Although we know the genie is out of the bottle, it is still imperative for mental health providers to understand the dangerous and lasting impact that smartphones, social media, and video gaming have on adolescent boys and girls as well as adults. Ethically, therapists need to provide psychoeducation to parents and teens, explaining the serious impact that digital technology is having on mental health and parent-child attachment. Important research continues to demonstrate the dramatic increase in depression, anxiety, self-harm, body dysphoria, addiction, insomnia, isolation, and suicide. International research shows that the impact on mental health is not just correlated to social media, it is actually causing the mental health problems that countless teenagers and adults are experiencing.
In this workshop we will look at the unique developmental aspects of the adolescent brain and why it is so vulnerable to the negative effects of social media and video gaming. We will explore the consequences of the dramatic shift from play-based childhoods to phone-based childhoods. Much of this research and material will come from Johnathan Hadit’s important book, The Anxious Generation. We will explore how social media has led to social deprivation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, and addiction. We will also unpack the unique differences in negative mental health consequences for females, males, and marginalized groups. Lastly, we will identify possible solutions and concrete ways in which we can ethically advocate for the changes that are needed to prevent further mental health damage to countless teenagers and adults.
Learning Objectives:
1. Describe the unique qualities of the adolescent brain and why it is vulnerable to the impact of social media and digital technology.
2. Explain how social media and digital technology have compromised attachment in the parent-child relationship.
3. Identify at least four differences between real world interactions and virtual interactions for teens and adults.
4. Explain how the advent of high-speed Internet, Smartphones, and Apps created mental health issues for male and female teenagers.
5. Describe the four “foundational harms” of social media as identified by sociologists and mental health researchers, and why therapists have an ethical responsibility to intervene.
6. Identify at least three differences in the ways in which social media adversely impacts males and females.
7. Implement at least three solutions designed to mitigate the adverse mental health impact of smartphones and social media.