Generation Digital
Anyone who has anything to do with adolescents knows that they are massive users of media. They are among the most avid consumers of television and music, and the fastest adopters of digital technology—particularly social media.1 Although estimates vary by country, current data suggest that teens spend about six hours a day interacting with screens. This total includes nearly two hours spent chatting with friends via media such as WhatsApp, texting, or Snapchat, as well as more than an hour a day spent on social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. In other words, the time that adolescents spend using social media—more than three hours a day—has now surpassed the amount of time they spend on entertainment media, for example, watching shows, series, or movies on television or online (97 minutes) or playing electronic games (75 minutes). They spend the least amount of time reading books or comic books (35 minutes).2
Although reports about adolescents’ media use usually present information as though teenagers reflect one homogenous group, the truth is that adolescence is a period of significant developmental changes. After all, a thirteen-year-old differs enormously from an eighteen-year-old. Admittedly, it is not easy to divide the period of adolescence into segments. Individual differences in this period are at least as large as they are in childhood. Moreover, physical development, cognitive development, and social-emotional development often do not occur synchronously. While there seems to be no perfect recipe for segmenting this group, we divide adolescence into two age groups: early adolescence (ages 12–15) and late adolescence (ages 16–19). There are two reasons for this decision. First, puberty is thought to begin at approximately eleven years of age and to conclude around fifteen. Since puberty reflects significant physical, psychological, and social changes, segmenting adolescence in a way that is sensitive to pubertal changes is reasonable. Second, this segmentation decision is pragmatic: much of the research on teens and media use seems to focus on one or the other of these two groups—affirming the underlying developmental differences of both groups.
Early Adolescence
Puberty, the period between the ages of eleven and sixteen, is characterized by intense physical changes that, in turn, affect adolescents’ emotions and cognition. In the brain, the hypothalamus begins sending signals to the pituitary gland, announcing the start of puberty. The pituitary gland in turn causes girls’ ovaries and boys’ testicles to release sex hormones, including estrogens in girls and androgens in boys. In girls, the estrogens cause them to have their first menstruation, and the androgen increase in boys eventually leads to their first ejaculation. These hormones are responsible for the intense state of sexual arousal that young teens may experience, as well as their fascination with all things related to sex and sexual attraction, both in their immediate environment and in the media.
A number of other important physical changes also take place at this time. For example, girls develop breasts; boys’ voices deepen, and they add muscle. Both sexes experience an increase in sebum production that may lead to oily skin and acne. Moreover, both boys and girls undergo an impressive growth spurt, accompanied by weight gain. Girls accumulate more fat around the hips, and boys at the waist. On average, girls experience this growth spurt between the ages of ten and fourteen, whereas boys experience it slightly later (between the ages of twelve and sixteen).3
Changes in the Adolescent Brain
Besides the noticeable physical changes that puberty brings, there are other, less obvious changes that have major consequences for the way teens think and behave, and for what interests them. These changes take place in different regions of the brain and in different ways. The human brain is made up of gray and white matter. Gray matter, which consists of the cell bodies, dendrites, and axon terminals of neurons (nerve cells), is responsible for information processing. White matter, made up of the axons themselves, consists of the pathways that connect neurons to one another. If we compare the brain to a computer network, the gray matter would be analogous to the individual computers, and white matter to the network cables that connect them.
During childhood, the volume of gray matter increases significantly in many regions of the brain. Around the start of puberty, however, gray matter starts to decline in volume. This increase and subsequent decrease of gray matter can be plotted as a bell curve. The decline in gray matter, known as “pruning,” is said to indicate that the brain is beginning to function more efficiently. The “use it or lose it” principle applies here: neurons that are used will survive, and those that are not will disappear.4 Unlike gray matter, white matter increases in volume throughout late childhood and adolescence.5 This increase is mainly responsible for the faster and more efficient communication between the different regions of the preadolescent and adolescent brain, which helps explain a good deal of adolescents’ thinking and behavior.
One major misconception about the adolescent brain is the idea that the prefrontal cortex, which is located at the front of the brain and plays an important role in self-control and planning, matures only toward the end of early adulthood, at around age twenty-five. Previously, the “immature” prefrontal cortex was thought to explain all sorts of “immature” behavior on the part of adolescents, for example, their trouble keeping appointments, their sometimes unstructured thought patterns, and their risk-taking tendencies. In part because of widespread media reports about the pubescent brain, society has generally accepted this notion.
In 2012, however, Eveline Crone and Ronald Dahl reviewed the 150 studies that supposedly delivered the evidence for this theory.6 Their research showed that the prefrontal cortex of adolescents is actually not structurally immature. If teens are motivated to learn, their prefrontal cortex is decidedly active. If they want to create a website or learn to play a game, they can spend hours and days on end trying to master all sorts of complex new tasks. In other words, the maturity of their prefrontal cortex appears to depend on their motivation to keep their appointments, to structure their thoughts, and plan their activities.
