Adolescents are avid users of mobile devices. Close to 80 percent of adolescents in the United States now own a mobile phone and they are using them to send, on average, 60 text messages per day (Lenhart, 2012). As mobile devices become ever-present in the adolescents’ lives, parents, educators and policy-makers are asking about the potential downsides of this type of connectivity. Concerns over how young people are spending their time are not new. Adults have long worried about how exposure to various forms of past media, such as the radio, television, video games and even comic books influence children. What is novel about recent concerns are:
1. Media consumption is at an all-time high — adolescents spend an estimated 7.5 hours per day consuming media.
2. Mobile devices now provide almost constant connectivity to peers, social networks and (increasingly) the media.
3. Much of what occurs online is public, or has the potential to be, raising concerns about privacy and the lasting effects of information shared online on adolescents’ lives.
Full article: http://www.apa.org/pi/families/resources/newsletter/2014/12/digital-age.aspx