M E G A N J I M E N E Z
The Ripples Publication
In 2017, a study linking depression and suicide rates to increased media screen time was published and since then has only reinforced the worries that came with the rise of technology. However, a much recent study published last January 2019 counters this idea with results reporting the weak relationship between adolescents’ mental health and their time in front of a screen. With conflicting conclusions from past researches, the question calls to be raised once again now in 2020 while we are facing a pandemic that has most of us confined to our homes with only technology to entertain us. Never has the question been more relevant than it is now.
Before we are able to talk facts, it is worth breaking down on a few points and misconceptions about screen time.
Stephanie Pappas writes in her article What do we really know about kids and screens (2020) that many of the studies indicating the negative effect of spending too much time in front of the screen tend to lump together all kinds of screen time. For instance, the time spent reading informative articles (like this one) is considered all the same as time spent playing idle mobile games. In the same article, it is also stated that studies based on the relationship between screen time and problems like anxiety and low self-esteem have often come up with mixed results, data being too weak for anything to be definitive. If there is a notable correlation, often there are other factors that are more prominent in their effects on mental health, such as sleep, physical activity, eating, bullying, and poverty which are more likely to be the cause of such negative impact.
So how do we draw the line when information overstated by the media is not what it seems?
Notably, physician Pierre-André Michaud of the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine in Lausanne, Switzerland had noted a U-shaped relationship between internet use and adolescent mental and physical health. A U-shaped relationship would mean that the relationship is first decreasing and then increasing, or vice versa indicating that the middle area would either be the lowest or highest point of the graph. In this case, this implies that a moderate amount of screen time is much better suited for adolescents than too much or none at all as the negative effects on their mental health are lower within that area.
Thus, the effects of screen time should not be treated as simply black and white where any screen time is bad. According to pediatrician and emeritus professor Victor Strasburger of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, “a lot depends on how kids are using the media, how much their parents are monitoring their use, how much time they’re spending and what exactly they’re watching and using.” This means that time spent on screen is not the only factor to take into account but also the quality of that spent time and the moderation or guidance of parents when it comes to such.
Knowing this, it is easy to conclude that parents should be free to regulate and discuss allowable screen time with their children. So it is worth noting that there are existing suggestions for screen time such as those of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in 2016 and the World Health Organization (WHO) who both advised children from ages 2-5 screen time up to only an hour, while AAP advised those ages 11-13, along with teens and adults, to have only up to two hours per day- about the duration of a full-length movie. However, the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) states that the times decided were based on lowering the risk rather than factoring in the potential benefits of screen use.
Screen time should also neither interfere nor conflict with children's sleep or exercise habits which are commonly what excessive screen time takes away from them. In numerous studies, it was consistently found that the best mental health and cognitive outcomes in teens come from those who do one hour of physical activity each day, sleep eight to 10 hours a day, and have a screen time of fewer than two hours a day. Though meeting all three recommendations are ideal and generally presents the best health outcome for adolescents, admittedly it is hard to accomplish in these pandemic-inflicted days.
Even before the COVID-19 lockdown, regulating screen time has always been an issue. A census conducted in 2019 by Common Sense Media, a non-profit organization that promotes safe technology and media for children, revealed that 8 to 12-year-old children in the United States turn to finding entertainment on digital screens for an average of 4 hours, 44 minutes per day while 13 to 18-year-old teens are in front of screens at an average of 7 hours and 22 minutes each day.
The times have changed from 2016 to 2019, and more so in 2020. The recommended duration might still be two hours, but we can’t ignore that – in this pandemic especially – we have an abundance of hours stuck at home. Thus, when it comes to education via online calls and discussions, it is a stretch to apply the same recommendation by the AAP to the digital education system, resizing daily lesson plans to fit only two hours of screen time when we have much more available time seems like a forfeit of maximizing opportunity. For educators, trying to adjust teaching styles to better suit online education is already a feat within itself; what more in trying to scrunch up to eight subjects in a day to fit within such a short time frame?
It is because of this difficulty on the teachers’ side that the responsibility of making sure that screen time is well spent and regulated falls mostly on the shoulders of the parents sitting on the other side of that screen, at home with their children. Especially when introducing technology to younger infants or toddlers, special attention should be given; as such, co-viewing or simply accompanying them helps in combating the possible downsides of extended screen time engagements.
A 2019 advisory from the RCPCH recommended the amount of time a child or young person spends on devices should be tailored fit to suit the individual, taking into context both educational and recreational needs.
Overall, it is important to understand that when it comes to a field as vast and varied as screen time, it is not always about how much time they spend on screen but how well they manage it. As long as screen time is well-moderated, ensuring that users are being efficient and responsible, how long you spend on it will only ever matter once you either start losing sleep, skipping meals, and/or missing physical activities.
In conclusion, the answer to ‘How much screen time is too much?’ is ‘It depends.’ Every person and child has their own needs to be met and simply being equipped with this knowledge allows people to explore their own limits and find their own comfort zone. So the question suddenly is not all about what the researchers have to say for them, but it’s what the people have to say for themselves.
Graphic: Katrina Angela Pangilinan
References:
Pappas, S. (2020, April 1). What do we really know about kids and screens? Retrieved June 25, 2020, from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2020/04/cover-kids-screens
Hu, J. (2020, March 10). Why It's Hard to Know What Problems Screen Time Causes. Retrieved June 25, 2020, from https://slate.com/technology/2020/03/screen-time-research- correlation-causation.html
Ashton, J.J., Beattie, R.M. (2019, March 7). Screen time in children and adolescents: is there evidence to guide parents and policy? Retrieved June 27, 2020, from https://www.the lancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(19)30062-8/fulltext#back-bib3
Conversation, T. (2020, January 16). Screen Time: Conclusions About the Effects of Digital Media Are Often Incomplete, Irrelevant, or Wrong. Retrieved June 24, 2020, from https://www.snopes.com/news/2020/01/16/screen-time-effects-on-humans/
Jacobo, J. (2019, October 30). Teens spend more than 7 hours on screens for entertainment a day: Report. Retrieved June 25, 2020, from https://abcnews.go.com/US/teens-spend- hours-screens-entertainment-day-report/story?id=66607555
Sparks, S. (2020, March 23). New Warnings on Screen Time, as Students Nationwide Move to E-Learning. Retrieved June 26, 2020, from https://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside- school-research/2020/03/new_warnings_on_screen_time_language_delays.html
Siegel, R. (2019, October 29). Tweens, teens and screens: The average time kids spend watching online videos has doubled in 4 years. Retrieved June 26, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/10/29/survey-average-time- young-people-spend-watching-videos-mostly-youtube-has-doubled-since/
Viner, R. et. al. (2019). The health impacts of screen time: a guide for clinicians and parents. Retrieved June 23, 2020, from https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2018-12/rcpch _screen_time_guide_-_final.pdf
Orben, A., Przybylski, A.K. (2019, January 14). The association between adolescent well-being and digital technology use. Nat Hum Behav 3, 173–182. Retrieved July 11, 2020, from https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-018-0506-1
Twenge, J. M. et. al. (2017, November 14). Increases in Depressive Symptoms, Suicide-Related Outcomes, and Suicide Rates Among U.S. Adolescents After 2010 and Links to Increased New Media Screen Time - Jean M. Twenge, Thomas E. Joiner, Megan L. Rogers, Gabrielle N. Martin, 2018. Retrieved July 11, 2020, from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2167702617723376
Rideout, V., Robb, M. B. (2019). The Common Sense census: Media use by tweens and teens, 2019. San Francisco, CA: Common Sense Media