The teenagers of today are wasting their lives away. Their heads are stuck to a screen for hours each day, and many are unaware of the harm they are doing to themselves. Thanks to the availability of technology, more than 90% of Australian teens have a smartphone, as well as having access to televisions, tablets/iPads, laptops and other devices. Using our technology is almost unavoidable. I admit that technology is extremely useful and has lots of benefits. Unfortunately, the way it is being used is not great for a teenager’s health.

The Queensland government organization, Growing Good Habits, recommends that young people spend no more than two hours a day sitting in front of a screen. It is estimated that almost half of teenagers are going over that time, some on their technology for an absurd 7 hours per day.

Dr Justin Coulson, who is one of Australia’s most respected parenting authors and has a PhD in psychology, states that “The more time they spend in front of a screen, the more they also report lower life satisfaction, less physical activity, more school bullying and lower school success outcomes”. This shows that there is a connection between screen time and adolescents having mental, physical and social health issues.

As a teenager, I know that our smartphones and televisions seem impossible to stay away from, as they have become such a big part of our world. We don’t only need them for recreational purposes and to get by, as we use them for school and as a fundamental communication tool. In small amounts, using technology is amazing. However, when we begin to overuse it, the damage it causes is quite concerning. As hard as it is for us to stay off our screens, we teens MUST cut down on our screen time or face the dire health consequences. It is simply not worth the risk.

Spending large amounts of your day staring mindlessly at a screen can cause a wide range of health problems. The overuse of technology can affect us physically, by making us physically inactive, which leads to health conditions such as obesity; repetitive strain injury of the thumb and wrist from too much screen swiping; eye strain and short sightedness. Spending a little less time on our screens could save us from a lifetime of injury and impairment.

Not only does our beloved technology poison our bodies, it also causes damage to our mental health. Looking at a screen for too long can cause depression, anxiety, narcissism and other mental illnesses. Rates of depression are rising rapidly in adolescents and screens are partially to blame. All teenagers are using technology, some for an alarmingly long time. This is causing mental health issues like depression, which leads to suicidal thoughts. No teenager should ever have to experience that. Teenagers today have more access to negative content than their parents were exposed to. Pornography, violence and gore, self-harm and illegal behavior is easily accessible to teens on the internet and is not healthy for their young impressionable minds. I myself have accidently stumbled across inappropriate images while scrolling through Instagram. Once you have seen something, you can’t un-see it.

The social ramifications of too much screen time, are less developed social skills and experiencing anxiety when having face-to-face interactions with peers and other people. Victoria L. Dunckley, M.D., states that, ‘The more a child hides behind a screen, the more socially awkward he or she becomes’. Through our technology, adolescents are communicating with people via texting, and becoming reliant on their technology as a way of getting in touch with others. They are not using their social skills and when it comes to a real interaction, teens lack the skills necessary to communicate effectively. The repercussions of this include, being unable to communicate thoughts and feeling to others and having less healthy relationships with family and friends. Teenagers need social skills.

I’m not saying that all technology is bad, or that we should avoid it altogether, because technology is an amazing resource that my generation is lucky to have access to. However, adolescents need to cut down on their screen time, and by doing so they will be happier, healthier people.