by Tiffany Liu
Since COVID19, many social media platforms have gone viral and become very popular. Apps such as YouTube and Instagram have been around for a while but recently, Tiktok has been bumped up to one of the top used apps, especially amongst the younger children. The app features short videos about anything and everything you can imagine and many “tiktok influencers/content creators” now use this as their main source of income. It is addicting because of the endless scrolling and videos that are presented (Instagram now even has a “reels” feature with similar layout as tiktok). Social media and entertainment on our phones and computers take up quite a bit of our time, but with everything being online, we are glued to our screens. Online classes and work from home has impacted many people within the past years and this has a big effect on our lifestyle in general.
The graph below contains data from the My Health My Community website. We see that 52% of adults within the ages 18-39 use their phones for 2+ hours per day and 46% of those within the ages 40-64 also reported 2+ hours of screen use. There is not a big difference in the amount of people who have 2+ hours of daily screen time between the different age groups. In total, about half the adults aged 18+ living in the metro Vancouver area have over 2 hours of screen time use daily.
In the second and third graphs below, we see that 18% of adults between the ages 18 to 39 have reported having anxiety disorder. This is actually lower than expected because since younger people use their phones more often for things such as social media, there was a higher expectancy for them to have mood or anxiety disorder. We also see that 53% of adults self-reported excellent or very good mental health, 30% reported good mental health, and 18% reported fair or poor mental health. Although 18% compared to 53% is much less, it is still not a very low number. The survey results do not show a direct correlation for screen time and mental health, but many studies have shown that increased screen time may lead to decreased mental health and wellbeing.
A study by Twenge et al. conducted in 2019 studied cohort trends between Baby Boomers, GenX, and Millennials. This study showed that those who were born in 1970s and earlier had better mental health and increased overall life satisfaction (Twenge et al., 2019). This was due to the lack of electronics that they were exposed to. The blue light from screens also effected sleep quality if electronics were used before bedtime. Most of us scroll through our phones one last time before bed, it’s the last thing we see and the first thing we wake up to. These increased sleep disturbances lead to poor psychological health and psychological distress due to the low sleep quality which can then lead to negative mood the next day (Pigeon et al., 2012). Those who find it hard to regulate their mood and emotions also have an increased change of being diagnosed with anxiety and depression (Twenge & Campbell, 2018).
Information regarding screen time usage should become a common and widespread topic. With over 95% of teens having access to a smartphone in the US and over 50% of adults reporting 2+ hours of daily screen usage in Vancouver, it’s hard to ignore questions like how or why this is affecting us mentally (Paulich et al., 2021).
Issues regarding excessive screen time usage has become a relevant research topic recently, as digital media has become quite popular among us, especially within teens and young adults. Although technological advancement has improved our ways of living, it also has negative effects. When scrolling through apps such as TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and so on, we often come across videos or posts talking about how social media has a negative effect on mental health. Due to the high and unrealistic standards we see online, it makes many people feel insecure and out of place in real life. We see so many people living “perfect” lives and that makes us question ourselves, causing many young people to have self-doubt and self-esteem issues. This also leads to anxiety about what the future holds and always feeling one step behind everyone else online.
As “iPad babies” are becoming our newest generation, it is best to track daily screen usage and be mindful of how much scrolling you do. It is best to take breaks in between and maybe get some snacks or even go on a walk. Having balance is the key to maintaining healthy relationships with your electronics.
References
Home. My Health My Community. (n.d.). Retrieved June 6, 2022, from https://myhealthmycommunity.org/explore-results/
Paulich, K. N., Ross, J. M., Lessem, J. M., & Hewitt, J. K. (2021). Screen time and early adolescent mental health, academic, and social outcomes in 9- and 10-year old children: Utilizing the Adolescent Brain Cognitive DevelopmentSM (ABCD) Study. PLoS ONE, 16(9).
Twenge, J., Cooper, A., Joiner, T., Duffy, M., & Binau, S. (2019). Age, period, and cohort trends in mood disorder indicators and suicide- related outcomes in a nationally representative dataset, 2005–2017. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 128(3), 185–199. https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000410.
June 26, 2022 at 10:18 am
Hi Tiffany, I think this is a really important topic as social media is definitely becoming an addiction for a lot of people. I like how you covered a lot of risks associated with too much screen time, especially sleep – this is something I know all too well unfortunately. I know that our research project was mostly risk-related, but it would be cool to look at the potential health benefits associated with screen time. For example, social media helps a lot of people engage and socialize. Young kids can develop their motor skills by playing video games. There is definitely a fine line between a beneficial amount and too much though!