Smart device addiction and cyber safety is an issue brought up many times in conversations between the Pastoral team when working with families and students.  We are all concerned about the amount of time that students spend on their devices and families often seek help and advice on what they can do to limit the usage at home and the consequences of ‘device withdrawal’ that students experience as a result of putting limits in place.

The statistics about online behaviours are quite alarming and as a result technology companies are now putting in alerts in devices to let users know about how much time they are spending on their devices and when they should be taking a break.  

Author Jean Twenge is one of many authors who have looked into the seriousness of teen usage of devices.  In her book “iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy--and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood--and What That Means for the Rest of Us” she found that teenagers who spent more of their time playing sport, doing schoolwork and most importantly socialising with friends in real life had much better mental health.

Jean found that there is a large problem in teens spending more time looking at other people’s lives online, which are often highly manicured (and misleading), and this is thought to be what is so depressing about social media. "These increases in mental health issues among teens are very alarming,” Twenge said. “Teens are telling us they are struggling, and we need to take that very seriously."  Her findings would back up a lot of the conversations that the Pastoral Team have with students daily.

Smartphones and social media can be useful to help us stay in contact with others but there is a danger when it replaces face-to-face interactions and becomes addictive.  Smartphone addiction has been linked to:

• Increased loneliness and depression
• Fulled anxiety
• Increased stress
• Exacerbating attention deficit disorders
• Diminished ability to concentrate and think deep
• disturbed sleep; and
• Encouraging self-absorption

(sourced from https://www.helpguide.org/articles/addictions/smartphone-addiction.htm)

There are things that we all can do to help our young people balance their usage of devices.  We can model responsible usage to show them that they can use devices and still have positive interactions with those around them.  Some useful tips for modelling positive usage are:

• Only using devices in shared family areas.
• Charging devices in common areas and not the bedroom
• Leaving devices overnight in the kitchen or lounge and not the bedroom.
• Not watching TV or dinner with devices in reach.
• Having a ‘device free’ evening once per week.

The Pastoral Team are happy to work with parents to support at home to manage device usage. Some students hand in their devices to the Pastoral Office each day to help them manage their usage. Please contact the Pastoral Office if any additional support is needed so we can work together to support the students in our Carroll Community.

Nathan Mansfield
Assistant Principal - Pastoral Care