GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE INDIVIDUAL REPORT

Topic:Digital World

DOES EXCESSIVE SCREEN TIME IMPACT THE MENTAL HEALTH

OF ADOLESCENTS

Introduction
The over reliance of children on screens has given rise to grave worries
regarding public health since it has been observed to harm their cognitive,
linguistic, and social-emotional growth. Screen time can be very beneficial
resulting in better learing however too much of exposure can lead to inadequate
grades and a deteriorating relationship between the adolescent and the people
around them.
Electronic devices have drastically altered learning and communication.
According to a research recently conducted by the National Library of Medicine,
the findings show that excessive screen time may have serious harmful effects on
children over long term, making this an important public concern. It has raised
concern that kids will become obese, experience sleep irregularities and poor
academic performance -can too much screen time

Causes
Parenta5
employment
Parents are repeatedly torn between their role as a parent and and their role at a
workplace.A study done by the National library of Medicine[NIH,Jan 23] focuses
on the association between parental employment and children's screen time.Over
2,977 children from ages 0-17 were used observed for this study.Informal
maternal employment was linked with higher screen time even though formal
maternal employment positively guessed the children’s screen time on both the
weekdays and weekends as compared to the unemployed status.Their kids used
screen more consistently the more hours they worked. Fathers working too much
or not working at all was not relevant.In conclusion parental employment most
importantly maternal have significant affects on excessive screen time in
adolescents.
Peer pressure and excessive screew time
Peer relationship is a vital part of interpersonal relationships, it is formed with the
interaction between the people of similar age and psychological level.A study
was conducted by the Frontiers in Psychology[FP,23] to determine if knowing
one's own self-worth and self-concept may counteract the effects of peer pressure,
as well as the impact of peer pressure on rising teenage phone addiction.The
results showed that peer pressure has a substantial correlation with teenage
smartphone addiction.Self-esteem reduced the detrimental impacts of peer
pressure on mobile social media addiction because those who had higher self-
esteem were less susceptible to its negative consequences. Adolescents with
greater self-esteem were less susceptible to the negative effects of peer pressure
on mobile social media addiction, showing that self-concept clarity buffered this
impact.

THE FEAR OF MISSING OUT

Anxiety such as FOMO can’t be finished by simple distractions.It affects every
action and gives top priority to social media.People engaging themselves in social
media feel less connected to others.People suffering from FOMO on social media
may encounter distractions,anxiety in society,feeing of envy and many
more.Addiction to social media can result from problematic usage of the platform,
which activates the brain's reward regions each time a user receives favorable
feedback on social media. This gives using social media a physical component that
resembles the brain activity of drug addicts.

Consequence
“here is alsσ some evidence that childrew whσ watch a lot of televisiow during the
early elementary schoo5 years perform less wel5 ow reading tests and may show
deficits iw attentiow.”

— Dr. Jennifer Cras

Both the causes lead to the same end result in one way or another.Overuse of
screens can have both immediate and long-term consequences..To much screen
time can lead to to physical changes in the brain. During adolescence, the cortex in
the brain goes through critical development so the screen time can can affect its
growth. A study named Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development(ABCD)
concluded that it was observed that some kids that use screens for more then 7
hours a had a thinner cortex as compared to those who used screens less. Excessive
use of screen time leads to irregular sleeping patterns and that can lead to fatigue
and increased snacking.Increased snacking and lead to obesity which is a result of
both sitting at one place and mindlessly scrolling and snacking or being influenced
by the dozen of ads shown on different platforms about food.Being on screens all
day and not doing any physical activities also lead to obesity. Adolescents
especially those under the age of 3 are developing rapidlyYoung children pick up
knowledge from their surroundings, by seeing and copying the people in their
immediate vicinity. Overexposure to screens can cause a youngster to develop
tunnel vision which can harm their eyesight and make it difficult for them to
participate in normal everyday activities.New York Presbyterian-Health Matters
state that kids with ages under 2 learn way less from videos then when interacting
with others.One of the cause I highlighted was FOMO.Social Media Victims Law
Centre provided with points for parents to help combat this issue stating that for
kids to work on self esteem,use offline activities as a distraction,manage
expectations,ask them how they would help a friend in the same situation

