RFSLEM LIBRARY

Teens replacing drugs with smartphones?    Matt Richtel |   NYT NEWS SERVICE   Interactive Media Appears To Play To Similar Impulses As Drug Experimentation, Say Scientists    A mid the rise of deadly synthetic drugs and the widening legalisation of marijuana, a curious bright spot has emerged in the youth drug culture: American teenagers are growing less likely to try or regularly use drugs.   The trend has been building for a decade, with no clear understanding as to why .Some experts theorise that antidrug education campaigns have finally taken hold. But researchers are starting to ponder an intriguing question: Are teenagers using drugs less in part because they are constantly stimulated by their computers and phones? The possibility is worth exploring, they say , because use of smartphones has exploded over the same period that drug use has declined. This correlation does not mean that one phenomenon is causing the other, but scientists say interactive media appears to play to similar impulses as drug experimentation. Or it might be that gadgets simply absorb a lot of time that could be used for other pursuits, including partying. National Institute on Drug Abuse's survey , “Monitoring the Future,“ found that past-year use of illicit drugs other than marijuana was at the lowest level in the 40-year history of the project for eighth, 10th and 12th graders. Use of marijuana is down over the past decade for eighth and 10th graders even as social acceptability is up, the study found. Though mar ijuana use has risen among 12th graders, the use of cocaine, hallucinogens, ecstasy and crack are all down. Even as heroin use has become an epidemic among adults in some communities, it has fallen among high schoolers over the past decade, the study found. NIDA's director Dr. Nora Volkow said this period was also notable because declining use patterns were cutting across groups -“boys and girls, public and private school, not driven by one particular demographic,“ she said. Dr. Volkow described interactive media as “an alternative reinforcer“ to drugs, adding that “teens can get literally high when playing these games.“ However, while drug use has fallen among youths ages 12 to 17, it hasn't declined among college students, said Dr. Sion Kim Harris, codirector of the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research at Boston Children's Hospital. Explanations aside, researchers unanimously expressed hope that the trends would persist. Researchers say phones and social media serve a primitive need for connection. “People are carrying around a portable dopamine pump, and kids have basically been carrying it around for the last 10 years,“ said a researcher. In 2015, 4.2% teenagers aged 12 to 17 reported smoking a cigarette in the last month, down from 10.8% in 2005, according to a survey. At the same time, gadgets are readily consuming a growing portion of young people's time.

 

Source : The Times of India  | Mar 17 2017  | (Navi Mumbai)