Communications Major

A new study reports cell phones may be making us hypersocial, rather than antisocial as previous research suggests.

Steps to regain control over smartphone addictions :

• Relax and celebrate the fact your addiction reflects a normal urge to connect with others!
• Turn off push notifications and set appropriate times to check your phone intentionally.
• Create “intentional protocols” with friends, family and work circles to set clear expectations on when to communicate.

Amid an opioid epidemic, the rise of deadly synthetic drugs and the widening legalization 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, including alcohol.

With minor fits and starts, the trend has been building for a decade, with no clear understanding as to why. Some experts theorize that falling cigarette-smoking rates are cutting into a key gateway to drugs, or that antidrug education campaigns, long a largely failed enterprise, 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 and entertained by their computers and phones?