this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2024
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By “screen time” the article seems to assume the only thing they’re doing on their screens is social media. I had to check as if it was really just screens for more than 4hrs, that’s an interesting stat I hadn’t heard, but could make some sense. However, that’s not it. So doing things like content creation (drawing, writing, photography) reading or learning, aren’t counted in this study.
I'd be curious to know the relation between that and simply watching the news. Maybe it's not social media, or screen time, but simply being aware of the state of everything that is linked to anxiety and depression.
That's a big point that also usually isn't really distinguished in all these studies, especially the ones about children and screen time.
I feel there are differences between just watching cartoons and playing some involving game.
Also, just walking by a TV that's on is also screen time, or not? Is the TV running in the background at home screen time when you only look at it 5 minutes here and there?
I'd be happy if those studies would clearly state, 4 hours social media per day is bad. Or 4 hours watching TV with at least 30 minutes long sessions is bad. Stuff like that.
Exactly
Also, the key word in these type of studies is "linked", which means that's only a correlation, with no proof of causality.
The way it's written, it makes you think that the screen time causes anxiety and depression, but there are other studies that suggest the causality goes in the other direction, kids that suffer from depression tend to spend more time in social media.
And that seems to be the general consensus on the term screen time. Most of the time they only assume social media on a mobile phone specifically, leaving out TVs, game consoles or even desktop PCs or Laptops. And by they I mean journalists, content creators themselves and of course scientists who release studies. It's very ironic because all of those groups accumulated screen time to release their findings.