Too Much Screen Time? How It Affects Your Child’s Mental Growth
Screen time has now become an avoidable habit. In this digital age, children are the most vulnerable party who are being highly affected due to the increasing exposure to screen time with television, smartphones, tablets, etc. Digital activity is useful as it provides various means of resources, but excessive screen time is a concern for the health of children. It impacts the cognitive, emotional, and other development in children. Screen time of a child can increase due to them spending more amounts of passive screen time, like watching movies, YouTube, etc. They can also engage in interactive screen time by playing video games or engaging in educational programs, etc. What we see today is that the average child spends about 7 to 9 hours on screens, and about 80% of teenagers need to constantly check their phones just after getting up. In this article, we would look into the impact of too much screen time on a child’s mental growth.
Too Much Screen Time? How It Affects Your Child’s Mental Growth
- Impact on Developing Brain Due to Screen Exposure
- Reduced Academic Performance
- Anxiety and Depression Issues
- Sleep Disruptions
- Issues in Social Development and Communication
- Other Issues
Impact on Developing Brain Due to Screen Exposure
Too much exposure to screens can be disruptive to a child’s brain development. Excessive screen time can cause weakening of attention control. Children can become overstimulated and now are more prone to mood swings. They can develop addictive behavior due to the increased dopamine in their system caused by the rise of playing games, watching YouTube, social media, etc. It results in a decrease in memory retention capacity and a shortening of attention span amongst the children.
Reduced Academic Performance
It has a critical impact on a child’s academic performance as it reduces the critical thinking and problem-solving ability in a child. It hampers the attention span amongst the children. It disrupts the overall learning habits of children. It also causes a delay in speech development.
Anxiety and Depression Issues
Increased exposure to screen time leads to lower self-esteem and can cause various anxiety and depression. It also leads to children having difficulty in controlling their emotions. Some of these children are more prone to emotional outbursts.
Sleep Disruptions
The sleep patterns of children are affected due to the blue light from the screen, which reduces melatonin production. This leads to mood swings, difficulty in concentration, and sleep problems. Children who have excessive screen time before bed take longer to fall asleep.
Issues in Social Development and Communication
Too much screen time causes children to suffer from weaker communication skills. They are pushed towards unrealistic standards and validation. This causes them to have self-esteem issues. Excessive screen time disconnects them from other children and their family and makes them struggle to understand various non-verbal cues, empathy, etc.
Other Issues
Other issues, such as vision problems, headaches, dry eyes, back pain, obesity, poor posture, etc., are some of the other issues that are linked to more screen time.
