Screen time

Screen time is the amount of time an individual spends in front of an electronic screen, such as that found on a television, computer, gaming console, tablet, or smartphone. Some screen time is often necessary for education and work. However, physicians warn that excessive amounts of screen time can be harmful to one’s health, especially for young children. The harms caused by excessive screen time during early childhood can include attention deficits, language delays, reductions in short-term memory, and disrupted sleep patterns. Furthermore, screen time can reduce children’s physical activity and therefore contribute to weight gain and obesity. In young children, screen time can also contribute to developmental delays in critical social skills, such as making eye contact, and may put them at a higher risk for mood disorders, such as depression or anxiety.

Background

Since the invention of the television, scholars and researchers have been concerned about the potential long-term effects of electronic screens on human psychology and physiology. Health-care providers have suggested that spending too much time in front of a screen could contribute to physical symptoms such as eyestrain. Some of the earliest studies to find a correlation between excessive screen time and obesity were published in the 1980s. Additionally, social and emotional changes have been proposed as a risk of excessive screen time, including distancing oneself from friends, withdrawing from hobbies and physical activities, becoming desensitized to violence, or developing a desire for advertised products. However, research into the potential effects of screen time has been complicated by confounding variables, including the subjects' overall health, socioeconomic status, household stability, and quality of family relationships and friendships.

The increasing prevalence of screens in schools, workplaces, and public spaces has made it difficult to avoid screen use. As screens have become smaller, more portable, and easier to afford, even activities such as going to the park, which used to be screen-free, have become potential sites for screen use.

Overview

The effect of screen time on young children has been fiercely debated among educators, child psychologists, pediatricians, and parents. The use of digital media in the classroom has led to further debates. Some scholars argue that it is critical that children in poorer school districts be given as many opportunities as possible to use new technologies in order to reduce the technology access gap between rich and poor children. However, the quality and benefits of many educational videos and software programs have been called into question. Child psychologists and pediatricians also warn that too much screen time can have negative implications for children’s health and emotional, social, and cognitive development.

For example, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, led by psychologist Yalda T. Uhls, published a 2014 study showing that children who had spent five days at a camp where they had no access to electronic media did substantially better at interpreting the nonverbal emotional cues of others than their peers who had had daily screen time. A study published in Scientific Reports in 2017 by researchers at the University of London found that toddlers lost about fifteen minutes of sleep for each hour of touchscreen use. However, they also found that the fine motor skills of toddlers who used touchscreens daily developed more quickly than those of their peers, reflecting the complexity of the issue. Later studies continued to frequently suggest considerable negative impacts of lengthy screen time, but evidence also mounted that the digital divide had its own serious consequences for society. For instance, a study published in JAMA Pediatrics in 2020 indicated that heavy screen use by preschool-age children was associated with brain structure conditions that could affect the development of language and literary skills. Meanwhile, some researchers began to suggest a new aspect of the digital divide, in which lower-income children actually tended to have higher screen time while more affluent families had greater means to limit screen time and offer more human interaction and other alternatives in child care.

In response to concerns about screen time, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued guidelines advising that children use or view screens for no more than two hours each day. Additionally, the AAP recommended that children younger than eighteen months old should have no screen time, apart from video calls, because of its association with language delays and that children aged two to five years old have no more than one hour of high-quality screen time per day. It defined high-quality media content as "interactive, nonviolent, educational, and pro-social." The AAP also recommended that children watch television or play video games in the company of their parents. In this way, parents can monitor the media that is consumed, ensure compliance with limits, and discuss the content that their children are viewing. Additionally, the AAP suggested that children should not have televisions in their bedrooms and that smartphones, tablets, and other handheld devices be charged overnight outside the bedroom to remove the temptation to use the devices at bedtime.

Rather than utilize screens, the AAP recommends parents and caregivers read books, have conversations, encourage independent play or physical activity, or otherwise engage children without the use of a digital device. The AAP recommends active play as the best way to develop hand-eye coordination, visual perception, and fine motor skills. Face-to-face interactions are crucial because children are more likely to remember information they heard from a live presentation than from a video or audio recording. Furthermore, unstructured playtime offers opportunities for exercising, pretending, practicing motor and communication skills, developing relationships and practicing social skills, and solving problems that cannot be offered by a screen.

Among the many concerns related to screen use is increased exposure to blue light late in the evening, which can disrupt sleep patterns. All animals have circadian rhythms, which signal when to wake and when to sleep. Any artificial light has the potential to disrupt these circadian rhythms. Blue light, which is commonly emitted by the LCD screens of televisions, computers, tablets, and smartphones, particularly disrupts the ability to fall asleep. Long-term sleep deficits are correlated with irritability, problems with attention and concentration, weight gain, and cardiovascular problems. Additionally, researchers believe that exposure to blue light at any time of the day may suppress the sleep hormone melatonin, which is necessary for healthy sleep patterns. To overcome these problems, doctors suggest adults and children avoid the use of electronic devices a few hours before going to bed. Some smartphones and tablets have also added features that enable users to shift the light display to warmer colors during the evening hours.

Although excessive screen time is thought to be particularly harmful at younger ages, adults also face difficulty limiting their screen time use. Remote workers are especially affected, as they use screens both for professional and personal reasons for many hours each day.

A number of technologies and strategies have been developed to help users limit their screen time. For example, several plug-ins for online browsers and applications for smartphones and tablets that time or limit one’s screen time are available for download. These tools can block access to certain applications, websites, or games between certain hours of the day or after a certain amount of time, or may make the device less appealing by changing the color scheme or delaying response to taps and other gestures.

Limits on screen time for both adults and children are strongly encouraged as psychologists are starting to discover the ways that excessive screen time can affect the human body and mind. For example, several studies have shown that internet addiction is correlated with a shrinkage of brain tissue, which results in diminished cognitive skills. High levels of social media use have been linked to feelings of jealousy, inadequacy, and depression. Excessive screen time has also been linked to health problems such as diabetes, obesity, embolism, and hypertension because individuals are frequently sitting for long periods of time instead of being physically active.

Various factors can influence screen time, at both the individual and societal levels. Studies have examined possible correlations of various personal and familial attributes, such as socioeconomic status, racial and ethnic identity, education level, mental-health status, number of children, gender, childcare arrangements, and availability of alternative activities, with screen time tendencies. Another issue that received much attention from both researchers and the media was the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that began in 2020. In the early days of the pandemic—which brought widespread limitations on in-person interactions and many other forms of social engagement—screen time spiked sharply for many people. For example, a study in JAMA Pediatrics published in late 2021 found that average non-school screen time for twelve- to thirteen-year-olds in the United States doubled in 2020 and that screen time tended to be higher for children of color and those in low-income families. While some commentators suggested that recreational activities such as watching movies or television and playing video games were natural reactions to the lockdown conditions of the pandemic and could even help cope with the unique stresses of the time, others warned of negative impacts of higher screen time, such as greater risk of anxiety and depression. At the same time, the increased role of virtual learning and remote work during the pandemic also contributed to increasing screen time for many children and adults alike. Such trends contributed to heightened debate around digital divide issues and the pros and cons of technology use.

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