Social Media and Screen Use Stress Out Adults and Toddlers
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The old saying in health and fitness is “everything in moderation” but there’s a chance that screen use, and the apps contained on modern devices, may be even more disruptive than that phrase provides for.
Social media usage was found in a study in Germany to increase stress and anxiety while replacing time spent on social media with exercise was even better for reducing stress than just exiting social media—which was also more effective than just exercise.
Other studies have found that social media usage creates perceptions of interpersonal connection that leads to long-term declines in general mental well-being, and this sense of connection enhances the urgency people feel to stay constantly connected.
The latter conclusion was drawn from a theoretical approach which led to the design of 55 empirical social media addiction studies, which were trying to get a base handle on why overuse of social media is associated with low work performance, less healthy social relationships, sleep problems, low life satisfaction, and feelings of jealousy, anxiety, and depression.
With all this in mind, provided that someone isn’t able to make that key distinction between real social connections and an online social media presence, social media usage might be elevated to something enjoyed sparingly, like an overly decadent dessert.
PICTURED: Frequent use of devices like smartphones and tablets to calm upset children ages 3-5 was associated with increased emotional dysregulation in kids.
The dysregulator
In the German study, active adults which used social media, defined broadly, over 35 minutes per day and who also partook in 1 hour or more of physical activity were split into four groups and asked either to continue as normal, exercise 30 minutes more per day, use social media 30 minutes less, or a combination of those two.
Fascinating results showed that the combination group completed more exercise than the group which was only supposed to complete 30 minutes of additional exercise, and used social media less than the group tasked with using social media 30 minutes less every day.
Furthermore, the combination group ranked highest for life satisfaction and subjective happiness and ranked the lowest for depression, behavioral changes of social media addiction, and, relevant at the time, the mental-health burden of living through the COVID-19 lockdowns and death counts.
Another recent finding on-screen usage was done in children aged 3-5.
Frequent use of devices like smartphones and tablets to calm upset children ages 3-5 was associated with increased emotional dysregulation in kids, particularly in boys, according to a study in JAMA Pediatrics.
“Using mobile devices to settle down a young child may seem like a harmless, temporary tool to reduce stress in the household, but there may be long-term consequences if it’s a regular go-to soothing strategy,” said lead author Jenny Radesky, MD, a developmental-behavioral pediatrician at the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.
Signs of increased dysregulation could include rapid shifts between sadness and excitement, a sudden change in mood or feelings, and heightened impulsivity.
Strategic use of screens to help children relax is realistic in today’s digital landscape, and expected, says Radesky, a mother of two, but a key problem arises when it becomes habitual as the child misses out on creating his or her own systems of emotional control, in a critical developmental period of socialization no less.
For younger children, Radesky recommends experimenting to find out what sensory input tends to compel attention and calm them down. This could be a physical movement like hugging, bouncing, or rocking, it could be a tactile sensation like squishing putty between their fingers, or visual stimuli that are not part of a screen like a lava lamp or a snow globe (better something not made of glass, though.)
It’s always desirable for a tantrum to end, but it is a form of communication between a child and a parent. Encouraging and rewarding clear and acceptable communication strategies, like a tap on the arm, or saying “excuse me,” can be successful in reducing tantrum frequencies. WaL
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