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5 Myths About Young People and Tech

1. Young people are digital natives – they don’t need help using technology

The term ‘digital natives’ first appeared in a 2001 essay by Marc Prenzky. The idea is that young people are naturally digitally savvy because they grew up surrounded by digital tech – hence, digital natives – while older generations will always be playing catch-up – making them ‘digital immigrants.’

Today, many researchers are questioning the idea of the digital native. It’s true that those born in the last few decades have become familiar with digital tech at a much younger age than their parents – think of the two-year-olds you’ve seen swiping iPads in their prams – but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a lot more to learn.

A toddler might be able to hit play on a video, and a 13-year-old might have dozens of apps on their smartphone. But they may not be able to do much beyond the basics. As far back as 2015, studies suggested that 83 per cent of millennials slept with their smartphone, but 58 per cent had poor skills in solving problems with technology.

Speaking of millennials, it’s been nearly a quarter of a century since Prenzky published that essay. Someone born in 1990 would be 35 today, and they may well have children of their own. It’s likely that they had a computer in their home before the age of 10, and they still would have been in their teens when the first iPhone was released. The idea of digital natives versus digital immigrants is becoming less relevant with every passing year.

The reality is young people need guidance from adults when it comes to technology, just like any other area of life they are learning to navigate. Many of the skills we need to teach our children – like self-regulation, setting boundaries and discerning trustworthy from suspicious information – are just as relevant in digital environments as they are in the physical world. We do young people a disservice if we assume they’ve got it all figured out.

2. Technology makes young people socially isolated and depressed

Some people have argued that technology is making young people more isolated and negatively impacting their mental health, especially overuse of social media. This is a complex issue, but one of the main arguments is that online interactions are less fulfilling than face-to-face ones, and the more young people rely on digital tech for socialisation, the less that basic need is being met.

There is evidence of a connection here. Some studies show that young people who spend a lot of time on social media have worse mental health and that young people’s mental health has declined as use of smart phones and social media has increased.

While there is a correlation between these numbers, there isn’t enough evidence to prove that social media or technology is causing poor mental health. It's difficult to say whether social media is making young people lonely, or if young people who already feel lonely are turning to social media. And there are lots of other factors that started playing a big role in young people's lives around the same time as the smartphone – like climate change, increased global conflict and high academic pressure – that could be contributing to depression and anxiety.

Researcher and author Danah Boyd has spent much of her career studying how young people use social media. She says that the young people she’s spoken to would rather spend time with their friends in person, but don’t have the opportunity because their time and movements are so restricted by school, extracurricular activities, and parents and carers’ concerns about their safety. They turn to social media as a substitute.

“We’ve got a sleep-deprived group who desperately want a chance to hang out with their friends,” Boyd says, “and the result is that social technology has become the relief valve.”

So, while there’s disagreement about whether heavy social media use is the cause of social isolation or its effect, it's clear that young people are better off spending more time with their friends in real life than online. If this is a worry for parents and carers, they should consider what might be preventing their children from spending time with friends and how they can remove those barriers.

3. They get all their information about important issues on social media

In general, more Australians are going to social media for their news, and that’s especially true for young people. According to a 2023 study from Western Sydney University, nearly one third of children and nearly half of teens say they follow social media accounts specifically for news.

However, the study showed that social media is not the biggest source of news for young people. Their preferred news source by far was family members, followed by live TV, then YouTube, and then social media.

One concerning statistic from this study was that only 40 per cent of young people aged 12-16 were familiar with the term ‘algorithm’ as it relates to news. Algorithms on social media detect what kinds of content users are responding to and keep serving them more of the same to hold their attention and increase engagement. This statistic suggests that many young people are not aware of how the news they see on social media is filtered and skewed towards a particular viewpoint.

A roundtable of 31 young Australians by not-for-profit organisation ARACY found some interesting results on how they were using social media to get information about mental health. Many stated they were not looking for medical opinions or data but rather seeking to connect with others who had similar experiences.

“It's not so much that we're looking to find out what depression is,” said one participant, “We know what depression is, we’re kind of more just seeking community…”.

Another participant said, “A lot of the time young people don't go on social media to learn how to fix their mental health issue, they go there to learn how to [...] connect with other people their age.”

4. Parents can't relate to their children because technology has created a different world

The idea that parents and carers struggle to relate to their children because the world has changed since their own childhood is not new. It is also a longstanding complaint among young people that their parents don’t understand them or the world they live in. But many parents feel that technology is widening that gap in ways that go far beyond anything previous generations had to deal with.

Research conducted with parents and carers found that two thirds believe parenting is harder today than it was two decades ago. Technology was one of the top reasons given for this difficulty.

Twenty-six per cent of those surveyed said technology was a challenge to parenting. One respondent said simply that "parents don’t know how to handle the technology.” Another 21 per cent specifically mentioned social media.

“I think that social media is harmful to kids and their self-concepts and self-images. It’s difficult to combat the messages that [they] are getting ALL THE TIME from the outside world. Being a teen is more difficult than it was even 10 years ago, and much more difficult than it was 30 years ago. Parenting through all of the obstacles is really challenging.”

However, another 30 per cent of parents felt that technology had made parenting easier, citing entertainment for their children and better access to parenting resources and information.

There’s no doubt that technology is changing our world in unprecedented ways, and that can create real parenting challenges. If we want to understand our children and their world, the most important thing we can do as parents and carers is to get into the habit of asking them about it from an early age, establishing clear, honest, two-way communication.

5. Young people are all addicted to their screens

Multiple surveys in recent years have shown that excessive screen time is one of the top concerns Australian parents and carers have about their children’s health. There are national recommended guidelines for how much time children of varying ages should spend on screens, and we know that most Australian children are exceeding those limits. But when does too much screen time become an addiction?

Screen addiction is classified as a behavioural addiction, along with things like shopping and gambling. This is a much more recent area of study than addiction to substances like alcohol and other drugs, and there are competing theories on how to define and treat it.

One thing most experts do agree on is that it’s not just the time spent on these activities that makes them qualify as an addiction – there are other questions we need to ask.

Does the person need to engage in that activity more and more to get the same feeling?
Do they experience withdrawal when they cut down or stop?
Does it prevent them enjoying other activities?
Does it affect their school, work or relationships?
And do they keep doing the activity even when they know it’s impacting them negatively?

In the last few years, some experts have suggested dispensing entirely with screen time as a measurement of healthy or unhealthy technology use, focusing instead on what we are doing on our screens, when we are using them and how they fit in with the rest of our lives. A video call with a friend or relative is very different to an episode of a violent cartoon, even if they both amount to half an hour of screen time.

So, are all young people addicted to their screens? The short answer is ‘no’, certainly not all of them. But young people are spending more time on their screens, and there is enough research to show that excessive screen time, and certain types of screen use, are connected to poor mental health outcomes.

Where to from here?

What these findings tell us clearly is that young people today are growing up in a world that is extremely complex. They are dealing with the same pressures that their parents and grandparents had to contend with, as well as some that are completely new.

Rather than defaulting to judgement and suspicion, adults should approach young people’s tech habits with curiosity and empathy. Before condemning or taking away their devices, we should first consider what needs the technology might be serving, and how else they might be able to meet those needs.

This should be on all our minds in the lead up to December, when Australia’s social media ban for under sixteens is due to come into effect. For many young people, this will be a huge change. Are they ready for it, and what can we offer them to take its place? If you have young people in your life who will be affected by this, now is the perfect time to start talking to them about it.

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