Digital media is working as a different planet showing the disparities between the fantasies of what everyone thought about their lives and the reality of how they are actually living. It is important to have hedonic and eudemonic happiness in the life of an adolescent which contributes to overall well-being and to flourish with achievements, but 75% of 12-22 years are on digital media and spend on average two hours a day there, and this issue needs to be addressed. The first section of the chapter deals with the disruptions created with the digital media in order the way adolescents compare their lives with everyone highlighted on media. The other section targets the direct impact of the same on adolescent lives and analyses the various recovery measures and stages required and various techniques the parents and peers can use to deal with such situations. The basic purpose of this is to add value in the world of economy of attention and how to outgrow it without hurting oneself and not turning micro moments into macro moments of digital media.
TopIntroduction
Do you know? That about 25 percent of 5 years old use the phone, and over 90 percent of teens do so? About, three-quarters use the internet, and this number increases to 50 percent by the age of 9 and to at least 90 percent by the age of 18. Well, the word ‘revolution’ has an idea of change, and seeing them move in the media and the process of evolution has a revolutionary impact on our lives. The age of print is passing and the assumptions and all the practice associated with it are now becoming media specific. In oxford digital media is defined as “An umbrella term often treated as synonymous with new media or computer-mediated communication.” If you are using technology, it is expected that you are using Digital Media. Thus, Digital media is a technology and a content united, which is the blending of a product, game, app, or any interactive website (Labrecque, vor dem Esche, Mathwick, Novak, & Hofacker, 2013). Digital Media can take the form of any news, blog post, journal, photography, stories, art, and all of which people can take in. Contributed by a team of professional or a single entrepreneur, digital media deliver experiences. Digital Media results in animation, social media, video, augmented, and virtual reality, data, and reports.
This appears to be no limit as to the type and numbers of Digital Media. Hence, by narrowing our definition, we say that ‘Digital Media could be news, video, audio, software, or other content created, assessed or stored in the Digital form’. Another question could be what do we intend with the concept of Digital Media? Who produced it? Is the outcome desirable? These questions entice us to question the motives of its production.
At first, it was just to keep in touch with friends, finding and sharing information with a broader circle. Digital Media is a necessity but adolescents used it so much it actually got in the way of personal connection with people (Debell & Chapman, 2004).
Traditional Media like print, radio, television are mostly ‘one way,’ meaning you can’t really do anything but listen, watch, read it. In today’s network world Digital Media is interconnected and interactive. Digital Media is a part of an infinite world where you can connect to others as easily as they can connect to you. Finding community with common interests and beliefs; instant access to other people and information; and can tap knowledge anywhere. Anyone can post anything online; this raises a question on the authenticity. Thus there is always a dilemmic thought whether what digital media is doing to us is justified or not? In spite of the so many positive approaches, why the ultimate impact on a specific age group is undesirable?
The question is how adolescents are using social media? Data portal’s ‘Global Overview Report’ says, Close to half a billion new social media users. 1.3 billion years spent using the internet. Trillions of dollars spent on e-commerce (Kemp, 2021). They claim that in the last 12 months digital media became an even more essential part of people’s lives, with social media, e-commerce content, and gaming. As per Simon, 66.6% (5.22 Billion) of the world population are mobile phone users, out of which 89.27% are having access to the internet. They claim to have a growth of 13.2% (490 Million) in the active internet users since Jan 2020. Since, 2016 the 12.8 billion population is been an average social media user (Fig 1).
Filipinos are the world’s largest consumer of social media leading with an average of 4 hours, whereas on the other end japan is spending less than an hour. However, India is the worldwide average user of social media with 2.25 hours (Fig: 2), anything this much time doing has lasting effects on us.