Teenagers Are Not Turning Into Techno-Zombies After All

Back in the 1954, the U.S. Senate actually held a hearing on the detrimental influence of comic books on children, which critics warned were contributing factor to juvenile delinquency, hostility toward parents, and other forms of antisocial behavior. One of the experts, National Institute of Mental Health director Robert Felix, offered this scary assessment of the risks:

Comic books may well also be significant with respect to psychological difficulties the child already possesses. Hostile feelings towards his parents, for instance, may be brought to the surface through the reading of these books, releasing the children's anxiety, and this result is not desirable. Furthermore, since the violent behavior of the comic books is not limited to the villain of the piece, the child may feel that he secures some sanction from this sources for the open statements can be interpreted as meaning that the pathology of the child is necessarily initiated or caused by the comic book, but that there is a significant relationship between the child's problems and how he reacts to them and the content of these materials.

The authority conferred by Felix's adept use of social-science lingo masked one significant flaw in his thesis: There was almost no actual research on comic book reading to back up his conclusions. And ultimately, the children that he was so worried would become aberrant grew up into adults who were equally aghast at the undoubtedly negative influence of a newer form of media -- social networking via smart phones -- on their own kids and grandkids.

The Los Angeles Times, however, reports that such fears about the brain-rotting anti-social effects of electronic entertainment and communication may be similarly exaggerated, according to recent studies.

"Far from hampering adolescents' social skills or putting them in harm's way, as many parents have feared, electronics appear to be the path by which children today develop emotional bonds, their own identities, and an ability to communicate and work with others," Times reporter Melissa Healy concludes.

Research, for example, suggests that the use of social networking doesn't have that much of an impact on teens' social behavior, negative or otherwise. In one new study University of Virginia psychologist Amori Yee Mikami found that 13- and 14-year-olds tended to interact on Facebook and MySpace in ways that were consistent with their offline social relationships and behavior.

Additionally, the study undercut fears that social networking exposes teens to strangers who may be harmful influences. Mikami found that most teens use social networking to communicate with people that they already know from the real world, rather than to intermingle with, say, satanic cultists or lecherous 52-year-old appliance salesmen.

"So parents of well-adjusted teens may have little to worry about regarding the way their children behave when using social media," Mikami told the Times . "It's likely to be similarly positive behavior."

The Times article cited another study by Harvard University researchers, who found that the biggest hazard to teens online is from bullying and harassment by other teens that they know, rather than the risk of sexual predators or violent or pornographic content. The study's executive summary noted:

Minors are not equally at risk online. Those who are most at risk often engage in risky behaviors and have difficulties in other parts of their lives. The psychosocial makeup of and family dynamics surrounding particular minors are better predictors of risk than the use of specific media or technologies.

Hopefully, worried parents will get some reassurance from this -- assuming, that is, that they're not as addicted to worrying as their teens are addicted to technology.