The Silent Tragedy - Screen Time, Social Media and Psychological Manipulation
The Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma” is extraordinarily eye opening and insightful laying out the deliberate psychological manipulation perpetrated by social media.
IT IS THE SILENT TRAGEDY
Seductive digital pursuit can lead to obsessive behavior in both adults and children. Statistics show that U.S. teens use screens more than seven hours a day on average which doesn’t include the screen time they spend for homework and school.
Screen time affects developing brains, sleep and creativity. Social media manipulates your brain, preferences, interests and thus has a huge effect on one’s beliefs, feelings and life. There is correlation between how screen time affects mental health, evidenced by a sharp increase in the last ten years, in depression, anxiety, brain fog, headaches and suicide in children. There is a connection between the amount of screen time a child is exposed to and lower scores on language and thinking tests and thinning of the cortex of the brain which is the area of the brain related to reasoning and critical thinking.
Consider top tech world leaders restrict their children’s screen time and require their staff to do the same. It is well documented that Bill Gates (Microsoft), Sundar Pichai (Google), Evan Spiegel (Snapchat) and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) limit how much technology their children are allowed to use. Mark Cuban (Dallas Mavericks) has installed routers and management software to manage his children’s usage.
It is important to develop healthy boundaries for YOU and your child regarding the exposure to and usage of devices. Strategies that can be employed are digital curfew, banning devices at the family dinner table, temporarily remove an app that is overused and delete social media apps.
While there can be value to screen time exposure and a variety of apps, balance is key.
Parents should set the example for their child. While a child doesn’t understand the risks they are taking the adults in their life do or should.
“Do not alleviate inactivity or boredom with technology. Boredom is the stimulus for creativity!”