National Perspective
Pakistan is no exception to this global issue. The statistical evidence on the
excessive usage on the screen time among Pakistani children is alarming.The
Pakistan Paediatric Association conducted a study that revealed roughly around
80% of adolescents aged from 6-18 spend about an average of 4-6 hours a day on
their screens.This astonishing prevalence has raised concern among the individuals
healthcare in Pakistan. “The use of the smart phone has increased sharply in recent
years, leading to several negative consequences including addiction to screens,
mental health issues, and disruptions to social life” said by clinical psychologist
Ilsa Malik[Tribune,23].As stated by Ilsa,spending excessive time on screens can
lead to less face-to-face interaction and causes less emotional connection with
others which can lead to isolation,She also stated that constant phone usage can
lead to misunderstandings and conflicts

Global Perspective
Around the world children exposure to digital devices has increased drastically
around the globe leading to poor behavior from them.The results of a recent BMC
health research highlight the negative effects of excessive screen use.In this study
they did a population based,cross-sectional study among kids with ages that vary
from 0-60 months living in Ceará, Brazil. They assessed the screentime by reports
given by mothers and the World Health Organization[WHO] recommendations
were used to decide what qualified as excessive screen time.3155 children from the
age of 0-60 months had screen time exposure evaluated and 69% were exposed to
excessive screen time.This percentage of excessive screen time adolescence from
41.7% for children 0–12 months to 85.2% for children 49–60 months.They
mentioned that with each additional hour of screen time was linked with lower
communication from the adolescence. [BMC Public Health, 2021] .The average
screen time of children aged 8-12 is 4-6 hours in the United States and the teens
spend around 9 hours according to the American Academy of Pediatrics[AAP,20]
-Screen Time and Children.The AAP gave guidelines for kids suggesting limiting
their screen time and promoting healthy activities.They suggested aged 6 and older
should have consistent limits on screen times. - Screen time and early childhood
development

Course of action
On a personal level we can try to be more mindful about our time.The tips given
by mayo clinic[MCHS,23] are for parents set goals with their kids about them
reducing screen time.Parents should also be realistic and not jump right into very
strict restricted time limits and start by cutting their time in half,to engage the kids
and to give them full attention and to incorporate more outdoor activities.Apps
such as instagram have this feature in which they let you know that its been to long
on the app and to consider taking a break and closing it.Every smartphone now a
days can track screen time and let you know at which platform was the most time
spent so it can better help you understand what apps to access less or potentially
delete to avoid distraction.Clinical Phycologist Ilsa suggests that people should set
limits on their time spent on phones by making ‘screen-free’ zones in tier homes
and to find other activities to engage in to reduce the risk of being addicted
to[Tribune,23] -Excessive screen time poses high health risks . Kagawa requested
parents to set time limits for their children's video game addiction, limiting them to
no more than 60 minutes on school evenings and an hour and a half on weekends.
This was the first area in Japan to do this. The rules, which apply to anybody under
the Japanese age of majority of twenty, have no official enforcement mechanism,
although there is significant social pressure to follow the advice of the
authorities.Regulators in the EU and the UK have been debating legislation that
would limit game creators' use of casino-style aspects to promote compulsive
gaming. The Japanese national government has gathered experts, including as
CEOs from the video game business and child psychiatrists, to provide
recommendations on how to handle the issue.Pakistan should take it upon
themselves to pass such laws so that people feel the societal pressure for following
them such as for the people in Japan
Evaluation of sources
A part of research comes from a website called National Library of Medicine.It is
American government certified website which gave in depth perspectives on key
issues with evidence from other well known websites and organization such as the
UN.The American Academy of Pediatrics also provided with significant amount of
information related to guidelines that were made about this issue.The national
perspective was derived from Pakistan Pediatric society which provided me with
statistical data and it was uploaded on linkedin by the Pakistan Health
Parliament.Majority of my Global Perspective was taken from BMC Health which
is an open access,peer reviewed journal where they conducted a survey with kids
in brazil.Most of my sources of information were from the past 3 years.

Personal Perspective
Before beginning this report i was aware that excessive screen time was an issue
but i had not realized that it would be an issue on such a huge scale.I myself scroll
mindlessly on my phone all day long not realizing what effects it has on
me.Parents often link weak eye sight with excessive screen time but as i began my
research i found that it has more long term and serious side effects such as the
brain cortex being damaged.During this research i was able to find ways on how to
limit screen time and use my time wisely.
Conclusion
I think everyone is aware about the effects of screen time yet don’t want to want to
accept that their un time is going to cause them harm.I think more apps should
adapt to ways to limit screen time such as instagram and it should be a topic that
should be discussed and brought up continually to help people get more mindful.