Two of the more common activities for teens to do are sending text messages and social networking. There’s no denying that for most kids these days, they live to stare at screens, both those of their phones and those on their computers. however, according to a study conducted by Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, teens who engage in hyper-texting and hyper-networking are more likely to drink, do drugs, have sex, and get in fights than peers.
The study covered 4200 students in Cleveland-area high schools. Of the teens, 20 percent were hyper-texters (sending more than 120 texts a day), 11 percent were hyper-networkers (spending more than 3 hours per day on Facebook and other social networking websites, and an impressive 4 percent of teens did both. The hyper-texters were 3.5 times as likely to have sex than peers; hyper-networkers were more likely to drink, fight, and do drugs than normal teens.
It all comes down to parental supervision, said researchers, rather than social networking causing risky behavior. “If parents are monitoring their kids’ texting and social networking, they’re probably monitoring other activities as well,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Scott Frank. Hyper-texting and networking were more common among girls, minorities, and single-parent households (all of which are all statistically more likely to have sex, drink, fight, and do drugs for reasons not related to texting).
Tags: hyper-texting teens more likely to do drugs and have sex, link between texting and risky behavior, risk behavior and texting, Cleveland, Ohio, Case Western Reserve University, hyper-texting, hyper-networking, hyper-networking teens more likely to fight and drink, behavior and technology, weird science
