A new study from Pew Research Center suggests that U.S. teenager are increasingly attached to their cellphones and simultaneously self aware of their addiction. A total of 1,058 parents of 13 to 17 year old teenagers as well as 743 teens were asked whether they spend to much time on the cellphone. An astonishing 54% of teens agreed against "only" 36% of parents.

When asked about five different feelings when cut off from their phones, 42% of teenagers said that they feel anxious without their phone (boys 35%, girls 49%).  25% feel lonely (boys 20%, girls 32%) and 24% feel upset (boys 20%, girls 28%).

The study adds to the growing evidence of negative impact that "social media", online games and cellphones have on us. The very fact that hardware as well as software is addictive by design because their business model depends on it needs to take center stage of media literacy workshops. The fact that more than half of the interviewed teenager agree that they spend too much time on their phones versus roughly a third of adults correlates with my observations during various media literacy workshops with students as well as parents. While teens are increasingly smart with their phones and also understand the underlying technology, parents often lack the necessary technological know-how. This knowledge gap then gets filled with fear or overreaction (helicopter parents, draconian censorship etc.) instead of a constructive conversation. When parent's life experiences is exchanged with teens tech expertise in transparent manner, media literacy for old and young is created.