Press. voanews.com
About half of
teenagers in the United States and in Japan say they can’t put their devices
down. Teens say they are addicted and that their devices cause the greatest
conflict between them and parents, according to research at the University of
Southern California Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism in Los
Angeles.
“Nowadays, one
of the worst things that can happen to us is, like, ‘Oh, I left my phone at
home,’” said Alissa Caldwell, a student at the American School in Japan. The
study, “The New Normal: Parents, Teens and Digital Devices,” polled 1,200
Americans and 1,200 Japanese and was released at the USC Global Conference 2017
in Tokyo.
Their parents
agree. A majority of Japanese and American parents said their teenagers used
mobile devices too much. About 60 percent of both American and Japanese parents
said they believe their children are addicted. But parents shouldn’t get too
comfortable: More than 1 in 3 Japanese parents said they also feel addicted to
mobile devices, compared to about 1 in 4 American parents.
Many respond
immediately to messages
About 7 in 10
American teens said they felt the need to respond immediately to mobile
messages, compared to about half of Japanese teens. In Japan, 48 percent of
teens and 38 percent of parents say they look at and use their devices at least
hourly. In the United States, 78 percent of teens and 69 percent of parents say
they use their devices every hour.
At least that
hourly usage stops when people are asleep, researchers said. American parents
and teens fight over devices more than families in Japan, research showed. One
in three U.S. families reported having an argument every day about mobile
device use. Only about 1 in 6 Japanese families say they fight every day over
mobile devices. But 20 percent of Japanese teens said they sometimes feel that
their parents think their mobile device is more important than they are.
Only 6 percent of
American teens feel their parents like their phones more than them. But 15
percent of American parents say their teens’ use of mobile devices hurts their
relationship. By comparison, 11 percent of teens felt the same way. The
research was based on April interviews with 600 Japanese parents and 600
Japanese teenagers. Opinions from American parents and teenagers were collected
in research done earlier by Common Sense Media.
“Advances in
digital media and mobile devices are changing the way we engage not only with
the world around us, but also with the people who are the closest to us,” said
Willow Bay, Annenberg’s dean, which to some families might seem like a bit of
an understatement.
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