You and That Thing!? - June 2021
Social Media Day
30th June 2021
These familiar shoutouts down the hallways of homes all over the world echo into the distance as the beautiful (but unseen) sun sets on yet another technology filled day. Outside darkness falls and when sleep finally comes do you ever dream about a screen?
We hope you don’t, but recent evidence suggests that if our minds are overrun with screen time that you might. Jayne Gackenbach PhD a researcher with a focus on gaming and dreaming, whose son, also happens to be a hard-core gamer and writer, tells us what you’re doing on the screen can change your dreams and your nightmares too. Scary stuff!
Just how much time we are spending on, and indirectly surrounded by, screens is scary. They are everywhere. The Royal Children’s Hospitals Health poll reveals excessive screen time is the #1 health concern for parents in 2021. So, if the problem is right up there at the top, surely we’ve got to get to the bottom of it, and do something about it!
So, what are the recommendations?
What are the risks?
How can we take action?
What are the recommendations?
They are simple, and it’s best to keep them that way. This is what we should be aiming for:
Australian screen time guidelines:
If you are under 2 years old you should have ZERO hours a day.
Zip. Zilch. Nothing.
2 – 5 years old you should have less than ONE hour per day. Just one hour.
That is just: Playschool; Bluey; Sesame Street and a quick Song with Justine Clarke.
That is it for the whole day.
If you are all the way from 5 – 17 years old you should have less than TWO hours per day.
Think seriously about how quickly we get there.
The tips for adults are ‘to minimise screen time outside of work’. Is this enough?
The problem is we are not all that grown-up about our screen use and we could probably use some firmer limits. It’s getting harder to distinguish work from leisure use these days.
What are the risks if we exceed the recommendations?
The following points serve as just a little food for thought…
The internet may be altering cognition and the parts of our brains that control higher thinking, Dr Joseph Firth (and team) suggest this includes: attention; concentration; memory processes and social cognition.
Studies reveal links between social media addiction and engaging in cyberbullying.
More hours spent with screen use can impact language development in children.
Screens can zap imagination and steal our greatest ideas.
Evidence suggests increased screen time can also lead to lower physical activity and increased food consumption. Not a good combo.
Sedentary lifestyle overall leads to a higher risk of chronic illness, and it doesn’t seem to matter if you are somewhat physically active or not.
Screens that emit blue light at any time change the human body clock. From 5pm on this light can upset your natural clock enough to cause significant sleep problems, especially in children.
You may literally lose sight of the amazing things further away from you, and need to wear glasses.
How can we take action?
First, parents, no apologies, you have to start by flipping the screen on yourself…
Recent Australian surveys suggest your kids are watching you check your phone up to 85 times a day. Children know how important that thing is to you too.
Check in with ‘your number’. If your phone tells you at the end of the week you’re spending 2 hours a day on your phone ‘your number’ is 30 days a year.
With the impact of that figure fresh in your mind, we need to change what we do with all screens and how we use them with our children. To really get an idea of how much time is being sucked up by screens over a week make it your business to keep a screen time chart that includes EVERYONE. From here the changes needed will probably stand out. Then:
Put physical activity at the top of the priorities list. Exercise is good for bodies and brain.
Switch screen time for green time. Just get outside more and stay outside for longer.
Use a lockbox or charge box and put all devices away at a set time EVERY DAY.
Keep bedrooms as a sanctuary for sleep. No screens at all allowed, in anyone’s room.
Print out lists of ideas, like 42 To Do’s and Holiday Survival Tips…and get busy doing other things.
Rethink passive and active consumption:
Become informed about what is quality content.
Children’s media expert, Sara DeWitt, informs us that talking to children and engaging with them about the content they are absorbing is the critical key to changing technology use from negative to positive, while also ‘raising our expectations’ for what the technology is delivering to us and our children.
Technology is not going away, and the inspired and life-changing things that will stem from the technological advances we have not seen yet will astound us all. Digital champion, Linda Liuka, speaks about educating ‘problem-solving kids [who are] optimistic and brave about technology and use it to create a new world that is wonderful’.
Should these tips have you thinking more about technology and the brain health of your Family, The Perth Brain Centre is available to help. You can watch, read, call or email, to find out more today.
About the author - Ms. Emily Goss (Occupational Therapist, Senior Clinician, The Perth Brain Centre).
