<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many teenagers report using social media almost constantly,\nwhich makes parents ask what qualifies as too much? Overuse can be quantified\nas having a negative impact on your teen\u2019s daily life. The following are four\nfactors you should look out for as a parent so you can warn your teen if they\nseem to be getting too attached to social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Addiction to social media is a clear sign of overuse. If\nyour teen is on social media because they feel like something is wrong when\nthey can\u2019t check their accounts for updates, it could be a sign of addiction.\nYour teen should be able to go without social media for a while without feeling\nwithdrawal. Another sign of addiction is if your teen doesn\u2019t have time to do their\nwork, see friends, or engage in other hobbies due to their social media use.\nWhen it starts to take over other critical aspects of your teen\u2019s life, it\nmight be time to consider a cutting back. Otherwise, your teen will continue to\nprioritize their digital life over developing other parts of their life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some teenagers become so engaged in the social media lives,\nthey start to ignore the world around them. If your teen frequently loses track\nof time, walks into people or objects, or can\u2019t hear when others address them,\nthey might be overusing their devices to access social media. This detrimental\neffect on your teen\u2019s attention means they are having trouble disconnecting and\nbeing present. If they don\u2019t seem to be aware of their physical environment,\nyou might suggest setting some boundaries on your teen\u2019s\nusage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If your teen\u2019s socializing on social media replaces\nsocializing in person, they might be overusing. This is considered overuse\nbecause face-to-face interactions are crucial for developing social skills.\nYour teen might miss out on various learning experiences with social context,\nunderstanding emotions, and reading body language if they only socialize\nonline. This could put your teen at a disadvantage for relating to others and\nforming close relationships outside of a digital community. Plus, teens that\ncan\u2019t find healthy ways to express themselves bottle up their emotions or let\nthem out in harmful ways, both of which increase their chance of risky\nbehavior<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your teen might be up late at night and losing sleep because\nof social media. If your teen is using social media up until the point they go\nto bed, it qualifies as overuse. This is because the brain needs to unwind\nbefore bed and using social media exposes your teen to blue light and a highly\nstimulating environment, both of which reduce the release of the sleep-inducing\nmolecule, melatonin. In addition to preventing your teen from feeling as tired,\nyour teen might stay up late using social media to stay caught up on\ncontent. If you notice your teen is slow\nduring the day, try to get your teen to put away the social media before bed so\nthey aren\u2019t overusing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Watch Out<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n These signs of overuse might not be apparent at first, but\nif your teen shows a pattern of these behaviors, it could be a sign that they\nshould reduce their social media use. You might consider using parental controls<\/a>\nto restrict certain access. It helps to know what to look for so you can\nencourage your teen to find other parts of their life to invest in for a\nhealthier future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These signs of overuse might\nnot be apparent at first, but look for a pattern of these four behaviors. It\ncould indicate that they should seriously cut back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Author\nBio:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Andy\nEarle<\/strong><\/a>\nis a researcher who studies parent-teen communication and adolescent risk\nbehaviors. He is the co-founder of talkingtoteens.com and host of the Talking\nto Teens podcast<\/strong><\/a>, a free weekly talk show for parents of teenagers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Many teenagers report using social media almost constantly, which makes parents ask what qualifies as too much? Overuse can be quantified as having a negative impact on your teen\u2019s daily life. The following are four factors you should look out for as a parent so you can warn your teen if they seem to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[142],"tags":[154],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.instantclickmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.instantclickmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.instantclickmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.instantclickmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.instantclickmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.instantclickmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":489,"href":"https:\/\/www.instantclickmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487\/revisions\/489"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.instantclickmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.instantclickmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.instantclickmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.instantclickmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}