{"id":4475,"date":"2019-04-14T08:00:37","date_gmt":"2019-04-14T13:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=4475"},"modified":"2019-04-11T13:40:47","modified_gmt":"2019-04-11T18:40:47","slug":"surprise-screen-time-even-before-bed-doesnt-harm-adolescents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/surprise-screen-time-even-before-bed-doesnt-harm-adolescents\/","title":{"rendered":"Surprise: Screen Time (Even Before Bed) Doesn’t Harm Adolescents"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’ve got lots of research on the complexity of adolescent life<\/a>. And: lots of research on the importance of sleep<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We’ve also got some research showing that technology can clutter our cognitive processes<\/a>. (To be clear: technology might<\/a> also be fantastically useful.)<\/p>\n

So, what happens when you put all that together and ask about technology and adolescent well-being<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Predictions<\/h2>\n

I myself would have made two predictions:<\/p>\n

One<\/strong>: except at the very extreme end of screen use, I would have doubted technology time matters much for adolescent well-being. Over the years, I’ve seen plenty of studies suggesting that teens do just fine<\/a> — even socially — when they’re often on line.<\/p>\n

In brief: I’ve heard lots of exaggerated concerns, but little persuasive data behind them.<\/p>\n

Two<\/strong>: sleep is, of course, essential for human well-being. We can’t think or learn well without it. Heck, we can’t function very well without it.<\/p>\n

And, we’ve got research showing that the light from screens<\/a> delays melatonin onset — and therefore makes it hard to fall asleep.<\/p>\n

For those reasons, I would have predicted that screen time before bed — especially LOTS of screen time before bed — would make life hard for adolescents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Findings<\/h2>\n

According to this review<\/a>, I’m half right. And: not the half I was confident about.<\/p>\n

A study that looked at more than 17,000 adolescents in the US, England, and Ireland found that technology use generally didn’t affect adolescent well-being<\/em>.<\/p>\n

(More precisely, they found that screen time accounted for less than 1% of the difference in adolescent well-being.)<\/p>\n

And — SURPRISE — they found that technology use before bed<\/em> had no statistically significant effect.<\/p>\n

Amazingly, even one hour<\/strong> of screen time produced no ill effects in this study.<\/p>\n

What Teachers and Parents Should (and Should Not) Do<\/h2>\n

This study reconfirms the point that screen time — except extreme amounts — probably isn’t hurting teens. Even pre-bedtime screens aren’t such a big deal.<\/p>\n

(If you’re still having trouble wrapping your head around that second point, don’t worry. I am too.)<\/p>\n

So, what should we do<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Well, if we want to improve adolescent well-being, we should NOT focus our efforts on changing their technology habits. After all, if this study is correct, even an optimal change would improve their well-being by less than 1%.<\/p>\n

That is: we should NOT be alarmed by the alarmists.<\/p>\n

Instead, we should find out what really is stressing them out and focus on those problems instead.<\/p>\n

As I find persuasive, research-based evidence to answer that question, this blog will let you know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A very large study with more than 17,000 people suggests that screen time isn’t really harming adolescent well-being. If that’s true, we should focus our efforts on finding and solving real problems in adolescent life, and not be distracted by sincere but inaccurate hype.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":4481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[72,10,29],"class_list":["post-4475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-adolescence","tag-sleep","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4475"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4486,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4475\/revisions\/4486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}