Opinion – Bruno Gualano: Toxic levels of screen threaten the health of young people

A recent study published in the scientific journal JAMA confirms what all parents of teenagers probably suspected: young people are exposed to toxic levels of screen.

During the pandemic, the essential measures of social distancing greatly affected the adolescents’ routine. From old television to modern online games, our impression is that young people’s lives have been completely taken over by the screen.

Scientists at the University of California obtained numbers that account for the size of the problem. In interviewing 5,412 American teenagers during the pandemic, the researchers found that, on average, young people have spent about 8 hours a day in front of the screen — no less than twice as much as before the health crisis.

From the rich menu of screens available to teenagers, the ones that consume most of their time are: streaming movies and series (~2.4 hours/day), online and offline games (~2.6 hours/day), social media ( ~1 hour/day), messaging apps (~1 hour/day), chat and internet searches (~1 hour/day).

Note, reader, that in this research, teaching activities were not counted. If we consider, however, that these are being administered remotely during much of the pandemic, it is possible to estimate that, while awake, adolescents have remained “disconnected” for only 2 or 3 hours a day, if at all. This is precisely the maximum screen exposure time recommended by some scientific entities for children and adolescents. Hence the conclusion that young people suffer from chronic intoxication by digital technologies.

The study also revealed that the most socially disadvantaged young people, with worse mental health and high levels of stress, are the most exposed to screens. The impact of the pandemic appears to be uneven for this index – as for so many others. In general, blacks and poor people use more canvas than whites and the affluent. What would be the possible explanation?

As the excellent Guidance Manual #MenosTelas #MaisSaúde, of the Brazilian Society of Pediatrics, points out, “new media fill vacuums – idleness, boredom, need for entertainment, emotional abandonment or even ‘over-busy’ parents, often with their own cell phones” . Admittedly, the pandemic has amplified these vacuums, but disproportionately. Young people from more vulnerable families tend to have a more restricted support and attention network, which is why, more routinely, the canvases serve as a kind of emotional cane.

It turns out that the indiscriminate use of digital technologies is associated with a series of physical and mental health problems, which include, among others, digital dependence, irritability, anxiety, attention deficit and hyperactivity, eating and sleep disorders, body image and self-esteem , visual and auditory disturbances, and sexual and moral abuse of all kinds.

We also need to remember that screen activities are essentially sedentary and, as such, impair muscle, lung, cardiac, vascular, immune, pancreatic, and brain functions. Unfortunately, not even young people are immune to the toxicity of sedentary lifestyles.

In the post-Covid period, families, health professionals and educators have the mission of introducing teenagers to a new world –which revolves with or without broadband–, where outdoor physical activities, sports activities and contacts with the other and nature are pleasurable and healthy options in the digital dome that sadden, dumb down and make them sick.