Smartphones and teenage users

Youngsters, who use smartphones, might feel delighted over the words of tacit support for them coming from social experts.  They continue to be reprimanded by their parents and other elders for their being hooked on the small multi-purpose device. That not all of the teens using the phone engage in objectionable and harmful fun is also true. Rather, the teens in Dhaka are greatly dependent on smartphones to carry out innovative works, observes a study carried out by BIDS (Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies). According to the findings of the study, teenage youths of the capital Dhaka use smartphones to enjoy entertaining contents, leisure and for socialisation. This is upbeat news. For the youngsters, the BIDS study could be interpreted as an endorsement for their smartphone use. They have long been waiting for this recogntion. It's because the teenagers and smartphones are considered inseparable. And coming to the content of what they watch on the mini-screen, they know those will not get the approval of the parents, seniors and the teachers at school. The teenage youths might interpret the study results going in their favour. But the adolescents also know it well that despite the study's thrust on the healthy aspects of the smartphone use, it will never overlook the objectionable items being dished out by different digital platforms.

Perhaps this discovery has prompted the BIDS to identify what should be the teenagers' area of concentration. The online-based smartphones have lately been proved to be not eligible for the vulnerable teenagers. Moreover, there are stark realities, which portray a picture which is worse in nature. In many cases it has been found that smartphones play a critical role in many students doing below par performance in exams. Lots of guardians blame these phones for the students' lack of attention to their studies. A noticeable feature of the smartphone abuse is a section of teenagers getting lonelier by the day. The number of increased dropouts among the students at higher school level has turned out to be alarming. Many blame directly or indirectly the smartphones for this turn of things.

Compared to these negative aspects of smart-phone use, the BIDS study comes up with the positive sides of the hand-held online facility. Irrespective of socio-economic classes, the youngsters have developed an irresistible passion for these phones. The picture the BIDS has drawn might appear simplistic to many. Moreover, there are few reasons to believe that the smartphone-addicted youngsters have changed overnight, and, upon repentance, turned to books and many fruitful exercises. Had that happened, it would have prompted many teachers and guardians to feel upbeat. As has been found by the BIDS, while on smart-phones, youngsters engage themselves in creative works in their preferred ways --- freely, without supervision, or instruction. It's a situation many guardians expect to be true.  The study presents the key social conditions of the innovative use of the smartphone device among teenagers: befriending the curious peers, participation in creative events, the cooperation of parents, especially mothers.

BIDS research fellow Mohammad Golam Nabi Mozumder conducted the study titled Social Conditions of the Innovative Use of Smartphone: A Qualitative Investigation among Young Users in Dhaka. The study portrays a highly upbeat picture of the young phone users in Dhaka. This is positive. But such spectacles comprising teenage youths have yet to be found in the city frequently. Yet there are ripe grounds for them to come true. For it to happen the tutoring of students by their mothers, fathers and teachers ought to start at their early stage. It's because by the time they cross childhood, they consider themselves mature enough to surf through different online platforms of the mobile phone. As they grow up, the exclusive zones of the device do not remain unknown to them. For the precocious children, learning how to visit the forbidden areas of an online phone eventually becomes a fun. As they grow up, they get access to more and more unknown areas.

At one phase they begin finding online friends, who take them to other batches. According to the study's observation, the smartphones are popular because the mobile device is one of the few means teens can use to live the life they wish to. It's a wise conclusion. But their guardians and their tutors ought to stand beside the teens before they go out of control. Adolescence is both vulnerable and gullible --- and impressionable, too.

Utilising the right time to intervene in the fresh smartphone users' life is of critical importance. If the time chosen is too early, it might have two impacts. First, the teens will be deprived of the pangs accompanying the initial years of the smartphone use. This realisation will keep one prepared for any eventuality in the use of the phone. Second, in the case of the post-teens, they might be found to be too mature to be in need of guidance. Careful decision ought to be made when dealing with these boys and girls. However, the ideal time is the unspoiled adolescence. This is an age, when one can be taught adequately, and he or she can be brought back to their earlier life free of the spell of harmful online materials.

The problem is, the study notes, the digital device earns the youngsters recognition, especially from their desired group of people --- peers living near and far. Among the deviant activities, the study focuses on account hacking, creating fake accounts on social media, watching adult content etc. But on the other side of the coin, there remains the innovative use of smartphones. The teenagers here use the device efficiently and in diverse ways. Here their creative faculty is in full use.

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