Teens and Parents Agree – Mobile Devices Are Pervasive Distraction

As a university professor and mother of teenage boys, I am immersed in a world of young faces buried in their phones. To be fair, adults, too, are in love with the tiny, powerful computing devices on the palms of their hands. The patterns of everyday life have been forever altered by the ubiquity of digital devices. The world has been rewired. And no one wrote a user manual.

Advances in digital media and mobile devices, and the growing power of social media, are changing the way people get involved not only with the world but also with close friends and family. This generation of parents is quickly facing emerging and unprecedented challenges in handling digital devices and the activities they allow - and they must simultaneously fight these issues in their own lives and in the lives of their

I recently directed a research project investigating the effects of digital devices on family life in Japan. As part of that work, we compared our findings from Japan with studies that asked similar questions from American families, conducted by our Common Sense Media, a non-profit organization that focuses on children and technology. We find Japanese and American families struggling in a very similar way with the impact of technology on their lives, their relationships and each other.

Parents and teens in both societies use online media for long periods each day, which sometimes causes family stress and arguments. Some feel addicted to their devices, and many are concerned about the apparent addictions of family members to technology. And in both countries, there are children who feel that their parents neglect them in favor of digital devices.

Shared feelings of anxiety

We surveyed 1,200 Japanese parents and teens to find out how the saturation of cell phones and other devices in family life is playing in homes and relationships between parents and children. We compared their responses to existing Common Sense research on teenagers and parents in the United States.

The findings are clear: parents and teenagers in the high-tech societies of Japan and the United States find it difficult to imagine life without mobile phones and tablets. In both countries, the "always-on" media environment makes many teens and parents feel the need to review their devices often, often on an hourly basis.

And a large number of parents and teens feel the need to "respond immediately" to texts, social networking messages and notifications.

Feelings of distraction

We also look closely at how parents and teens perceive their own dependence on mobile phones. In both the United States and Japan, responses were surprisingly consistent: about half of teens reported feeling "addicted" to their mobile devices, and more than a quarter of their parents did so.

Many parents and teens surveyed in both countries consider that the ever-available mobile devices have interfered with their family connections. More than half of parents in the United States and Japan think that their teens spend too much time on their mobile devices. More than half of American teenagers think the same about their parents, although much less Japanese teens share that view.

Both parents and teens often feel that the other is often distracted and can not be fully present when they are spending time together.

These conflicts are manifested in frequent disagreements: About one-third of American parents and teens discuss device use every day. The numbers are lower in Japan, but families are having the same fight.

And some parents and teens in both countries say that the use of mobile devices has damaged the relationship between parents and children. In particular, one in four Japanese parents expressed concern about the harmful effects of using digital devices.

The adolescents expressed their own concerns. In both countries, teens see their parents get involved with their own devices and it is not always a comfortable experience: 6 percent of American teens and more than three times as many Japanese teens say they have sometimes felt that a parent thinks your mobile device is more important than your child.

A complex relationship

While these findings highlight the ways in which mobile devices have become a source of stress in family life, they also reveal a common belief that and that its use prepares adolescents for employment in the twenty-first century. Not only do teens see the benefits of using digital devices: 25 percent of Japanese and 88 percent of American parents feel that it helps their children acquire new skills. This study focused on patterns of use and exposure to digital media, but leads to more questions about what the contents of families relate to and their reasons for using the media. For example, what do people mean when they use the term "addict" in reference to mobile technology? What drives the need for digital connection? How can social and cultural differences alter the effects of digital devices on family life? And, of course, expanding these questions beyond just two countries will help