Summary
Teen drug, alcohol, and tobacco use in the U.S. continues to decline, with record-low usage levels reported in 2023, according to the University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future survey.
Among 12th graders, 66% reported no recent use of alcohol, marijuana, cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, while 80% of 10th graders and 90% of 8th graders avoided these substances entirely.
Experts attribute the decline partly to reduced peer pressure during the pandemic.
However, nicotine pouch use has doubled among 12th graders, raising concerns.
Despite pop culture’s glamorization of smoking, teen cigarette use remains low.
I’m 41, and my cousin has young teens. I asked “Do kids today even play video games?”
And she said “Not in the way you would think. It’s not about playstation or nintendo. It’s about cell phones and tablets.”
Which made me sad. App gaming is laaaaaame.
I hope that’s just your experience - being relegated to mobile games would be sad. I mean I’m addicted too but I recognize they’re just a time and attention waster.
My older teens are pretty avid gamers as are their friends. One of them started a gaming club at his school! They’re such great kids they sometimes let their Mom or me join a party, and they don’t laugh too hard. But seriously, that’s how they socialize ever since COViD. They’ll spend the entire night in a group chat, listening to music, sometimes teaming up sometimes not, just playing video games and spending time with friends. It works
So bad. It can’t be very good for developing brains either… Video games can be great for developing things like motor functioning and abstract reasoning, and so much of that is lost with the mindlessness of mobile gaming.
desktops/laptops, ps5, and Xbox all use apps.
This must be why “there’s an app for that” is a phrase that’s been around forever and has nothing to do with the proliferation of mobile devices, i.e. iPhone.
I think he meant mobile gaming, like angry birbs and raid shadow candy crunch.