How To Get Rid Of Mobile Addiction In Teenagers? | Top 4 Ways

Mobile Addiction in Teenagers is growing at a fast pace. It is no longer unusual for teens to use a mobile device in their daily lives. They are busy playing games, using social media, text messaging, watching movies, listening to music, and many more.

"55% of teens are significantly addicted to the digital world and use their mobile phones for an average of 6-7 hours each day, according to a recent survey."

Mobile device addiction has been an increasing concern of every parent. They do not like their children being cell phone addicts, and mobile addiction is something parents want their kids to avoid.

In addition to connecting with their friends and families, teens use mobile devices for research and education. However, they use it more for entertainment or amusement purposes.

Excessive use of smartphones has made people addicted to them. In addition to children and teens, adults are also dependent on digital devices.

One's health can be adversely affected by excessive cell phone usage, and cell phone addiction makes the mind dull, lazy and invites mental health issues. So, a better way of parenting can help to reduce teens' cell phone addiction.

Effects of Mobile Addiction in Teenagers

Same with mobile phones. Advanced technology brings both positive and negative effects to our daily life. It can help in empowering teens or even take them to depression anxiety. However, The adverse effects of mobile phones are more than positive effects.

This smartphone addiction is affecting health. It can hamper teens' mental health and overall development. Here are the significant effects of mobile addiction in teens.

Sleep Deprivation

We are negatively affected by blue light, which is emitted by mobile devices. You lose sleep and melatonin production when your phone emits blue light. A teenager spends more time online, watching videos, and checking email and text messages.

Using mobile devices before going to bed will compromise a person's sleep by keeping them awake for so long. This will disturb your sleeping pattern, and most of the time, they are sleep deprived. Even some teens use devices for a whole night, don't get enough sleep and face insomnia & illness.

Physical Health Issues

Every mobile addict faces the same physical health like eyesight problems, neck and back problems, etc. A study conducted recently found that almost 46% of teens with digital device addiction suffer from physical health issues.

Using a mobile device may cause neck or back pain if the user looks down on the device or bends their neck toward it. As a result, they will not be able to do any physical exercise, which will cause physical complications.

You may have your own experience of facing eyesight problems when you constantly look at your mobile phone for more than 2 hours, especially in the dark.

Mental Health Complication

The main result of smartphone addiction is mental health complications. Teens can connect with other people online using their mobile phones. They even have communication, make friends with strangers without knowing the person's motive, and end up being victims of cyberbullying or trolling.

And these trolling and bullying can lead teens to anxiety, depression, and many other mental health. You will feel more anxious if you use your mobile device excessively. Mobile device notifications or messages are responded to quickly by them. This is what researchers say:

"The more you are addicted to something, the more stressed and depressed you feel."

Effects on Social Inclusion

Teenagers are so immersed in their online environment that they forget that there is a real-world outside. The social life of teens will be significantly affected by mobile device addiction. Separating themselves from others and spending less time with family and friends may adversely affect their relationships. They will also have low self-esteem.

Teens prefer to converse through text messaging rather than face-to-face interactions. Because of this people, teens' communication skills have reduced. This has lead to reduce in confidence among teens to have communication in real life.

Sign and Symptoms of Mobile Addiction in Teenagers

Find out if your teens are addicted to their phones by following signs and symptoms before it's too late. These are the warning signs for you to control your kids from getting addictive disorders.

Lack of Sleep

Smartphone addiction is affecting your sleep too. You feel tired all of the time, and your sleeping pattern is disturbed. In addition to damaging eyesight, mobile devices emit harmful light, which interferes with sleep.

You can't sleep when you use your phone excessively. Your screen time tends to be more significant. And most of the time, you compromise sleep time to be on the phone.

For instance, you may have your own experience of extending your bedtime to watch one more episode of your favourite series.

Low Academics.

The reason teens don't do well on exams because they don't have focus and easily get distracted while studying. The main reason is their cell phone addiction.

If your teen is giving more priority to their cell phone than their studies, then it's time to control their phone usages before their grade starts to degrade. Likewise, they want to use their phone even when they are studying and have a constant urge to check their devices even if they checked just a minute ago.

Even when they are doing their assignment, they prefer to play music on their phone to feel that they are on their phone. Even being aware of their phone addiction and are trying to concentrate, they get easily distracted by their phone notification and stop studying.

Change in Mood

Another signal of mobile usage among teenagers is frequent changes in their mood. If a teen sees anything that is disturbing, it may affect their mood. When you try to restrict their device usage, they seem more aggressive and angry.

If your teen constantly plays games on their cell phone that contains lots of violence and harmful content, it can also be the factor for their mood changes. If your kids get emotional or angry about every tiny thing all the time, then it is a warning sign for you to control your kid's mobile screen time.

