There’s a lot to worry about when you’re a parent, but new research suggests one of the biggest things keeping moms and dads up at night is concerns about their kids and technology. A new survey finds that parents lose an average of seven hours of sleep a week as a result of this “techxiety” - the pressure parents feel trying to balance the benefits of digital connection with concerns about screen addiction, online exposure and more.
That adds up to missing the equivalent of 48 nights of sleep a year over tech-driven anxiety, with the biggest concerns being screen time habits (24%), social media’s impact on self-esteem (20%), and gaming or app addiction (18%). Despite worrying about how tech usage is affecting their child, the poll of 2-thousand parents of school-age children finds that 73% report their child already has their own smartphone, including 47% of parents of five-year-olds.
- Concerns aside, nine in 10 still want their child to have access to a cell phone at school, but 60% of them agree that access should be limited to emergencies.
- Parents whose child’s school has a phone ban or restrictions report feeling anxious about not being able to reach them an average of three times a day.
- But many moms and dads see both the drawbacks and benefits of smartphones in the classroom, as 40% say phones help students stay connected during emergencies and 76% believe being able to contact their child in an emergency is crucial.
- Another 30% recognize that phones can be disruptive to learning and 28% say they can add to drama and conflict between students.
- While 62% of parents see their child getting a smartphone as a “step toward independence,” 38% feel it’s a “loss of innocence.”
- A lot of moms and dads also see technology as a tool to help their kids with independence, as they’d be more comfortable letting them walk to the park (42%), play in the neighborhood (41%), or ride a bike alone (37%) if they knew where they were.
- But parents whose kids already have smartphones tend to lose almost two extra hours of sleep, on average, and are more likely to worry about their kids’ mental health, social media’s impact on self-esteem, and feel disconnected from what’s going on in their child’s life than parents whose kids don’t have a smartphone.
Source: Talker