It's no secret that most people these days prefer to stay glued to their screens. Whether it's their computers, laptops, tablets or mobiles, most of their time is spent looking at these screens. However, a new study has found that the more time one spends staring at a screen, the more likely they are to develop anxiety. And this is apparently even more common among adolescents.
Apart from video games, watching TV, computer use and non-playing screen use has been linked to an increase in anxiety symptoms. What's more, the study was able to find that more than average frequency of viweing screens over a period of say four years led to an increase of anxiety levels accordingly. So, if a teenager exceeded his average screen viewing frequency for one year then he/she was more likely to have elevated anxiety symptoms during that specific year.
And on the contrary, when these adolescents reduced their screen viewing time their anxiety symptoms also decreased accordingly. And since teens tend to use their computer for multiple study related activities, computer viweing can be uniquely associated with increased anxiety levels. However, the lead author of the study, Elroy Boers explained that this point needs more reaserch before something concrete can be proved.
The researchers claim that this study could help people understand why they need to start regulating the amount of time they spend in front of a screen. For the study, the researchers surveyed nearly 4000 Canandian students from the age of 12 until the age of 16 and asked them to self-report how much time they spent in front of screens. The screens in question included social media, television, video gaming and computer use.
Once the teenagers completed questionnaires about how much time they'd spent in front of screens, the data was collected from them and then surveyed to figure out how screen time was associated with increased anxiety in these teens. "These findings suggest that one way to help teens manage anxiety could be to help them limit the amount of time they spend in front screens", said senior author Dr Patricia Conrod. Stay tuned for more updates.
