Calgary Herald

SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION

It’s not just teens losing sleep over screens

- FLIC EVERETT

Anyone who has even briefly suffered insomnia knows that the advice is to banish gadgets from the bedroom. There have been endless warnings about the disrupting effects of blue light, the neural problems caused by scrolling through web pages at 3 a.m., and the psychologi­cal horror of allowing unfiltered informatio­n to invade our cosy nests.

But research from the University of Glasgow this week found that teenagers are waking up in the night purely to check for new tweets and messages on social media, and this is turning them into classroom zombies. Many are averaging just five hours of disjointed sleep a night, and the pressure to be online constantly is leading to an anxiety epidemic, according to the study.

And, with further bad news for phone-obsessives, child health specialist Dr. Aric Siegman, a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, has weighed in, pointing out that parents are often to blame for their children’s phone habits, as they sit scrolling during dinner, Instagramm­ing through family holidays and tweeting instead of talking.

The habit is contagious, he says, and now this learned behaviour is beginning to affect teens’ schoolwork and behaviour.

He recommends that two hours of screen-time a day is more than enough for teenagers.

I agree that it’s bad for their mental health, but I must admit I’d be a hypocrite to try to get between my son and his tablet — because I’m just as bad.

In fact, I have been addicted to my smartphone since the very first iPhone appeared. Of course, for my journalism job, I need to keep it with me, to check email, research facts and make phone calls.

It’s by my side wherever I go, and I depend on it to satiate my fear of missing out (Fo Mo) on interestin­g things. Call it Pho Mo, if you will. Like the teens who are so worried about missing a message that they ping awake in the small hours to check in, I have become a slave to my phone because it gives just enough to keep me hooked.

When once I used to read novels, I now use that time to scroll through Twitter, read articles about the dangers of sugar, update Facebook, and postproces­s the photos I took on the journey to work.

Over time, it has got to the point where, if I’m “off-grid,” I feel as though all the exciting stuff is happening without me.

But there’s a difference between my iPhone addiction in the wee hours of the morning and that of a teenager. Mine is down to my fear of missing out on interestin­g things, but I suspect that a teen’s worry is about selfprotec­tion, a constant urge to check they’re not being assessed on social media and found wanting.

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