3 Effects on Teens of Internet Addiction

Internet addiction is when a person has the necessity or compulsive need to spend a lot of time on the Internet, to the point where many other areas of their daily life are allowed to suffer such as lack of sleep, bad grades, and relationship with other persons. Many medical centers are trying to understand why people are addicted to the internet. Many of them think that it is a mental disorder and others an expression of pre-existing mental disorders or behavioural problems, but as we know each act has a consequence and we are trying to advertise the others about the effects that internet addiction has or could have on them.

One of the most common effects of the internet addiction on teenagers is their relationship with other people. Virtual relationships formed over internet create a huge gap in everyday face to face interaction in real life relationships, since the latter is more challenging and lack the idealism that the former appears to have. (Snigdha Samantray)  Most of the people that has an internet or virtual relationships because they are insecure of how they look like and how they are personally so basically they have this relation so the other person that is at the other side of the screen can imagine someone you would really like to be but you are not, and you become addicted because in your virtual relationship or life you create the life you would like to have and the aspect you would like to have.

Another effect internet addiction have on teenagers is lack of sleep. About 55.3 percent of participants reported texting and using the digital platforms for at least an hour a night before bed, with more than 20 percent reporting three hours or more of use per night. (Mazzola)  The lack of sleep doesn't only affect teens in a healthy condition but also their energy and mood of their everyday life. One of the most worrisome aspects of the findings is that in addition to affecting the quality and amount of sleep teenagers are getting, bedtime smartphone use seems to be having a negative impact on their level of alertness during the day and on their grades in school. (Mazzola)

The third effect that internet addiction have on teenagers are bad grades. 61 percent said they felt the usage impacted their schoolwork. (Mazzola)  Many teens between the age of 13-15 use a lot social medias, video games, and texting and this can make them lose the student's interest in school. They don't only lose interest in school but also in creativity since you can easily search for a job online and it will just appear and you can copy it. As I already said this also affects the teen by lack of sleep and when they wake up the next day, they have low energy and tend to not pay attention or even fall asleep in class.

Nowadays having a phone and social medias such as snapchat, instagram, whatsapp, facebook and twitter is very normal, and is very easy to become an internet addict. Therefore, we need to keep in mind the damage that can cause us and that this is an addiction that is already considered a disease.

 Works Cited

Lenhart, Amanda. “Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015”.

www.pewinternet.org. Pew Research Center.9 Apr.  2015. Web. Mar. 26, 2019.

Mazzola, Jessica. “Nighttime texting linked to bad grades, NJ study finds”. www.nj.com. NJ.com. 8 Oct. 2015. Web. Mar. 26, 2019.

Snigdha Samantary “Internet Addiction and Relationships: the Psychology Behind it”. medcraveonline.com. National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences.Feb. 15, 2017. Web. 26 Mar. 2019.