Media use during adolescence: the recommendations of the Italian Pediatric Society.

BACKGROUND: The use of media device, such as smartphone and tablet, is currently increasing, especially among the youngest. Adolescents spend more and more time with their smartphones consulting social media, mainly Facebook, Instagram and Twitter because. Adolescents often feel the necessity to use a media device as a means to construct a social identity and express themselves. For some children, smartphone ownership starts even sooner as young as 7 yrs, according to internet safety experts. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We analyzed the evidence on media use and its consequences in adolescence. RESULTS: In literature, smartphones and tablets use may negatively influences the psychophysical development of the adolescent, such as learning, sleep and sigh. Moreover, obesity, distraction, addiction, cyberbullism and Hikikomori phenomena are described in adolescents who use media device too frequently. The Italian Pediatric Society provide action-oriented recommendations for families and clinicians to avoid negative outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Both parents and clinicians should be aware of the widespread phenomenon of media device use among adolescents and try to avoid psychophysical consequences on the youngest

Development of Early Social Interactions in Infants Exposed to Artificial Intelligence from Birth

Research suggests that technology density in a home may change interactions parents and infants in the earliest months of life. This study explored how the use of smart baby technology influenced parental perceptions of development and early social interactions. A qualitative, case methodology was used. The participants in this study were one family with newborn twins. Data was collected over a six month period using journals, field notes, and observations. Thematic coding of these materials was used to answer the questions of the study. Results suggest that use of smart technology supported the emerging parenting skills and allowed the parents to confidently establish care interactions

The potential impact of internet and mobile use on headache and other somatic symptoms in adolescence. a population-based cross-sectional study

Objective.—The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to determine whether migraine or tension-type headaches are associated with abuse of the internet and/or mobile phones and to explore whether headache and the abuse of the two technologies are associated with sleep disturbances and other self-reported somatic symptoms. Background.—In the last several years, estimates indicate the increasing pervasiveness of the internet and other technologies in the lives of young people, highlighting the impact on well-being. Design.—A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted between February 2013 and June 2014. Method.—The initial sample was composed of 1004 Italian students (aged 10–16 years) recruited within public middle schools not randomly selected in central Italy. The final convenience sample consisted of 841 students (Males551.1%; Females548.9%) who were included in the analysis. Data were collected using self-reported measures. Results.—Headache was reported by 28.0% of the total sample. A significant relationship was determined with gender (v2(1)57.78, P < .01), with female students being overrepresented in the headache group. Approximately 39.6% of subjects were non-abusers of both technologies, internet and mobile. Mobile only abusers were approximately 26.0% of the study population; internet only abusers were approximately 14.9%; and abusers of both media were 19.5%. No significant relationship was found between students with and without headache with respect to the abuse of internet and mobile phone categories (headache was, respectively, the 26% in no abusers, the 30% in internet abusers, the 29% in mobile abusers, and the 29% in internet and mobile abusers, P5.86). Additionally, also by excluding the no headache group, the relationship between the two groups of headache (migraine and tension type headache) and the abuse of media (tension type headache was the 31% in no abusers, the 43% in internet abusers, the 49% in mobile abusers, and the 29% in internet and mobile abusers) is not statistically significant (P5.06). No significant relationship emerged between headache and the internet and mobile phone addiction groups (headache was the 28% in no addiction group, the 35% in mobile addiction group, the 25% of internet addiction group, and the 28% in mobile and internet addiction group, P5.57) as well as no significant relationship was found when only the different headache types were considered (tension type headache was the 39% in no addiction group, the 40% in mobile addiction group, the 32% in internet addiction group, and the 31% in mobile and internet addiction group,P5.71). Daily internet users reported higher median scores for somatic symptoms than the occasional internet users in the no-headache group (Kruskal-Wallis v2 (1)55.44, P5.02) and in the migraine group (Kruskal-Wallis v2 (1)56.54, P5.01

Typical Phone Use Habits: Intense Use Does Not Predict Negative Well-Being

Not all smartphone owners use their device in the same way. In this work, we uncover broad, latent patterns of mobile phone use behavior. We conducted a study where, via a dedicated logging app, we collected daily mobile phone activity data from a sample of 340 participants for a period of four weeks. Through an unsupervised learning approach and a methodologically rigorous analysis, we reveal five generic phone use profiles which describe at least 10% of the participants each: limited use, business use, power use, and personality- & externally induced problematic use. We provide evidence that intense mobile phone use alone does not predict negative well-being. Instead, our approach automatically revealed two groups with tendencies for lower well-being, which are characterized by nightly phone use sessions.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, conference pape

Academic Performance and Behavioral Patterns

Identifying the factors that influence academic performance is an essential part of educational research. Previous studies have documented the importance of personality traits, class attendance, and social network structure. Because most of these analyses were based on a single behavioral aspect and/or small sample sizes, there is currently no quantification of the interplay of these factors. Here, we study the academic performance among a cohort of 538 undergraduate students forming a single, densely connected social network. Our work is based on data collected using smartphones, which the students used as their primary phones for two years. The availability of multi-channel data from a single population allows us to directly compare the explanatory power of individual and social characteristics. We find that the most informative indicators of performance are based on social ties and that network indicators result in better model performance than individual characteristics (including both personality and class attendance). We confirm earlier findings that class attendance is the most important predictor among individual characteristics. Finally, our results suggest the presence of strong homophily and/or peer effects among university students