We all know that the big amount of time spent in front of a screen is generally bad for our body, eyesight, brain and the ability to be focused. But have you realized that screen time has a big influence on our mood and mental health?
We usually lose track of time when it comes to the digital world. We are able to scroll, watch and surf through the Internet without being aware of passing hours.
Scrolling through social media, playing games or watching our favourite show can lead to stress, anxiety, distraction and depression. Mental health problems affect 10–20% of young people worldwide and many of those problems are increased by screens. So maybe our parents are not so wrong when they tell us that some of our problems are due to phones? Of course, not everything is the fault of screens, but they definitely have an impact on our mental health.
So how could screens have such a huge impact on our present lives?
“Screen time overloads the sensory system, fractures attention, and depletes mental reserves. Experts say that what's often behind explosive and aggressive behavior is poor focus. When attention suffers, so does the ability to process one's internal and external environment, so little demands become big ones.”- say scientists from Potsdam state university of New York.
Screen use releases dopamine in the brain, which can negatively affect impulse control. Studies have shown screen time affects the frontal cortex of the brain, similar to the effect of cocaine. Like drugs, screen time sets off a pleasure cycle that can have a negative impact of your life.
Another problem is blue light from screens. It breaks melatonin which can delay sleep. Using blue light (screens) just before sleep is the worst thing, we can do to our sleep schedule. And poor or insufficient sleep has been found to increase negative emotional responses to stressors and to decrease positive emotions. So, everything leads us back to mental health.
I think that the best we can do these days, where everything depends on or is easier because of technology, is not to make ourselves dependent on screens for things we don’t really need them for. We all should control screen time so that we would not have to cure serious health matters later on.
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