Generation z and the 24-hour connection: influences of the internet on contemporary teenagers

Abstract

Objectives: Understanding the influences of the Internet on the psychic, behavioral and socio-cultural aspects of everyday life of adolescents.

Methods: This is a systematic review, based on PRISMA. The search for the articles took place in February 2020, in LILACS, SciELO, ScienceDirect and MEDLINE, using the descriptors: Internet, Adolescents, Virtual Reality and Technologies, combined through the Boolean operators AND and OR. The selection followed the following steps: exclusion for not presenting a relation with the theme, reading of the titles, duplicates, abstracts, objectives and full analysis. A total of 2,167 studies were identified and 28 contemplated the inclusion criteria.

Results: Influences on the behavior of adolescents, internet users, generating dependence, violence, aggressiveness and suicide risk can be identified. In relation to the psychic dimension, the intensive use of the Internet brings anxiety, depression or anguish. In the socio-cultural aspect, there is a susceptibility to social isolation, because they feel supported in the virtual environment.

Conclusion: There is a need to study this subject further, valuing the various influences that affect adolescents in the use of the Internet, in order to subsidize interventions by health professionals.