Youth and internet the new pathologies that hit the younger generations

Youth and internet the new pathologies!

It seems incredible but with internet, smartphones and tablets we have also received new and serious diseases for children and teenagers! In the race for the latest generation cellular phone, in search of fans, followers and likes a series of serious diseases arise and rather harmful causing damage to all the neurological system.

A recent study by the national observatory of adolescence conducted on eight thousand boys and girls that start from 11 years of age detected a series of new diseases: like addiction, challenge, nomophobia and camping are all connected to the disproportionate use of new technologies.

From this research it shows that 98% of the subjects between 14 and 19 years have a personal smartphone received when they were between 9-10 years and more than three teens out of 10 have had the opportunity to use a smartphone already in childhood. Always according to this study of the National Observatory of adolescence, amongst the subjects aged between 11 and 13 years the average age for the first use of mobile phone is dropped by a year and is calculated to be around 9 years.

The more significant data however concern the adolescents who are increasingly hyper connected, approximately 5 out of 10 declare to spend between 3 to 6 hours after school with their smartphone in hand, 16% from 7 to 10 hours, while 10% even exceeds the threshold of 10 hours. By calculating that 63% also uses it at school , means that the majority of these adolescents live connected to the network and disconnected from reality and real life. The hours spent in front of a screen lowers slightly in pre-adolescents, between 11 to 13 years. 55% of the pre-adolescents uses it for a maximum of 2 hours, 35% from 3 to 6 hours, 7% from 7 to 10 hours and 4 % exceeds 10 hours, and 13% only use it during school hours, compared to 63% of the older youths who are unable to detach themselves from the mobile phone.

INTERNET AND SOCIAL

Continuing with the research and with data provided we underline that 95% of adolescents has at least 1 profile on social networks, against 77% of pre-adolescents. In the first case the first profile was opened around 12 years of age and most get to run parallely even 5-6 profiles, together with 2-3 apps for instant messaging. 69% has a profile on Facebook, 67% Instagram, 66% YouTube, 47% Snapchat, 22% Ask, 16% Twitter, and 15% Tumblr.

Most of these alternative profiles are unknown to the parents giving the idea to these youths to be less controlled, always according to the National Observatory it is precisely with these behaviours that you arrive to dare more encouraging behaviours such as the sexting, cyberbullying and dissemination of private material in the network.

One of the perhaps more alarming data is that 14% of adolescents also has a profile so-called FAKE i.e. false that nobody knows about, consequently not controllable by parents and at the same time however and this is absolutely drammatic, easy prey of the network of grooming (catching minors online), in significant increase compared to the 11% of last year.

YOUTH AND INTERNET THE NEW PATHOLOGIES

For the hyper connected youth the chat is the most frequently used instrument and in fact 6 teenagers out of 10 declare that they are no longer able to do without WhatsApp, with 99% of the youth who use it every day, 93% swap their tasks and homework through the group-class and 70% chat compulsively. The pre adolescents instead, had a percentage which stood at around 96% always using WhatsApp, of which half to chat in a systematic and repetitive manner, 82% has the class group for exchanging tasks while 40% to share selfies with friends.

WHICH ARE THE NEW PATHOLOGIES CONNECTED TO INTERNET?

All these hours connected lead to new and extravagant pathologies with rather serious consequences:

VAMPING: i.e. the fashion of adolescents to spend many hours at night on social media:6 teenagers out of 10 declare that they often remain awake until dawn to chat, talk and play with friends or with the boyfriend/girlfriend, with respect to 4 out of 10 in the range of pre-adolescents.
FOMO: i.e. FEAR OF MISSING OUT. 15% of the young hyperconnected has a tendency to remain connected at all hours and wakes up almost every nights to read notifications and messages that come in order not to be cut off. The result of this pathology is sleep disorder with harmful consequences for the body and also the interference on the everyday activities of the youths, leading to determine an important difficulty of concentration and attention which weigh on school performance, favour the occurrence of anxiety, disrupting the mood and impulses.
LIKEMANIA AND FOLLOWERMANIA: Adolescents who by nature are continuously looking for approval, on internet transform it into the desperate search of likes and followers. For about 5 teenagers out of 10 it is absolutely normal to share everything they do, including personal and private photos by starting up the severe machine of “like” or “do not like”. In fact, for more than 3 teenagers out of 10 it is important that the number of likes received that become symptoms of appreciation, popularity and self-esteem with the exact mechanism also for the contrary hence few likes few followers would mean lack of self-esteem , so much so that 34% remains very bad and gets angry when they do not feel appreciated.
NOMOPHOBIA: Coming from no-mobile-phone, is the new fear linked to excessive fear/terror to remain without a phone or without internet connection for which nearly 8 teenagers out of 10 have fear that their phone’s battery dies out or that they have no connection when they are out of the house and this in 46 % of the cases generates anxiety, anger and discomfort. This phenomenon is less widespread among the youngest that stops still at 60% and only 32% experience high levels of anxiety and concern.
SELFIEMANIA: i.e. the mania of taking selfies just to obtain likes. 13% has followed even a diet to like themselves more in selfies. The adolescents aged between 14-19 on average take about 5 per day, with peaks of 100, against the 2 selfies per day of the youngest who prefer more the use of videos and audio messages. About 2 teenagers out of 10 share all the selfies they take on social networks and on WhatsApp, a data in strong growth but also a more serious and alarming data is that about 1 teenager out of 10 takes dangerous selfies where they risked their lives or take up a challenge between friends to demonstrate their courage.
CHALLENGES OR SOCIAL CHALLENGES: i.e. the idea of a challenge on the social media is one of the biggest problems linked to the network. All those chains that are born on the social network in which someone is appointed or called to participate by the other person through a tag with the purpose to post a video or picture request and then appoint other people to do the same. About 2 teenagers out of 10 participated in one of these chains. Amongst these chains there are even dangerous ones, which register that about 1 teenager out of 10 participated in an alcoholic chain whose aim is to drink large amounts of alcohol in a very short time and in most unlikely places or locations, and even others have done selfies while vomiting or in conditions close to an alcohol intoxication. Amongst the dangers of these chains we find also the food related ones, of excessive thinness to which 5 girls out of every 100 adhere to, favouring the development of diseases such as anorexia and bulimia. The most commonly known chains linked to the idea of being super thin are: Thigh Gap (arc between the legs), Bikini Bridge (gap between belly and bikini bottom), Challenge of the clavicle, Belly slots (slot in the belly) and Belly Button (run your arm behind your back until you touch the navel).