Hey Lemonade’s Lucy Cochran writes about what teens really want when it comes to phone addiction.

It’s no secret we love Smartphones. 87% of Australians own one, and the number of them is estimated to reach 23.6 million by 2026. But this is clearly coming at a cost. Smartphone addiction has been associated with an array of issues from psychological distress, sleep problems and reduced academic performance. When people are away from their smartphones, many display physiological symptoms akin to withdrawal. Problematic phone use is particularly pertinent to teens who are constantly connected, while still having developing brains. “The arrival of the smartphone radically changed every aspect of teenagers’ lives from the way they interact – or don’t interact – with each other,’’ says Dr Matthew Shaw, Director of the young persons’ program at Ramsay Health Care’s Albert Road Clinic. 

Calls to intervene in teen smartphone use, particularly social media apps, have recently gained a lot of momentum. South Australia is considering a ban on kids under 14 from using social media, a report commissioned by the president of France is calling for under 13 year olds to be banned, and even Australian local politicians are calling for tech companies to take more responsibility. Along with this, celebrity parents such as Zoe Foster Blake as well as parents who have experienced the consequences of social media on young people, are voicing their concern about teens and social media. 

But what do teenagers think?

Ask many parents, and they will tell you that their teens will fight to protect their screen time. However, the result of a recent trial in conjunction with the NSW Government and the stress and motivation pep talk app, Hey Lemonade High, in high schools is illuminating. The app offers hundreds of short, specific pep talks on topics relevant to teenagers including academic pressure, bullying, relationship conflict, identity and self-esteem. The app was made available to a range of schools for a term. No talks were pushed, students had voluntary use and students’ individual use of the app remained anonymous. Out of the hundreds of options, the pep talk that was most listened to was “Can’t stop scrolling”. This talk uses an empathetic and non-blaming approach to help students put down their phones.  It’s clear students are looking for external help when it comes to their phone use. We need to help them. 

Scrolling as addictive as gambling 

It’s no wonder teens are having problems putting their phones down. Phone applications and social media are designed to be addictive and it is stressing them out. Social applications have evolved from text based news feeds, to images,  to where we are now – pushing reels that offer maximum dopamine release through colours, sounds and moving images. So every time you refresh, swipe or get a DM you get a hit, with the promise of a new hit if you keep scrolling, which keeps you on the apps for longer. Using reels is when tech companies started to copy the behaviour change tactics used to keep people engaged with poker machines.  Modelling off these machines is what helped these applications really hit their addictive stride.

Messing with our brain reward system

Our brains were designed with an inbuilt reward system to motivate us to work for food or sex or shelter. However, the problem with social media – particularly reels – is the dopamine hit comes without any work. This in turn may be messing with teens’ views on the work and reward system. Before smartphones existed, teens had no option but to work for a reward – they had to keep practising that basketball shot over and over before they got it, or they had to ride their bike to visit a friend. The opportunity cost for this generation of not persisting with ‘boring’ activities that are required to make personal progress that lead to a deep sense of reward from working for it, is a great loss for this generation. 

Psychologist John Haidt and author of The Anxious Generation has recently drawn attention regarding the  mountain of research associating the decline in teen mental health with the rise in smartphones. He has called for social media to be banned for  young teens and called for them to get outside more. Results of the Hey Lemonade High trial affirms that teens are searching for interventions, including pep talks, to help them put down their phone. Overall, this suggests that such intervention is not only needed – but that teenagers are crying out for it too.