Submission statement: The role of screens and digital presence in the youth mental health crisis seems to be an ever hotter topic all around the globe. Advocates like academic psychologist Jonathan Haidt have proposed strict regulations by the state and parents, but while support seems high, few such policies have actually been implemented.
Summary: A child psychiatrist argues that scientific evidence does not support limiting screens.
Posted by SirRousseau
11 Comments
I’m not sure about this one
IDK my generation watched TV the entire day
I remember during summer vacation I would roll out of bed turn on the TV and it wouldn’t be off until probably bed time
I don’t have a fancy degree, but I can see with my own eyes the difference in kids who have a ton of screentime and kids who don’t.
I can also read a simple graph about the dramatic rise in anxiety and depression among kids since 2010. Hmm, I wonder what major societal change happened around then???
I think we may be at risk of making this the “books/comics/TV corrupts our children” populism of our time. We must tread carefully not to rely too much on anecdotal evidence. However, unlike in the case of books, comics, and TV, digitalization and especially social media seems to really have had detrimental effects on youth. It’s clear we need to do something, but I don’t think it’s just as clear what we need to do.
All my ancedotal experience is that screen-in-hand is 1:1 with poor behavior and attention.
Now, I’m perfectly willing to consider that this is a downstream symptom. Maybe it’s a common modern pattern that terrible parents naturally resort to, and the poor behavior is due to the deeper terrible parenting.
But man, it’s so 1:1 that I feel the burden of proof there is huge. And so much at stake that I’d never put a tablet on my own toddlers hand on that chance.
ITT: people who will not counter any of the article’s specific claims (because they haven’t read it) but will claim the whole article is bad because its thesis contradicts their priors
I would like to point out that the sudden, steep rise in adolescent anxiety, depression, and self-harm began almost simultaneously around 2012 across multiple Western nations (the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and parts of Scandinavia). If the crisis were primarily driven by U.S.-specific healthcare funding and insurance failures, we would not expect to see identical spikes in countries with universal healthcare systems (like the U.K.).
Some of the studies referenced in the article:
[The relationship between screen time and mental health in young people](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33798997/)
[Addictive Screen Use Trajectories and Suicidal Behaviors, Suicidal Ideation, and Mental Health in US Youths](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2835481)
Main point (additional sources can be found in the original article):
> The case for screen time limits rests in part on an unproven assumption that fewer hours will mean fewer anxious and depressed kids. The best evidence doesn’t support it. Limiting screen time can promote children’s overall health. But the amount of time children spend on screens has only a small effect on their mental health. Genetics and certain experiences in childhood, as well as the lack of proper diagnosis and treatment, appear to be far more influential. Limiting screen time is not the first line of treatment for children with anxiety or depression.
“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people” ahh take
I grew up watching a lot of TV and playing plenty of video games. I was pretty well-adjusted till I got a smartphone.
It’s kind of like sitting down to have a couple of drinks vs carrying around an open flask at all times
Yeah the flask doesn’t cause the alcohol abuse but carrying it around sure lowers the friction to getting there
>But as a doctor who treats children with mental health problems, I see screen time as a tantalizing distraction from bigger problems: America doesn’t offer enough mental health care for children or sufficient health insurance to pay for it. If we make screens the villain, then we let the people who control children’s health care — Congress, insurers and health systems — off the hook for the fact that half of American children with a treatable mental illness get no treatment at all.
This may be misinterpreting the author’s argument, but unless mental health care was previously more widely available/covered by insurance and utilized, it doesn’t seem like this would account for a rise in depression, anxiety, etc.
It feels like they’re throwing out the baby out with the bathwater on this. Like sure, should they restart the grant to provide more support to school mental health? Yes. Is screen time bad? I also think so.
Truthfully, I don’t know the data on the matter but this is not an issue that stays within national borders.