Are cell phones a sign of teen depression?
We try to keep an open mind here at Blogma (sort of), but some topics are simply too inane to let pass. Take, for example, a recent survey claiming that South Korean high school students make a lot of calls on their mobile phones because they're "unhappy or bored."
Teenagers, unhappy? Bored, even? Unheard of.
This body of research is yet another example of out-of-touch adults looking for scientific reasons to explain common teenage behavior, while overthinking everything in the process. Haven't we been lectured repeatedly by psychologists on "Oprah" to make sure that kids communicate their feelings? Isn't it a good thing that they're socializing, rather than brooding in solitude?
Granted, 70 to 90 times a day might seem a tad much, but we suspect that the tally isn't completely out of whack with the number of calls made by their parents, particularly . (Also, a one-word text message could count as a call.) Maybe the researchers just got their conclusions backward: Perhaps it's all the calls that are causing the depression, not the other way around.
Blog community response:
"If we're going to put effort into looking at cell phone usage and what it means to kids mentalities and the impact its having on their self-esteem, let's study the adults first and let them explain why they do what they do and turn around and explain it to their sons and daughters. At least then, the conversation on youth cell phone usage between children and parents will be a dialogue not a lecture."
--My agapic life
"Of course, this finding is nothing surprising. After all, we've also seen that teens who masturbate, spend too much or not enough time alone, or don't read their Bibles every day are Goths."
--nidoking
"Let's go back to 90 times a day. That's not depressed or anxious. That's insane. And 70 is more sedate? What's depressing is that these teens must have so little in their lives that they have this much time to yak. Not to mention what the bills must be."
--The Eye of Bakersfield