BBC Experiment on Youth and Smart Phone

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Michael

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  •     A BBC project looking at teenagers’ smartphone habits asked 10 college students to swap their beloved devices for basic phones for five days. That meant no social media, but also none of the services that make life easier, such as navigation apps. How did they get on? Kristian Johnson, BBC News   Will regularly spends more than […]

 

 
Kristian Johnson, BBC News
 
Will regularly spends more than eight hours a day staring at his smartphone. When he was younger, he used to love riding his bike – he’s 15 now and spends most of his free time after college scrolling through TikTok videos. “I’m worried how I’ll cope,” he says. “I’ll now have to be sociable with my parents.” Ruby, 16, often ignores her parents while scrolling through TikTok as well. Midway through the experiment, I visit her family. Ruby acknowledges that having a break from her smartphone ​​“has opened up more conversation” with her parents – and her mum, Emma, agrees the detox is having a positive impact on her daughter’s behaviour.

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For some of the teens, giving up their smartphone has been really difficult. After just 27 hours, 14-year-old Charlie has dropped out and asked for his device back. “I knew my phone was in the same building,” he says, but not knowing if someone was trying to get in touch with him and not being able to go online was “really stressful”.
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