Is Facebook Harmful for Your Teens? Social Disorder Concerns

By Vincent Funaro, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Facebook can have harmful effects on your teens and children including social disorders according to a recent study.

Larry Rosen, a psychologist at Cal State Dominguez Hills, conducted a study recently which showed that Facebook can form unhealthy habits and even develop personality disorders in your children and teens.

Rosen has been studying the effect of technology on people for more than 25 years. He’s recently studied social networking and its effects on children. He spoke about some of his findings at the American Psychological Assn’s annual convention in Washington, D.C. on Saturday.

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He stated that young people who use video games and social media more frequently tend to have more stomach aches and suffer from sleeping problems along with anxiety and depression.

Also, teens and young adults that log onto Facebook constantly tend to be more narcissistic. The era of social media and broadcasting yourself to others frequently feeds right into the agenda of a narcissist.

According to Rosen, the more frequently young people used Facebook, the more likely they were going to develop an antisocial personality disorder. He also said they were likely to suffer from paranoia, anxiety and alcohol abuse.

He also analyzed the studying habits of middle school, high school and college students. What he found was that most students were only able to stay focused on their studies for about three minutes before engaging in some kind of communication like texting or mobile phone apps. The students who logged in to their Facebook during studying ended up doing worse on their exams than those that didn’t.

According to experts the average teenager sends out more than 2000 texts per month, which is an overwhelming amount of information that can lead to problems with sleep and concentration along with physical stress.

Rosen said, “Kids have been raised on the concept of connection,” which is why texting and social media is so popular among them. They mostly value the connection itself, rather than its quality. Texts and social media allow them to speak to more people at the same time than a phone or face-face interaction ever would.

He said that parents should have constant, open conversations with their kids about how they are using technology, and not make judgments so they feel comfortable discussing how they behave with other kids online. This could make children more aware that what they say online can hurt others and help them to avoid cyber-bullying.

On a positive note he stated that social media allows kids to practice life behind a safety curtain, allowing them to share personal information with their friends and not have to deal with their reactions right away. This could be a real plus for shy kids and could help to get them out of their shells according to Rosen