28 September 2019 | New Scientist | 41mode designed to make the screen less
enticing by turning it black and white.
These all help us become more conscious
of our usage. But Apple and Google could
do more, says Smith. “It’s a little bit of a
misdirection,” he says. For one thing, these
widgets don’t allow you to explore your
screen use for periods of more than a week,
which you might want to do to see if any
lifestyle changes are making a difference.
Every new technology with widespread
impact has given rise to new fears. Orben
recalls an article from 1941 that lamented
how adolescents in the US were addicted
to radio programmes. “In a lot of parenting
magazines from that time, you could just
replace the word ‘radio’ with ‘social media’
and you could probably publish that today,”
she says.
So the best bet may simply be to ask yourself
what level of screen use makes you and those
around you happy and try to stick to it. If you
find yourself overindulging, don’t panic – and
certainly don’t feel guilty. Nobody knows
anything worth getting scared about. ❚of fine motor skills, such as the ability to
pick up blocks and stack them in a tower.
Once again, there is no causal link. It could
be that those infants who happen to develop
fine motor skills early are simply more likely
to pick up and play with a screen. It is possible,
though, that the prodding and swiping
needed to work a screen trains these skills.
We shouldn’t underestimate the value
of screen use for older children too. Not
only do they provide unprecedented access
to many forms of valuable information and
entertainment, but educating children about
the dangers they will find online requires
them to have some familiarity with it. “In
order to think critically, kids need to engage,”
says Smith.How can I learn to stop worrying
and love my screens?
The explosion of mobile phone use has
revolutionised our lives. I can download
movies and podcasts, write articles,
communicate with my family and broadcast
to the world all at the push of a button. This is
unprecedented power, but there are still many
important questions about these maddening,
valuable devices that we have been unable to
answer. What is clear, however, is that many
initial reactions have been more knee-jerk
than evidence-based.
Rather than impose arbitrary constraints,
we should take a look at our use of screens
and ask how they fit with the activities and
lifestyles we want as individuals and families.
Orben, who is 24, has grown up with social
media. For her and her peers, managing how
they spend time with their screens was part
of growing up. “Like any social media user,
there are times when I feel I should use it less,
that I need to feel in control,” she says. “We all
have ways in which we try to self-regulate.”
Maybe you tweak your phone’s settings
to reduce the number of alerts you get, or
uninstall certain apps so they aren’t readily
available. Some have suggested introducing
“mental speed bumps” that interrupt the
habit of checking a phone too often, such
as writing a note to yourself on your lock
screen or simply wrapping a rubber band
around the device as a reminder.
Apple and Android phones and tablets
now come with widgets that let you monitor
and manage screen use. You can set time
limits, turn off notifications and track what
you have been doing on the device. There are
also “night-time” settings that cut the blue
light emitted by the screen and a “wind-down”Douglas Heaven is a consultant
for New Scientist based in
London. You can follow him
on Twitter @strwbillyPaediatrics and Child Health has opted not
to recommend time limits at all. “There’s
general confusion,” says Smith.
He thinks the college’s approach is the
most logical. It bases its position on a regular
review of research and has concluded that
there isn’t enough evidence of positive or
negative effects for any guidelines to be
issued. “That’s a very honest way of creating
evidence-based policy,” says Smith.
The college’s view is that advice is only as
good as it is effective. “People’s support for an
outright ban on screen time for children under
2 lasts until they spend a day where there are
children of different ages in the same room,”
says Davie. “Then they quickly realise it’sunworkable.” He thinks guidelines that are
hard to comply with fail to help families
establish good habits and are ignored.
It isn’t all negative. In 2016, Smith and his
colleagues found no evidence that spending
time interacting with a screen – rather than
moving around or interacting with other
humans – delayed certain developmental
milestones, such as learning to walk and
talk. On the contrary, they found a correlation
between screen use and earlier developmentOur phones are
always with us:
at home, work
and even gigs“ When it comes to
negative impact,
potatoes are in a similar
ballpark to screens”
0204060
Per cent of population80 100SO
URCE:PE
WRESEARCH.ORG
,^2
018Hold the phone
It may feel like everyone has a smartphone, but that
isn’t the case, even in richer nationsSouth Korea
Israel
Netherlands
Sweden
Australia
US
Spain
Germany
UK
France
ItalySmartphone Mobile phone No mobile phoneSouth Africa
Brazil
Kenya
Nigeria
India