Technically Speaking: Psychology of Screen-Time
According to parents, everything that has ever gone wrong is because of the amount of time the child has spent on a phone.
Coming down with a cold?
“It’s because you’re always on your phone.”
House burning to the ground?
“It’s because you’re always on your phone.”
Feeling excessively moody, anxious, or impatient; isolating oneself and feeling a sense of loss or fear if separated from a computer device?
Alright, that one is actually because of the phone.
Youth’s dependency on phones has been compared to addiction a fair amount of times, enough that the collation of these two concepts is exhausting for many tech users to hear. But are these comparisons really so far-fetched? According to multiple studies, not at all.
Starting with true youth, toddlers and below, too much screen time can have detrimental results. It decreases the amount of interaction between parent and child, reducing one of their primary sources to learn expression, tone, and word choice. It also is shown to impact a child’s ability to pay attention, as well as the child’s ability to fall asleep.
Regarding the true victims in the spotlight here, though, teenagers, it gets worse. The flashing screens and splitting sound from technology can cause hyper-arousal in the child’s brain, causing a myriad of negative results. This arousal of the brain really can cause irritability, mood swings, troubles with empathy, and academic/social issues. This is because, in this situation, the frontal lobe of the brain is subdued.
The frontal lobe is key in the following (source):
- emotional expression
- problem-solving
- memory
- language
- judgment
The source furthermore states the frontal lobe is essentially the “control panel” of a human’s actions. If a child’s ability to self-express, problem-solve, and correctly judge situations are impaired, it would inevitably lead to several negative consequences… all of which have been noted by concerned parents. It’s not just the older generations being upset because they can’t work a microwave, it’s borne out of true concern and notice over negative personality changes.
In this case, there is a simple solution: limit screen time. It sounds easier said than done, of course, but it will be better in the long run. The amount of dopamine released when on electronics is similar to cocaine, and this addictive tendency can act as a gateway to future bad habits and lack of self-control. Screen-time reduction also reduces the chances of obesity and can help children get more sleep.
But, of course, this responsibility lies not only in the hands of the adults (for they can only lead a horse to water,) but in the hands of the addicted teenager as well. It is their choice at the end of the day whether or not to pursue these mentally unhealthy habits, with fatty-acid strings attached.
It is the child’s choice for the future they wish to take: to take advantage of the wonderful gifts technology can give, or be sucked into addiction and sink below the tide.
