The Screen Time Effect

As a college student with only one more semester till graduation it is almost needless to say that I am in front of a screen for a significant portion of my day. With only high-level major courses left, I am constantly reading articles, writing essays, and watching various YouTube videos depicting our current topic of study. I would guess a good 3 to 5 hours are spent on my laptop daily doing homework, if not more depending on the assignment.

This of course doesn’t take into account the hour of watching Snap Chat and YouTube videos of cute animals in the morning before getting out of bed, or the time I spend playing video games or watching the latest episode of The Great British Baking Show. Instead of educating I used these screens to entertain and distract, wasting a good 4 or 5 hours, probably not fantastic for my health.

Screens are everywhere, they clutter our lives, shoved in front of our noses, for work, for play, shopping, or to order food from our favorite restaurants. These screens aren’t likely to go away any time soon, not with the constant development of new technology. These screens can do a lot of good and are very helpful in many parts of life, but when is it too much? How are they effecting you? How are they effecting your family?

The two demographics I looked at were children and young adults. My findings were overwhelmingly negative, but with what I’ve seen in myself and those around me, it wasn’t very surprising. A lot of mental health and behavioral problems, in both children and adults.

Effects on Children

 On average, a household in the U.S. has 10 electronic media devices; phones, TVs, tablets, laptops, etc. and kids have access to at least 4 of these devices. High level access can mean high level viewing which in turn can bring about lots of behavior issues like hyperactivity or conduct problems. I feel like this knowledge is more commonplace, but did you know that high levels of app use can cause developmental problems.

There was research done with 185 children in 2019 that found when kids between 3 and 5 specifically used apps for more than 30 minutes a day showed developmental problems. They saw latent development in their ability to control their impulses, self-regulation. They get so used to the instant gratification and dopamine boost from their screens that being able to wait for rewards and control the behaviors tied to receiving rewards gets very difficult.

When this part of the brain isn’t developed properly there can be problems with a kids readiness for school, their performance in school, they make riskier life choices, and don’t develop as well psychologically speaking. All in all, it seems limiting the time that your kids spend on apps would be in their best interest.

There might be those of you who believe that your own children shall not turn out this way because they are different from other children. It is my duty to then teach you about a term in psychology called personal fable. A term that’s usually applied to teens but can continue into adult life. This is basically believing that you are so special and unique, that things don’t apply to you the same way they apply to other people. Food for thought.

            So, screen time effects children when they interact with it directly, but guess what, a parent’s screen interactions can also affect their child’s behavior. Parents, you are a child’s world, their source of life and its necessities. Screen use by parents can become problematic when it interferes with family routines and times when a child needs parental interaction and attention. One study coined the term “technoference”.

            The technoference of 158 heterosexual couples was studied over about 6 months. When parents noticed their own technoference they also noticed more problematic behavior in their kids; both internal and external. Internal behavior were things like whining, sulking, and getting their feelings easily hurt. External behavior included can’t sit still, restless, hyperactivity, easily frustrated, and temper tantrums or hot temper. My giving of this information isn’t to tell parents to never use technology and I know some use it as a means of destressing, it would just be in the best interest of all to use judiciously.

Effects on Adults

Above I aired out some of the dirty laundry concerning my own screen time and it not being very good for my health. One way I have seen it be detrimental to my health is in the form of depression, so it wasn’t any surprise when I found research connecting screen time and increased depressive symptoms. According to one study about 9% of the population of the United States suffers from depression and a large part is due to a sedentary life style. Time spent in front of a computer at the office, in front of a TV at home, and smart phones in front of noses multiple times throughout the day.

            Another effect that has been researched that I found very interesting was the association between screen time, specifically video games, and decreased empathy. Both how emotions affect individuals and how they perceive them in others. When dividing by sex it was found that there was more of an impact on females in both cognitive and affective empathy. Males only showed an effect on their cognitive empathy.

Empathy is a very important part of being able to connect and understand others. I know video games can be an escape from reality and can give our brains a shot of dopamine when life feels gray, but we need people, we need empathy.

Bottom Line

Take time away from your screens, schedule it into your day, that’s one of my goals. Find something you enjoy away from a screen; go for a walk, read a book, go to the gym, spend time with family or friends screen free. I usually escape from screens by exercising, I love to tap dance and try to do it as often as I can.  And when it comes to your family, being a good example can do wonders, but perhaps also creating family rules about screen time could help. Try including your kids in the process. Do what works for you.

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References

Carrier, L. M., Spradlin, A., Bunce, J. P., & Rosen, L. D. (2015). Virtual empathy: Positive and negative impacts of going online upon empathy in young adults. Computers in Human Behavior, 52, 39–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.05.026

  Madhav, K. C., Sherchand, S. P., & Sherchan, S. (2017). Association between screen time and depression among US adults. Preventive Medicine Reports, 8, 67-71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2017.08.005

McDaniel, B. T., & Radesky, J. S. (2018). Technoference: Parent distraction with technology and associations with child behavior problems. Child Development, (1), 100. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12822

McNeill, J., Howard, S. J., Vella, S. A., & Cliff, D. P. (2019). Longitudinal associations of electronic application use and media program viewing with cognitive and psychosocial development in preschoolers. Academic Pediatrics, 19(5), 520-528. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2019.02.010