Easily Distracted

The mobile device is a medium of distraction. If your teens frequently get distracted by mobile phones, then it's is a sign of mobile addiction. Sometimes they find themselves zone-out in the classroom. They feel anxious when their mobile phone isn't around.

Even if they are doing an assignment, they will frequently use mobile devices. Also, if you have assigned them some task to complete and forget to do the work due to being on their devices, you can assume that your kids are addicted to their cell phones.

Less Family Time

If your teen is always late at the dinner table or spends less time with family, this is also the main symptom of addiction. Even while eating, they will continue using mobile devices excessively, which may lead to eating disorders. Teens will not listen to their parents and disobey their rules which will increase behavioural disorders in them.

Mostly they will spend their time alone at home with their phone. Also, note that if your kids are addicted to their phones, they probably won't enjoy any family outings and vacations. All they do is either play mobile games or constantly update themselves on social media.

How to Get Rid of Mobile Addiction in Teenagers?

Teen cell phone addiction is growing in increasing order, which invites health issues. So, It's essential to get rid of mobile addiction as it negatively affects human life. All the people will only face the repercussion of mobile phone addiction.

Parenting is essential for teens, whether they like it or not, and they should teach their kids to manage screen time. This will help to eradicate mobile addiction in teenagers. So, here are the best ways to get rid of mobile addiction in teenagers.

Be Involve

You are the first step in controlling your mobile addiction. It's essential to keep an eye on different activities performed by your teens, such as the apps they use, the chats they have, and the amount of time they spend on their mobile phones. Involve them in their device activities and educate them about the dangers of phone addiction.

You can encourage your teens to spend more time outside with friends and family instead of spending most of their time on technology.

Good Role Model

Most of the habit your kids develop is because of you. Your kids follow whatever you do and learn most of the habits from you. Thus, you must maintain good habits and influence your teens. Technology addiction can be overcome by setting an excellent example for others.

Teenagers and kids should not see you using a mobile phone. Your children will also think that using the phone is good if you start using one continuously. Therefore, you should set a good example for your children and teens.

Please communicate with your teens every day, limit your screen time, and encourage them to do the same. To prevent addiction disorders, you should set an excellent digital habit for yourself and your child.

Set Screen Time limit

Technology use should be limited in time. It is possible to monitor your kids' screen time on an Android or iPhone. Knowing how much time your teenager spends on specific apps and screens will help you to help him manage his time more harmoniously. Setting a time limit on screen usage will allow you to limit their cell phone usage.

You can remotely control your child's apps and games, disable notification settings on mobile devices. While selecting apps and games, check all the features and select the best one for your kids.

Use Monitoring apps

Many teens have access to technology, so remote monitoring is an essential tool. You can use Free Android Apps to Monitor Kid's Smartphones. It is possible to track your teenager's cell phone activities remotely using numerous parental control apps.

A device can track a user's online activities and allow you to set a screen time. Limiting the use of a teen's phone is a better idea if they're addicted to it. Check out these monitoring apps:

• Fenced.ai
• Net Nanny
• Norton Family
• Ourpact
• Qustodio

Set Restriction

Teenagers addicted to their phones should be restricted from using a cell phone excessively if they are addicted. Being a parent, you need to be strict about your child's welfare. It would help if you made a rule for your kids on how much to use cell phones and when to use them.

During dinner or family time, for example, phones are not allowed. Avoiding eating disorders may be possible using this method. While studying, you should not use your mobile device. Then you won't get distracted while studying. Inform them of the consequences of breaking these rules. It will help them to stay disciplined and prevent behavioral problems.

Inspire them to have device-free activities, which will prevent them from spending excessive time on their phones. Putting restrictions on your kids' access to their mobile phones is also an effective way to curb their addiction. To prevent your kids from using their devices, you can set "if-then" rules.

This will help you to get rid of teenage cell phone addiction if, for instance, you set a rule that you will not be allowed to use your devices for a week if you use them for more than 2 hours each day.

Conclusion

Teenage cell phone addiction needs to be controlled now before it goes out of control. Therefore, parenting plays a vital role in keeping their teen on track if they are addicted to their cell.

Make them aware of Cyber-flashing, anxiety and depression, health issues brought by excessive use of smartphones. You can help your kids build some good device habits so that they can stay away from the negative impact of digital devices and the internet.

Use your free time to explore new activities with a friend, solve problems, or become more attuned to your problem-solving skills rather than use your mobile phone.

The increasing use of cell phones negatively impacts health. Basically, by teaching teens better ways of using smartphones, they will overcome mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, etc. Seek professional or medical help if needed if you have an addictive disorder.