The use of screens has become the great debate of the 21st century, because many parents and experts are concerned about how it affects the developing brains of children and adolescents of a species that has evolved in society. As old as their children are, parents are always concerned about their happiness and it is not very clear how the use of smartphones influences that happiness. Experts have investigated and found that teenagers who spend little time between screens are happier than those who spend a lot of time. What is the limit of screen time for teens, when should we put controls, how much is enough? It is the fundamental responsibility of the parents.
They have educated us to feed us, but they have not educated us for new technologies. The children are digital natives and we are digital immigrants. Therefore, we must understand that there is a gap to overcome with education. The consumption of screens not only causes an increase in unhappiness, but also leads to a reduction in the number of hours of sleep, which in turn causes a lack of concentration, poor grades at school and leads to disappointed and ill-tempered adolescents to take refuge in social networks.
That is why it is important to have studies like this that induce society to realize the danger of socializing only digitally. This study finds a correlation between the happiness of adolescents and the amount of screen and screen activities they do. Among the screen activities include: Internet, social networks, all kinds of text messages, video games and videochats. Non-screen activities include: sports, interpersonal interaction, religious services, print media and homework.
The correlation is positive for activities without screen and negative for screen activities. What is clear is that less happy teenagers are those who consume more than twenty hours of screens a week. And the happiest are those who are above average in face-to-face interaction and below in the use of social networks. Of course, the use of screens is difficult to limit, especially since schools have started using tablets instead of books and require their students to do part of their homework online.
Lina Mark is the Partner and Editor-In-Chief at Keulj.us. She loves technology and is always hooked on new technology in the market. You will often find her browsing the web for interesting content (mostly sci-fi and tech). She is addicted to movies (mainly action) and loves to read interesting books every once in a while.
