Teenagers face a lot of temptations in the world, and as parents, it’s our job to be vigilant of the potential dangers that lurk. One of those potential dangers is substance abuse, but according to new data, the landscape of addiction is changing, with the new addiction crisis shifting toward tech.
You read that correctly. According to consumer research platform Attest, 20% of 15-16-year-olds have tried alcohol, but that’s down from 71% of 10th graders in 2000, versus 2024. The same survey, based on results from 1,000 U.S.-based parents, revealed that cigarette use is down, too. However, none of the aforementioned means that teens are making healthier choices. It’s just that they have new things to be addicted to, like tech.
“The rebellion has moved online, and it’s much harder for adults to see,” Saba Harouni Lurie, LMFT, ATR-BC, told Parents. “When I was younger, rebellion was visible. Now, a teen can sit in their room looking perfectly compliant while they’re engaging in all kinds of boundary-pushing behavior on their phone.”
This signifies a generational shift for Generation Alpha, meaning children born between 2010 and 2024. Today’s teens are going out less and spending less time with friends in person. Instead, they’re spending a lot of time online, which means increased social media use. Attest found that 55% of 15-16-year-olds spend more than three hours a day on apps like YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat. Only 13% of teens spend less than one hour a day on social media, and only 2% avoid social media altogether.
With screen time up, it means children are getting less sleep, and parental controls online still leave much to be desired. This means your children could be talking to anyone in the world, including predators. They may also be engaging in other dangerous behaviors, such as participating in risky challenges, being exposed to harmful ideologies, or experiencing bullying, and because teens have underdeveloped impulse control, they may struggle to disengage.
The negative effects of social media on adolescents are becoming increasingly well-known, yet children continue to engage with it. Teens are also struggling with social anxiety at higher rates as a result, and mental health in general is at crisis levels, with social media use making things worse. In 2024 the CDC reported that 40% of high school students experience extreme hopelessness or sadness.
Hopefully, this information is compelling enough to encourage parents to be vigilant about their children’s online habits. Experts say that some red flags to look out for include increasing isolation, extreme mood changes, teens who spend most of their free time alone on their devices and drastically changed sleep patterns.
Lurie explained that you may need to take things a step further, which means even having access to their accounts and checking in on what they’re posting, who they’re interacting with, and having ongoing dialogue about what they’re seeing online. “It’s not about being invasive or controlling, but about staying connected to a huge part of their world that’s largely invisible to us as adults,” she said.
It’s time to start encouraging children to go outside, literally touch grass, look up at clouds, and interact with friends in person.