Teenage Anxiety Report: Analysis of an Article from New York Times

This report analyzes the article "The Big Myth About Teenage Anxiety" by Richard A. Friedman, published in The New York Times. The article addresses the prevalent concern that modern digital technology is causing increased anxiety in teenagers. The report summarizes the article's main argument, which challenges the notion of a widespread anxiety epidemic among teenagers, citing the lack of recent comprehensive surveys and the tendency of self-reported measures to overestimate the prevalence of disorders. It highlights the author's perspective that while technology may be a factor, the core of teenage anxiety stems from other factors like academic and social pressures. The report also references the article's discussion of the normal emotional responses teenagers experience and the need to differentiate between normal reactions and clinically significant syndromes. The report also includes a list of references.

Running Head: TEENAGE ANXIETY
Anxiety in Teenagers
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1TEENAGE ANXIETY
Anxiety in Teenagers
The title of the article is “The Big Myth About Teenage Anxiety”, by Richard A.
Friedman. The article was published in “The New York Times” in September 2018. The main
concept of the article is about the myth that the effect of technology on teenagers that have
developed anxiety in them. The writer has clearly stated that the possibility of the syndrome that
was recorded was taken from a survey that was conducted in the very past. The article reflects
that anxiety is a very normal phenomenon in all the age groups (Opinion, 2020). However, with
the advancement of technology, the parents of the teenagers are concerned and named the liking
of technology as addiction. As stated that the MRI of the brain of the teenagers shows normal
results as anyone would be when something of their choice or liking is presented in front of
them. In this new age, the availability of devices is abundant as compared to earlier times.
Hence, the aggressing of the teenagers towards the use of the devices has also increased. The
author has stated that notion to be being anxious in a teenager is quite normal due to the
increased competition in academics activities, sports and peer pressure (Ollendick et al., 2019).
However, the emotional response to the kids must be treated normally and not some disease or
syndrome which they have acquired from the use of technology. The response to anxiety in
teenagers have appeared to be similar in all and those are deprived of sleep, insomnia, anxious,
irritate and the list goes on.

2TEENAGE ANXIETY
Reference
Opinion | The Big Myth About Teenage Anxiety. (2020). Retrieved 6 February 2020, from
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/opinion/sunday/teenager-anxiety-phones-social-
media.html
Ollendick, T. H., White, S. W., Richey, J., Kim-Spoon, J., Ryan, S. M., Wieckowski, A. T., ... &
Smith, M. (2019). Attention bias modification treatment for adolescents with social
anxiety disorder. Behavior therapy, 50(1), 126-139.