Too much screen time symptoms and their effects

We're going to cover all your questions; What's the effects of too much screen time symptoms? What's the the recommended screen time for teenager? What's the average screen time for adults? We'll answer all those and more here in this blog. We'll give you our version of some solutions and ideas to limit certain types of screen time, stop procrastinating and in turn, get active. This is not a point-the-finger-and-judge article, it's simply a resource of facts, stats and ideas to help you make your own decisions on screen time. We all lead very different lives, it would be unfair of anyone to tell you what's right and wrong, so we certainly won't be.

We are going to answer some of the following popular questions about screen time too, based on research, statistics and speaking to real people, our members, and give you our take on them:

• What's the recommended screen time for children?

• What to look out for the regarding too much screen time symptoms?

• What are the negative effects of screen time adults suffer?

• What are the 10 reasons why screen time is bad?

• What are the positive effects of screen time?

• What's the recommended screen time for teenager?

• What is screen time on iPhone?

• What is the average screen time for adults statistically?

• What are the effects of too much screen time for adults?

• What's the recommended screen time for 13 year old? Or other ages?

• What's the best apps to limit screen time iOS?

Not only will we answer your questions, we'll give you helpful guidance on ways to stay focused, guides on how to check screen time on iOS and even limit it, and recommend books, gurus and other external sources of help we've found.

We are of course a street dance school, so this blog post wouldn't be a true Hip Hop Pop post without some dancing! We've created a new online concept video especially for the subject and we've suitably named it 'Screen Time'. You can find more information on the video and the video itself at the bottom of this blog post.

What sparked the idea for this post about 'Screen Time"?

The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown had placed enormous focus on how we use our smart devices. The heaviest shift in reasons for use include education, staying in touch with loved ones and using them as a 'supposed' remedy to boredom.

As a dance company we've noticed a real divide in motivation for using our live-streamed-services compared to pre-lockdown in-studio sessions and a big shift-up in parents concern for their children's mental wellbeing

These noticeable changes drew us to look at the subject of screen time and associated motivation and mental health in greater detail, we are sharing our finding with you in this post.

What is Screen Time?

Screen time is the time spent using devices with display screens, such as smart phones, computers, TV and video game consoles. Any time your attention is placed on such devices you're clocking up screen time.

Studies show how screen time can directly impact children's development, physical and mental health. These effects are proven to directly correlate to the content, context and length of exposure on these devices. We're also going to look at the effects of too much screen time for adults. However, screen time can be utilised for positive rewards too, contrary to popular opinion, there are positive effects of screen time for children, and positive effects of screen time for adults too. There are many conflicting opinions all over the net, here's our take on it all, let's look at both sides of that coin:

First let's look at our why screen time is perceived to be bad, including the negative effects of screen time adults and kids should consider

Top 10 reasons why screen time is bad:

1. Screen time can be bad for your physical health

2. Your sleep is affected

3. It weakens communication skills

4. Screen time can cause inattention in later life

5. Screen time can cause poor memory

6. Screen time is linked to poor self esteem and depression

7. Too much screen time can cause computer vision syndrome

8. Procrastination and lack of productivity

9. Screen time can equal anti-social behaviour

10. Screen time can change to shape of your brains cortex

Read on for further detail...

1. Screen Time can be bad for your physical health

We're saying 'can be', because we're not talking here about Zoom dance classes, or Instagram live Yoga sessions, we're talking stationary device uses; watching the TV, playing a video game, scrolling the gram, these are sedentary activities and require next to no physical exertion. This directly affects fitness levels and in turn puts your body at more risk of fitness related illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes, therefore number 1 on our list is one of the most detrimental negative effects of screen time adults and kids alike may suffer in our opinion.

2. Your sleep is affected

Using your phone before you go to bed or in bed means not only have you wasted valuable sleep time scrolling, but it statistically takes 10 minutes longer to get off to sleep after looking at a light emitting screen such as your phone. Not only that, it messes with your Circadian Rhythm - The cycle that tells the body when to sleep, by suppressing the release of melatonin that controls that Circadian Rhythm.

3. It weakens communication and social skills

'Viewer Passivity' is a natural result of most screen time uses. It's one of the key drivers behind the weakened communication and social skills. 'Viewer passivity' is where images and suggestions are implanted into our minds without the need for our participation such as watching TV, which inhibits and suppressed our natural capability to communicate. Even background TV reduces interaction:

A recent study found parents say about 200 words or less to their children in an hour if the TV is on compared to the 1000 words an hour if the TV is off. - Mindd Foundation

4. Screen time can cause Inattention in later life

Studies show that if young children are exposed to rapid image changes such as those on most TV shows today, they would most likely find real-time events in ordinary life, such as a teacher discussing subjects in front of them, dull, slow, or boring. This triggers them to talk and disturb their classmates for example. The stimulation from rapid images pre-conditions the mind to expect high levels of stimulation in every day life interactions, thus causing inattention.

5. Screen time can cause poor memory and linguistic delays in young children

Research indicates that excessive screen time is associated with linguistic delays and poor memory performance in young children. Young children learn key communication skills by watching and emulating the facial expressions, body movements and tone of voice of people. Watching people on TV just doesn’t have the same impact, they need real life lessons in communication simply by watching us adults communicate. Now the questions: 'what's the recommended screen time for children' or 'what's the recommended screen time for adults', feel redundant when you consider them in the context of these effects here in point 5 of our 'top ten reasons why screen time is bad' list. How much time do we spend not communicating at all, and therefore not teaching? What a responsibility we're not appreciating. Food for thought.<