A recent report from Common Sense Media has found that, on average, half of 11 to 17-year-olds get at least 237 notifications a day, raising concerns that this is affecting the cognitive ability, attention span, and memory of their still-developing brains.
Itβs no secret that young people are addicted to their phones. So much so, in fact, that Gen Z spends half its waking hours on screen time.
Until now, however, research on just how invasive these devises really are has been scarce, but thanks to a recent report from Common Sense Media, experts have improved insight into the impact of teensβ experiences with being chronically online.
According to the new study, on average, half of 11 to 17-year-olds get at least 237 notifications every day, with 25 per cent of them popping up during school and half of them at night.
Even more concerning is that, in some cases, this age group is receiving nearly 5,000 pings β which are almost always linked to alerts from friends on social media β in a 24-hour period.
Inundated with hundreds of notifications all day and all night, the long-term repercussions of this βhighly stimulating environment,β as psychiatrist Dr Benjamin Maxwell puts it, remain unidentified, though he predicts itβs very likely to be affecting the cognitive ability, attention span, and memory of young peopleβs still-developing brains.
βItβs a constant buzzing, a dominant factor in all of their personal lives,β says Jim Steyer.
He’s the founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, which is a non-profit organisation that explores media literacy and safety for children with access to technology.