DFor digital devices reduction Our attention spans are so stretched out that they are shorter than a goldfish.The blue light they emit Hinder our sleep. The thing I'm most worried about is my smartphone. Barbaric Mental health of young people, especially teenage girls. Overall, digital technology has a negative impact on society. right?
Not so fast, says psychologist Pete Etchells in his new book. unlockedEtchells, a professor of psychology and science communication at Britain's Bath Spa University, previously debunked fears that video games would turn children into zombies and make them violent. Now, he's turning his attention to a more pervasive social anxiety: screen time. Contrary to popular opinion, Etchells argues that there is weak evidence that digital devices cause a range of harm, including poorer mental health, poorer sleep and shorter attention spans.
“There's a very brazen headline that appears to be based on science and says in pretty obvious terms: These things are bad for us. And of course it fits with our worldview. ” Etchells says. But when we take a closer look at the evidence about how screen time affects our sleep, attention span, and mental health, “we find that it's actually not that clear.”
Don't blame the screen yet
in unlockedEtchells, who says he has never received funding or partnered with a technology company, systematically pokes holes in studies that purport to show the negative effects of smartphones. To do so, he dives deep into the weeds.
For example, take a look at the literature on screen time and mental health. Most of the studies have taken data from large surveys and investigated whether people who report spending more time on screen-based activities are more likely to report poor mental health. Etchells points out that But such observational studies, he says, fall victim to the classic problem: correlation does not imply causation. Rather than smartphone use causing mental health problems, mental health problems may be causing people to spend more time on their phones, or phone use and mental health conditions He suggests that both of these deteriorations may be caused by a third factor, including: Loneliness.
Even considering this, reanalysis An influential study claiming that there is a strong link between screen time and depression found that “Knowing the amount of social media use reported by female students predicts lower levels of depression reported by female students. It was found that “less than 0.5% of symptoms.” Etchells documents many perceived flaws in research on screen time, including inconsistencies in how researchers define screen time. “Once you start scratching this out and digging beneath the surface of the literature,” it's not that clear, he says.
Throughout the book, Etchells is keen to emphasize that he is not a lone contrarian in reaching his conclusions. Rather, he says, it's a common belief among those who study the subject. for example, review A study published in 2020 on the topic “Adolescent Mental Health in the Digital Age'' found that “Most studies to date have been correlation-based, focused on adults and adolescents, and often have contradictory small It was found that a combination of positive, negative, and invalid associations were generated.
In just over 200 pages, Etchells also assesses whether digital devices affect our attention spans and sleep (probably not, he argues). Does screen addiction really exist (it doesn't, he says)? etc. Intense discussions of statistics and experiments are punctuated with candid personal stories about his and his family's experiences with technology.
recent moral panic
Etchells, an avid gamer, remembers reading a headline in 2011 that declared: Leading neurologist warns that computer games cause 'dementia' in children. “That doesn’t make sense,” he thought.
“I went to a pub and got drunk with my co-workers. [I got] I was a little abusive and angry,” recalls Etchells, who was working as a postdoctoral researcher at the time, focusing on evolutionary psychology. “And someone, who must have been tired of me ranting about it, said, 'Well, why don't you spend some money and do a little research on it?'
he published it that way I lost a good game In 2019. I lost a good game and unlocked We share your skepticism about the moral panic that accompanies the emergence of new forms of media.in unlockedThe historical moral panic comparison chosen by Etchells is the abolition of the paper tax in Britain in 1861, after which women, children, and the working class were “patroniously 'protected' from an influx of trash literature.” Some people were concerned that there is a need to but, Many other The people of ancient Greece wondered what harm writing could do, from fears about “radio addiction” to concerns that television might encourage violent behavior. , has raised various questions throughout history.
This is not grounds for termination, Etchells said. But it's cause for skepticism. “Is this really something we should be worried about?” he asks. “The answer right now is we don't know. We don't know. We don't have the data.”
digital deliberation
This is more than just an academic debate: Lawmakers around the world are beginning to propose laws that will have a major impact on how people use digital devices. In the United States, Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley was suggested A bill banning children under 16 from accessing social media sites.In the UK, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reportedly I'm considering doing the same.
But any action must be evidence-based, Etchells stresses, for two reasons. First, he said, unfounded regulations could fail or backfire, banning children under 16 from playing online video games between midnight and 6 a.m. He cited the example of Korea's 2011 Cinderella Law. analysis The content of the law suggests that the law increased the average young person's sleep time by just 1.5 minutes, while also increasing the amount of time spent online during the day, which is more than South Korean lawmakers expected. The results were hardly in agreement.
The second reason, Etchells says, is that sensational public discourse can actually disrupt the tech industry. “We've gone off track with a lot of these kinds of technologies. They don't put health first, and I think that needs to change,” he says. But in order to have that conversation with the industry, you need to be able to properly identify the issue and talk about it without sensationalizing it. ”
