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Feb 15, 2022
As research proves, parents are now more than ever worried about the kind of influence that screen media has on their children’s mental health, self-esteem, and interpersonal skills. Given the vast array of media options available today, children of all ages are exposed to plenty of online content. iPads, desktops, smartphones, and gaming consoles, for instance, are highly popular among children nowadays. Besides, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and Facebook are all experiencing rapid growth. This post discusses the level to which digital media can be too much and how it influences your child.
How many hours each day should your youngster devote to social media? Read on to know what experts have to say.
Although spending hours scrolling through Instagram and Facebook may appear insignificant, the short- and long-term implications on the mind are severe. Notably, teens who devote over three hours a day to social platforms have a 60 percent greater risk of mental health disorders than those who do not use social media.
Experts widely regard this three-hour mark as the recommended threshold for all digital media consumers, as anything above this point negatively affects self-image and how one deals with fears and stressors. According to Inverse, more social media activity directly influences your kid’s emotional dimension. As a result, the more hours your child spends on social media, the more the feelings of tension, melancholy, and isolation they develop.
Cutting social media use to 30 minutes per day, as per the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, helps boost mental health and clarity and positively influences your child’s overall health. The report recommends devoting about 10 minutes every day to three different social networking platforms to sustain participation without veering too much into the wrong path. Test subjects who followed the 30-minute principle exhibited reduced anxiety levels, despair, and tension, and they said they didn’t have as much FOMO (fear of missing out).
Your children risk getting detrimental health effects if they devote over three hours each day to consuming digital media. Not only can scrolling raise emotions of melancholy, stress, and loneliness, but it also has a physical impact. According to Forbes, digital media users who devote excessive time in front of screens are more likely to be overweight and risk developing chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.
Within online spaces, teenagers are now subjected to social comparisons at school and on a 24-hour basis. High school students, for instance, can post a Snapchat of their newest Nike or perhaps their PS5 present as soon as they get them as a way of showing off. Additionally, platforms like Snapchat come in handy for kids and teens to exchange disparaging photos, harass, and impose peer pressure on each other, all of which are detrimental to a child’s self-regard.
Sleep deprivation causes significant health problems, along with affecting your child’s learning and development, conduct, appetite, despair, and general health. Besides, sleep is required for brain growth; the average child and adolescent need 9.5 hours of rest to foster growth and maturity.
Screen time and social media use are inert pursuits that do not promote your child’s cognitive growth, as they do not prompt children to engage in critical thinking or hands-on study. Too much digital consumption causes behavioral issues, learning impairments, attention deficit disorders, and inhibiting overall cognitive growth.
FOMO is a novel type of social panic that influences youngsters and teenagers. Parties, athletic tournaments, road trips, holidays, hangouts, trendy shoes, video game acquisitions, and so on all appear to be documented on social media today. Most kids see social media as their connection to the outside universe, so being cut off from it makes them feel cut off from life itself.
Children and teenagers spend very little time engaging in outdoor play as they spend more time on digital media. Besides, they drink and eat carelessly when watching TV or playing games, which risks their health due to increased calorie intake.
At MHS, we focus on Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), chemical health solutions, and behavioral health interventions. Our holistic treatments deliver customized, high-quality psychological care to our patients, focusing on clinical success and coordinated care among therapists.
Our expertise enables us to help children and teenagers deal with troubling life circumstances and seamlessly navigate the respective life stages. Schedule an appointment with us today if you want to enroll your child.
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