If I could have your attention, please. I'd like to talk to you about young people's screen time. It's a tempting¹ habit for them to glance at their smartphone or tablet rather than make eye contact with someone and make conversation! There is so much to look at: photographs, social media feeds, messages and emails; it's no wonder they are glued to their screens. But is it good for them?

 

There have been many claims about the damage looking at screens does to our eyesight. Some people feared staring at a small bright box could make us short-sighted or lead to headaches. This is a particular concern for children and young people, who spend a higher percentage of time using electronic gadgets². BBC technology correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones, says: "there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that no matter how long teenagers are spending looking at screens, they are encountering material about issues such as anorexia³ and self-harm that could prove damaging to their mental health".

 

But a new study says time in front of computers and phones might not be as bad for young people as many think. Research by the Oxford⁴ Internet Institute examined data from more than 17,000 teenagers in the UK, Ireland and the United States. Their study concluded that most links between life satisfaction and social media use were "trivial", accounting⁵ for less than 1% of a teenager's wellbeing. Professor Przybylski, director of research at the institute, said: "99.75% of a person's life satisfaction has nothing to do with their use of social media." The research found that family, friends and school life all had a greater impact on wellbeing.

 

So, does this mean young people can spend longer looking at social media? The Oxford researchers are confident that their study is robust⁶ in its findings and that any correlation⁷ between screen time and mental health is very small. Dr Max Davie, officer for health improvement at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, calls the study a "small first step", but he said there were other issues to explore, such as screen time's interference with other important activities like sleep, exercise and time with family or friends. Perhaps for now, deciding what the ‘right' amount of screen time is has to be down to personal judgement.

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