Abstract Thought and Metacognition
In part a result of their advancing brain development, early adolescents no longer take the world for what it is. They are quick to find something implausible. They also question and criticize all manner of authority, including their schools, teachers, and, especially, parents. Anyone who has ever parented a teenager will likely let out an exasperated sigh when they reflect on the challenges and resistance experienced during the teenage years. Although frustrating to many adults, this behavior is in line with Piaget’s formal-operational stage of development. Formal-operational thinking refers to thinking that is both logical and abstract.
In chapter 5, we discussed concrete-operational thinking. That too is logical thinking, but it is limited to concrete problems. For example: “Karen is bigger than Susan but smaller than Diane. Which of the three is biggest?” Unlike younger children, early adolescents, thanks to their more advanced brain development, are capable of solving this word problem without requiring the concrete phenomena—the three girls—to be present. Moreover, early adolescents can reason hypothetically and think about what could happen in specific situations. They thus can engage in systematic problem solving.
Teens’ increasingly advanced way of thinking has significant implications for their behavior and interests. They think more clearly than preadolescents about the future and take those thoughts into account when making decisions. They start taking a sincere interest in or grow worried about major global issues, such as the conflicts in the Middle East, the financial crisis, or global warming. They become able to compare situations and use their comparisons in arguments. For example, in their disagreements with parents, it is common to hear comparisons used as behavioral justification: “No way I’m doing the dishes! When Cindy was studying for her exams, she didn’t have to do them!”
In addition to adolescents’ increasingly abstract thinking and problem-solving skills, their metacognitive skills improve significantl
y during this period. Once early adolescents have acquired metacognition, the ability to evaluate one’s own thoughts, they are better able to summarize what they have learned or what another person’s train of thought might have been. They can not only indicate what they know, but also say why they know it. As a result of these metacognitive skills, they are capable of introspection (that is, the ability to reflect on their own thoughts and emotions).
Not surprisingly, while their metacognitive skills are increasing, their social cognition—their ability to interpret and anticipate others’ desires, emotions, and motives—is also improving. This newfound metacognition, combined with improved social cognition, brings with it many internal struggles. In particular, they may begin to worry more about what others are thinking of them, becoming much more self-conscious and concerned about how they appear to others.
Keep It Fast, Compact, and True to Life
Early adolescents can be extremely critical consumers of media entertainment. Earlier in this book, we discussed the moderate discrepancy hypothesis, which suggests that children and teens are most interested in media content that departs moderately from their level of cognitive and social-emotional development. This hypothesis continues to apply in early adolescence. Entertainment programs should not diverge too much in content or structure from their cognitive skills. Their advancing brain development means that speed and variety are the norm in this age group.7 This may explain why apps such as Snapchat (a time-limited photo messaging application) and Vine (a six-second video creation application) have become so popular with this age group—they privilege speed and variation above all else.
The pacing of media entertainment that targets this age group has quickened in recent decades. But it is not clear whether this new, fast-paced media entertainment environment is changing teens’ preferences for fast-paced entertainment or whether this entertainment environment is just catering to what today’s teens gravitate toward. The influence is probably reciprocal. Interestingly, adolescents’ desire for speed and variation has accompanied a quickly growing trend toward media multitasking. Whereas only 16 percent of adolescents used different media simultaneously in the 1990s, today that percentage has nearly doubled.8
Beyond variety and speed, early adolescents are looking for plausible content in entertainment media content. This interest begins during preadolescence with an increasing interest in realistic fantasy (for example, Harry Potter). With adolescents’ growing ability to engage in abstract thinking and their increased social cognition, their demands for plausible media content are even stronger. Story lines should be logical, characters should fit within the context of adolescents’ social and cultural background, and historical and situational factors should be true to life. Compared to their younger peers, early adolescents prefer increasingly complex content—including content that relies on more abstract ideas and problems—but this, too, should be plausible. They also begin to prefer characters that are more psychologically complex, such as Damon Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries, or Spencer, Hanna, Aria, and Emily from Pretty Little Liars.
Keep Me Laughing: Irony, Sarcasm, and Wit
Children’s sense of humor changes when they reach puberty. Early adolescents become interested in complex forms of humor involving irony, sarcasm, and cynicism. This is a logical development, since more complex humor requires the ability to size up both a situation and the motives of those displaying that humor—in other words, the metacognition and social cognition that accompany adolescent development. A teacher who winks and tells Monique, “Wow, you’ve really studied hard,” when Monique has given all the wrong answers in class can only mean this ironically. If the same teacher says to her, this time without winking, “Just keep this up, Monique, and you’ll really go places,” then Monique knows the remark is sarcastic and not meant kindly.
In addition, early adolescents begin to prefer spontaneous, witty forms of humor to the ready-made jokes and riddles popular with children. Off-the-cuff wit is an important popularity factor in peer groups, especially among boys, who tend to engage in more verbal sparring than girls do.9 Girls are more likely to giggle with one another than boys, something that appears to bind them as a group. Girls are also more inclined to laugh passively at the humorous antics of boys whom they like.10 Boys, on the other hand, like girls who laugh at their humor. This reciprocal confirmation helps stimulate the forming of heterosexual romantic attachments.
