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Annabelle Thomas

Professor Hellmers

English 1201 Online

3 Feb. 2019

Summary of “Are Teenagers Replacing Drugs With Smartphones?”

Matt Richtel’s article in The New York Times, “Are Teenagers Replacing Drugs With

Smartphones?” explores the possible connection between decreased drug use and increased

technology use in teens. Throughout the article, Richtel provides evidence from studies that

show the declining use of drugs among teens in the past ten years. The age group of teens 12-17

years old provides the most promising data for this subject. The use of all drugs, besides

marijuana, has substantially declined in the past decade among this age group. Furthermore, the

use of marijuana has remained consistent to previous studies, showing the use has neither

increased nor decreased. However, Richtel explains that researchers believe this decreased use of

drugs could be a combination of other variables that deter drug use, such as becoming more

aware of the effects of the opioid epidemic or public campaigns aimed at combatting drug use.

As the article emphasizes, the declining use of drugs appears to be promising, but is this an

improvement if teens replace their addiction with another substance?

In the past decade, technology, specifically smartphones have become available to nearly

anyone. However, researchers are unsure if this explosion of technology is an improvement in

society. Richtel, along with other experts, theorize that smartphones, video games, and social

media can have an addictive effect on the brain, similar to consistent drug use. Richtel states that

various teens have identified their cell phone use as excessive and is what they turn to when
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bored or disinterested in the subjects at hand. Due to the lack of studies and research on

smartphones, however, researchers cannot confirm these suspicions.

Despite the uncertainty of the correlation between drug use and smart phones, researchers

still believe cell phones could very possibly possess addictive properties. With more teens

increasing their cell phone use, it is possible that they lose interest in drugs, further decreasing

the national statistics of drug use. Overall, Richtel states that although the decline in drug use is a

positive development, researchers do not know the full effects of cell phones or the long-term

addictive effects they have on teens.

Works Cited

Richtel, Matt. “Are Teenagers Replacing Drugs With Smartphones?” The New York Times, The

New York Times, 13 Mar. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/03/13/health/teenagers-drugs-

smartphones.html.