{"id":452,"date":"2009-05-26T12:30:01","date_gmt":"2009-05-26T12:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/2009\/05\/is-texting-hurting-teens-health.html"},"modified":"2009-05-26T12:30:01","modified_gmt":"2009-05-26T12:30:01","slug":"is-texting-hurting-teens-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/05\/is-texting-hurting-teens-health.html","title":{"rendered":"Is Texting Hurting Teens’ Health?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"textingteen.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>“American teenagers sent and received an average of 2,272 text messages
\nper month in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the Nielsen
\nCompany — almost 80 messages a day, more than double the average of a
\nyear earlier.”<\/p>\n

I was surprised–sort of–to read this in today’s New York Times<\/a>, in an article that reports that doctors and psychologists are both worried about the toll that constant texting may be taking on teens’ emotional and physical health.<\/p>\n

Here are the health issues they’re most concerned about:<\/p>\n

— Anxiety
— Sleep disturbance
— Repetitive stress finger, hand, and wrist injuries
— Distraction in school<\/p>\n

I am not a text-er, but I can tell you from the arthritis in my thumb that the repetitive stress concern is very, very real.  But beyond all of those issues, here’s the most interesting point, in my view: texting might interfere with the developmental tasks of adolescence in important ways.  <\/p>\n

Sherry Turkle, a psychologist who is director of the Initiative on Technology and Self at MIT has studied the effects of texting on Boston teenagers for 3 years.  She told the New York Times:<\/p>\n

\n

“Among the jobs of adolescence
\nare to separate from your parents, and to find the peace and quiet to
\nbecome the person you decide you want to be,” she said. “Texting hits
\ndirectly at both those jobs.”<\/p>\n

Psychologists expect to see
\nteenagers break free from their parents as they grow into autonomous
\nadults, Professor Turkle went on, “but if technology makes something
\nlike staying in touch very, very easy, that’s harder to do; now you
\nhave adolescents who are texting their mothers 15 times a day, asking
\nthings like, ‘Should I get the red shoes or the blue shoes?’ ” <\/p>\n

As
\nfor peace and quiet, she said, “if something next to you is vibrating
\nevery couple of minutes, it makes it very difficult to be in that state
\nof mind.<\/p>\n

“If you’re being deluged by constant communication, the
\npressure to answer immediately is quite high,” she added. “So if you’re
\nin the middle of a thought, forget it.” <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

How do you feel about texting?<\/b>  Do you do it?  Do you worry about the teens in your life who do?  Please share your thoughts on how technology affects your health.<\/p>\n

(image via: http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/05\/26\/health\/26teen.html?em<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“American teenagers sent and received an average of 2,272 text messages per month in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the Nielsen Company — almost 80 messages a day, more than double the average of a year earlier.” I was surprised–sort of–to read this in today’s New York Times, in an article that reports…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,28],"tags":[41,491],"class_list":["post-452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-holly-lebowitz-rossi","category-health","tag-health-2","tag-texting"],"yoast_head":"\nIs Texting Hurting Teens' Health? - Fresh Living<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/05\/is-texting-hurting-teens-health.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Texting Hurting Teens' Health? 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A graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Divinity School, she has more than a decade of experience writing about religion and spirituality for Newsweek, The Washington Post, Spa Finder, Sojourners, Search, and many other publications. Her commentaries have also been heard on NPR\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153All Things Considered.\" When not at her desk, you can find her baking, in her garden, or rockin' out in water aerobics class. She lives in Arlington, Mass. Visit http:\/\/www.hollyrossi.com for more.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/author\/hrossi"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}