Digital Influences on Teens Behavior
Dwi Rezeky Bessie1, Azizatun Musyayyadah2, Hana Mazatul Karomah3
1, 2, 3, English Language Education Study Program, Universitas Islam Negeri Mataram
Do you know that digital technology is very influences for teenagers behavior? Today, digital technology significantly impacts teenagers lives, changing how they interact and learn. Although it can make things easier, the excenssive use can have a negative impact to social and mental health. Therefore, it is very important to understand the digital influences so that teenagers can use it wisely and in balance.
The digital technology such as smartphone and media social (instagram, whatsapp, facebook, etc) so far has been succesfully change the mindset of teenagers, so that it affects their behavior every day. Today, a lot of teenagers mostly using the social media as whatsapp which is usually used every day to exchange the news, so the interaction directly is reduced because digital recommunication is faster and easier. There are research result which show the teenagers feel comfortable with digital access through the instagram application by 40% for 1 hour a day, 8,2% for 3 hour a day and who use 1-3 hour a day by 51,8% (Alfonso-Fuertes et al., 2023), even thought internet ethical awareness still low, teenagers still like to seek validation through likes and comments, so that increasing tendency imitate the trends such as beauty trends for popularity.
In addition, the unlimited exposure to digital content trigger impulsive action because the platform's algorithm intentionally made for maintain users to stay involved. Evidence from the same case show that there is an increase at the level of anxiety and depression on the teenagers (Piteo & Ward, 2020) due to excenssive use of social media, such as cases of cyberbulliying in the Instagram or tiktok where teenagers bully each others anonymously which can reduce offline activities (Vicki Harrison et al., 2024) such as sport or face to face meeting.
Therefore, many teenagers which experienced declined in concentration and increased anxiety due to the fear of missing out or what we usually call FOMO now, where the explanation is that constant notification creating a false sense of urgency; data research observed the high number of digital violence and mischief of teenagers in cyberspace, like the examples of teenagers who are addicted to scrolling until neglect their schoolwork, which can worsen their psychological condition (Islam, 2024).
Hence, even though digital technology giving the right information access, negative impact of technology for teenagers behavior focusing on parental supervision and digital education to form healthy habits for teenagers.
References:
Alfonso-Fuertes, I., Alvarez-Mon, M. A., Hoyo, R. S. del, Ortega, M. A., Alvarez-Mon, M., & Molina-Ruiz, R. M. (2023). Time Spent on Instagram and Body Image, Self-esteem, and Physical Comparison Among Young Adults in Spain: Observational Study. JMIR Formative Research, 7(1), e42207. https://doi.org/10.2196/42207
Islam, M. R. (2024). Unplugging the threat: How internet addiction among adolescents undermines learning behavior. SN Social Sciences, 4(9), 1--23. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-024-00966-x