Parenting Tips if Your Teenager is Social Media Addict

Originally published: October 02, 2019 03:03:32 PM, updated: June 14, 2023 07:27:22 AM

The day your kids and teens have access to social media on their mobile phones and tablets, they become addicted to the digital social world. Whether they use social media to connect with friends and family, watch videos, or “kill time,” the popularity of this pastime has grown significantly over the last decade.

Additionally, young teenagers are highly obsessed with trendy social messaging apps and websites. They do messages, chat conversations, share plenty of videos and photos in a single day. Therefore, parents have become tech-savvy over the years and want to keep an eye on their social media activities to prevent them from social networking addiction.

Look at the stats of teenagers: Pew Research Center

• According to the reports, almost 92% of the teens from the age of 13 to 17 are online regularly and 75% out of all have internet access on their digital cell phones.
• Almost 24% of teens say they love to remain online all day long.
• Reports say most teens spend at least 9 hours a day on digital media.
• 71% of teens are using more than one social media platform.

Now you have seen the stats, and you want to address this particular issue. You can argue with your teens to guide them to build some healthy activities rather than to stick with the digital social world.

Causes of teenage social media addiction

Teenagers can become social media addicted for several reasons. Here is a list of them that affect a teen to become addicted.

A Teen may feel:

• Overwhelmed
• Lonely
• Bored
• Stressed
• Depressed
• Anxious
• Disconnected
• Shy

The virtual world may act as an escape from the problems of the world. This activity will set a precedent for the next time an uncomfortable or negative feeling creeps into the teen’s life.

A teen may feel separated from friends or families. They may feel as though they don’t belong. This behavior may motivate teens to develop their virtual world to feel safe, accepted, and loved.

A shy teen is prone to social media addiction. Struggling with real-life connections, teens can be confident behind the keyboard, building new friends and representing themselves more openly.

How to recognize social media addiction?

Although many people are using social media, there are a few that are addicted to it. If you are bothered about your teens being addicted to social media, here are a few points to look for to check if your kids or teens are addicted to social media or not:

• Do they consume a lot of time thinking about the use of social media?
• Do they feel the motive to use social media every day?
• Do they use social media as a way of ignoring their problems?
• Do they attempt to diminish their use of social media? Have they succeeded?
• Do they get all angry and anxious when they are unable to get access to social media?
• Is the use of social media affecting their academics?

If you find ‘yes’ the answer to most of the above questions, you ought to be worried about them.

Parenting tips for parents in case their teens are social media addicts

Make sure teens have a daily schedule

Everyone has their schedule of daily life activities, but they have not had any schedule when it comes to contemporary youth. Their schedule starts early in the morning from the cell phone screen and bedtime on their digital devices using social media. However, you being parents, are doing the same, then they will automatically follow in your footsteps. Parents are always the first role model for their children.

Get teens cellphones when they charge them at night

Parents can follow the simple but effective parenting role that doesn't allow their teens to use cell phones at night and keep their devices, especially when they are supposed to charge them. Usually, young kids and teens charge their phones at night to use social media apps and websites late at night.

Set Time limit on their usage of digital devices

Parents should limit the usage of their digital devices such as cell phones, tablets, and computer devices connected to the internet. No matter what teens get angry because of setting the time limit, make them understand that excessive use of the digital social world will harm their mental health, as well as there will be plenty of behavioral issues. So, parents need to bear the children's anger with calmness and simply understand their piece of frustration. Don't make your teen's friends be a parent of your teen, rather.

Ask kids to give their cell phone password

You can ask for the password of the cell phones your kids are using. If they are arguing with you about getting the password, you need to stay silent for a while and then try to find a way to get it. However, if your kid is relatively rigid, you need to perform the following parental step.

Set parental control on teens digital devices

Parents can simply provide digital devices on which you can install parental control software for cell phone devices. It will enable you to know what sort of activities your teens and kids are doing on their mobile phones. You can use the cell phone spy app on teen's digital devices to monitor every single action that happens on social messaging apps. You can get text messages, chat conversations, shared photos, videos, and audio-video conversation logs. Even you can get to know about the time spent on every social media app installed on the teen's cell phone.

FAQs

How bad is social media addiction?

Social networking site abuse can have a negative impact on a person's health and interpersonal relationships. Anxiety or despair, increased social isolation, a decline in physical activity, low self-esteem, and subpar work or academic performance are just a few of the negative repercussions of social media addiction.

Can you recover from social media addiction?

It takes time to overcome social media addiction; you need to reevaluate how your digital life is balanced.

Who is more addicted to social media?

The most vulnerable population to social media addiction is typically young adults. Young single women have a much greater rate. 90% of persons between the ages of 18 and 29 use social media. 15% of persons between the ages of 23 and 38 admit to having a social media addiction.

Is social media like a drug?

Our brains release dopamine, a chemical that makes us happy when using social media. The need to get more likes, shares, and comments might become addictive as a result of this enjoyment. In other words, social media has the same potential for addiction as alcohol, drugs, and gambling.

Conclusion:

Social media obsession among teens is real, and today parents are pretty concerned. Therefore, parents need to set cell phone parental control on teens' social media activities and keep their eyes open.