The Surgeon General has warned of the harm of compulsive screen viewing and social media on the young, but we all need to pay heed urgently.
United States Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy has issued an Advisory on Social Media and Youth Mental Health warning parents, educators, health professionals and social media companies against unrestricted and unsupervised use of social media by the young. While conceding some beneficial effects of social media, the warning alerts us to its potential to harm the mental health and well-being of children and youths because of excessive and compulsive screen time.
Digital dependency, in fact, engulfs all ages from toddlers to school and college goers, cutting across adulthood and old age. But, its negative consequences, similar to other addictions, seem to hurt the young more than other age groups because they are at a critical stage of physical and mental growth and brain development.
Although television significantly transformed how we entertained ourselves, its impact was nothing as radical, gripping, and all-encompassing as the coming of the Digital Age which has mesmerized us with countless tantalizing ways to entertain and socialize. Social media has overtaken our lives and replaced our reality with virtual life and reality.
‘Virtuality’ has become intrinsic to our perception of who we are and how we function in relation not only to each other but to imagined people and worlds. From initially a welcome convenience enabling instant connectivity to family, friends, people and events – even those in distant lands and time zones — as well as an exciting source of endless cheaply accessible entertainment, digital life has turned into a woeful addiction. The cheap availability and speed of the internet has shaken up human reality. It has reshaped our experience of life, which we now rush, or even prefer, to live digitally than actually.
Unlike smoking, drug, and drinking addictions, social media addiction is more damaging for the youth precisely because it is easily accessible which makes it rampant. Social media use by young people is reported to be nearly universal, with up to 95% of young people ages 13-17 reporting using a social media platform and more than a third saying they use social media almost constantly. Screen viewing now begins at increasingly younger ages hooking even our babies to the screen. Infants in some cases are possibly as familiar with the video screen as with the mother’s face. Screen viewing likely makes them as happy as breast milk!
While the harmful effects of such widespread use of social media are not yet precisely understood, ignorance makes the addiction’s deleterious effects potentially even more scary and serious.
The Covid effect
The past two years marked by Covid-19’s oppressive and repressive social interface regime added to our desperation prompting us to higher use of social media. Aggravated by the epidemic’s demanding regime of strict isolation and suspension not only of parties and social gatherings but also of the daily necessities of grocery shopping, school, and office going, we found ourselves left in a social limbo – with all paths to normal human interface shut down ‘until further notice’. By the time the roads reopened, we had already moved on to less wholesome choices and ways of life.
Our evolutionary history has shown that socialization is critical to humans and animals from the womb to the grave. It is oxygen to our race’s survival and progress. Covid’s isolation caused desperation leading to greater sickness, death, and suicides. It also debilitated the capacity of our children to learn and of adults to earn. Academically our kids have been thrown back into sub-standard and below age-appropriate learning levels as they fumble with language, math, and science, and even with social skills. Adults equally have regressed with our confidence shaken as a race to cope with reality. We now need daily the manna from digital heaven just to survive, let alone progress.
Concern for vulnerable screenagers
But it is the youngsters who are the more vulnerable, paying a higher price for screen addiction. Through two years of being denied in-person learning, they developed a natural affinity with, and dependency on, screens. Banished from accessing playgrounds, parties, and other usual venues for meeting each other, they spent hours and hours glued to TV and digital media. The cell phone became their sole means of connecting to their peers, turning addictive to a point where even after being back in the classroom and the teacher lecturing, they were unable to turn off their phones! TikTok is now the Cool Aid of the digitally obsessed young.
With the downside of obsessive viewing unfolding, the Surgeon General’s advisory is timely calling for urgent action by policymakers, technology companies, researchers, families, and young people alike to gain a better understanding of the full impact of social media use, maximize the benefits and minimize the harms of social media platforms, and create safer, healthier online environments to protect children.
Insufficient understanding of the precise impact of excessive screen watching on the development of young humans notwithstanding, the concern over the internet’s safety is real. According to Dr. Murthy, there is growing evidence that social media use is associated with harm to young people’s mental health. “Children are exposed to harmful content on social media, ranging from violent and sexual content to bullying and harassment. And for too many children, social media use is compromising their sleep and valuable in-person time with family and friends. We are in the middle of a national youth mental health crisis, and I am concerned that social media is an important driver of that crisis – one that we must urgently address.”
We adults are not immune either
Screens have become indispensable to grownups too, who have found a low-cost alternative to means of entertainment and a quicker, cheaper way to connect to friends and relatives. Across all groups, young and old, rich or poor, chain mails and video clips are a routine way to network and to grow one’s otherwise narrow and limited universe. We are self-enrolled in large numbers in Facebook, WhatsApp, and YouTube groups and our day does not begin or end without first scanning who wrote, sent what, and to whom. Prayer and meditation are consigned to the backburner as are marital interface and family sustainability.
Nothing is more disheartening and isolating than to see a grown man or woman bent over his or her phone while the spouse and guests are invariably left to entertain themselves. One-way conversation between couples is more a norm than the exception. This culture of silence is what led Sherry Turkle to appropriately title her book ‘Alone Together’.
The damage to human health and mental well-being from screen dependency cuts across age, gender, class, ethnicity, or nationality. Excessive screen time is proven to lead to obesity, chronic neck, back, and sleep problems, and is known to cause or aggravate depression and anxiety. Lower test scores in children and lower performance levels in adult workers are proven adverse effects of a computer monitor-driven lifestyle, which turns us not only into couch potatoes but also into insomniacs and zombies. A National Institutes of Health (NIH) study found that children who spent more than two hours a day on electronic devices scored lower on thinking and language tests. Those with more than seven hours of screen time experienced thinning of the brain’s cortex, which is related to critical thinking and reasoning.
The more time teens spend on social media, the less connected they feel to others. They are also more likely to compare themselves to unrealistic body ideals, which can develop into an eating disorder. Binge-watching shows can lead to binge eating, resulting in weight gain and guilt. A recent study found that playing video games and watching YouTube videos is linked to developing obsessive-compulsive disorder and dissociative behavior. Explicit sex content can also distort youth’s understanding of responsible or expected sexual behavior.
Lead picture courtesy: blog.mymanu.com
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