For screen time, is it quality over quantity?
There’s more and more academic literature becoming available on how the digital age, the internet and social media influence our health and well-being. What’s less clear however is how these potentially impact the mind itself, such as memory processes and social cognition. According to a major report published in the journal ‘World Psychiatry’(opens in new window), what we’re looking at has more of an impact on our health and well-being than the duration of exposure. An international research team carried out a large-scale examination of the latest scientific data on screen time and mental health. It also expanded on a 2019 study(opens in new window) about how the internet can impact mental, cognitive and social health.
Not all screen time is created equal
The report goes beyond general trends and approaches to how the internet influences mental health, cognition and social functioning. “Take two scenarios: In the first, a young person is accruing a total of four hours per day online, through constantly engaging with distracting notifications whenever they appear on screen, and then scrolling endless streams of short-form media which can be algorithmically geared towards their vices or insecurities. This could result in reduced concentration on important tasks, or cause body image issues or low self-esteem,” explained co-author Lee Smith, professor of public health at the United Kingdom’s Anglia Ruskin University, in a news release(opens in new window). “In the second scenario, there is an older adult spending the exact same four hours per day online, but instead using this time to foster new social relationships and access educational content, providing benefits for their wellbeing and even brain functioning. Here, we can see very different outcomes arise from the exact same amount of time spent online.”
Digital wellness
Evidence is growing of digital media’s effect on social functioning and brain health. This research can be used to develop more concrete guidelines and strategies to help people get the most out of the benefits while minimising the risks of time spent online. “Right now, lots of the guidelines and recommendations around internet usage have focused on limiting the amount of time we spend online,” added senior author Dr Josh A. Firth from the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. “While there is common sense in reducing our digital device usage to ensure time for healthy ‘real world’ activities, we are now able to describe how the consequences of our digital device usage are determined by things far beyond just time spent online.” Prof. Smith concluded: “Through drawing together the latest evidence from neuroscience, populational health and psychological studies, this report is able to describe how the positive or negative effects of internet usage for an individual can be influenced by simple things like age and sociodemographic status, along with complex factors around the actual nature of individuals’ ‘online lives’.”