minds, and we have become all too easily influenced by social media influencers. We all just want to fit into the image social media has presented to us.
Yes, our phones are an enormous issue, but they’re so ingrained in our lives that it’s not like we can throw them away. According to Common Sense Media, 42 percent of kids have a phone by age 10. By age 12, it’s 71 percent. By 14, it’s 91 percent.
In most cases, our parents were the ones who made the decision to give us phones because they wanted to be able to communicate with us more easily. They could keep track of us on apps like Life360 or Find My. But we have abused our phones’ power, scrolling endlessly through Tik Tok and Instagram to the point where it is mind-numbing.
Tik Tok, the sixth most popular social media app, is a particular culprit because of its recent surge in popularity. Seemingly every parent hates Tik Tok because so many teens have gotten addicted to its practically infinite scroll taps and dopamine releases. With every swipe, TikTok presents a surprise element, leaving users curious and eager for more according to UX Planet.
We know it is poison, but we continue to enjoy it. And it is not only the social media that has us so addicted to our phones. It is also the fact that we have the world at the tip of our fingers, which can be very dangerous especially at a young age.
Of course, phones will not be leaving the hands of teens anytime soon. At the same time, however, we won’t admit to our parents that they were right all along.