This preference for complex humor is seen in early adolescents’ media preferences. For example, popular shows such as South Park and Tosh.0 frequently rely on sarcasm and irony to entertain their audiences. Early adolescents (particularly boys) seem to particularly enjoy entertainment content that pairs absurdist and irreverent humor with more adult concepts or taboos (for example, the portrayal of sexuality in Napoleon Dynamite). That said, despite this preference for increasingly complex humor, early adolescents still find slapstick and other physical displays of humor entertaining, as in shows such as Wildboyz.
Make It Extreme: Vampires, Sports, and Horror
As children move into early adolescence, they show an increased interest in horror movies, vampires, and high-risk sports, for example, BMX biking and BASE jumping. Why might this occur? One primary explanation is again associated with their brain development. Recall that during this period, there is an increase in the activity of neural axons. These axons use dopamine, a neurotransmitter that sends signals between neurons and is commonly associated with the pleasure system of the brain. In particular, dopamine is thought to co-occur with feelings of enjoyment and to reinforce a tendency to do (or continue to do) certain activities. Dopamine also plays a role in the desire to embark on new or exciting adventures.11
It is not entirely clear how the dopamine system works in adolescence. Given the challenges associated with brain research in humans, most of what we know about the dopamine system comes from research among adolescent animals. While many researchers assume that dopamine activity is higher in adolescents than in children or adults, others think that base dopamine levels are lower in adolescence than in childhood and adulthood, but that levels skyrocket when adolescents have or anticipate having an exciting experience.12 This is thought to explain why adolescents often feel listless and bored unless they experience new or exhilarating things. When they do, their dopamine levels shoot up, causing them to feel their emotions with great intensity. Whatever the case, most neuroscientists agree that the dopamine system in adolescence differs from that in childhood and adulthood.
The changes in the dopamine system during adolescence may lead teens to act more impulsively than children or adults and to show a greater tendency toward risk taking. This is particularly true when teens are in the company of peers, whose presence kicks the brain’s reward system into high gear.13 Adolescents—compared with children and adults—are much more likely to focus on the positive, exciting side of an activity and less on the risks involved.14 This is thought to reflect a mismatch between their much-improved cognitive functions and their (in)ability to see the “bigger picture” when necessary. Although many of teens’ cognitive skills are well developed, the same cannot be said of their intuition (that is, their gut feeling, their ability to understand something automatically, without the need for conscious reasoning).15
Given this imbalance between their advanced cognitive functioning and their still-developing intuition, combined with their highly active dopamine system, it is not surprising that risk-taking behaviors increase dramatically in frequency during the adolescent years—reaching an all-time high toward the end of puberty. This is a time when youth are trying different sport stunts (on skateboards or bikes, for example) as well as experimenting with drugs, smoking, and alcohol. For teens, the rewards from these activities (the thrills) greatly outweigh the risks, particularly when they are in the presence of their peers.
Early adolescence is also a time when teens exhibit an increased interest in thrilling media content—for example, vampires (
for example, True Blood, Twilight), extreme sports or stunts (Careless Teens, Jackass, Scarred, Nitro Circus), and horror movies (the wildly popular Scream slasher movies)—since this content depicts the excitement, sensation, and adventure that they are craving. And with the emergence of social media comes an upsurge of risky behavior online—for example, sexting (sharing sexual photographs on the Internet)—with a peak coming around fifteen years of age (also see chapter 13).16
Social-Emotional Development
While cognitive development is a core aspect of the adolescent years, teens’ social-emotional development is just as significant. One of the crucial goals of adolescence is the development of autonomy—defined as the capacity to make independent decisions and care for oneself. To gain autonomy, teens have to develop three key social-emotional subgoals. First, they need to develop a stable identity, a reasonably firm sense of who they are and who they would like to become. Second, they must develop a sense of intimacy, which refers to close relationships in which partners are open, caring, and trusting.17 In adolescence, teens must acquire the skills needed to form such close relationships. Finally, they need to discover their sexual identity. They have to get used to and learn to handle their sexual desires, and learn how to engage in mutual, honest, and safe sexual relationships. All three of these developing social-emotional subgoals intersect with teens’ media use and preferences—particularly digital media.
Identity: Learning from the Media
Much has been written about adolescent identity, and numerous terms describe more or less the same processes. We assume that identity consists of at least two aspects: self-concept and self-esteem.18 Our self-concept is how we see ourselves: who we are and who we want to become. Our self-esteem is the extent to which we value this self-concept. To develop a stable self-concept and positive self-esteem, teens need to experiment with their behavior in order to find out what those in their social environment (peers, adults) appreciate or dislike about them. To learn about “appropriate” behavioral options, teens typically observe not only peers and adults in their physical environment, but also their media idols. It is logical, then, that many teens appreciate entertainment programs that feature social relationships, romance, or love. For example, popular MTV reality programs such as Girl Code, True Life, and Jersey Shore frequently feature content about friendships, romance, and love. Similarly, popular scripted programs such as Gossip Girls, Glee, and Awkward often focus on the development and maintenance of friendships and romantic relationships—including the challenges associated with such relationships.
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