TThe COVID-19 pandemic has changed our lives in countless ways, including the amount of time we spent glued to our devices.Research published in 2021 foundthat Americans in their early 20s used their phones an average of 28.5 hours per week in 2020 – up from 25.9 hours per week in 2018.judgementof the surveys conducted in 2020 and 2021 push the estimates even higher, finding that average screen time for adults in the US and other countries has increased by 60-80% compared to before the pandemic.
There has been too much screen timedisplayedhave negative consequences for children and young people. It has beenconnectedto psychological problems, such as higher rates of depression and anxiety, as well as health problems such asbad sleepand higher ratesobesity. Many researchers believe that excessive screen use may not be that harmful for adults, but the effect has not yet been extensively studied. Recent research has shown that it can still have harmful effects, such as:digital eye strain,decreased sleep, and aggravatedmental health.
So how much screen time is too much for adults? That's the wrong question, experts say. The content you consume is actually more important than the total time you spend on your phone, says Yalda T. Uhls, an assistant adjunct professor of psychology at UCLA and former film director who studies the health effects of screen time. For example, watching a documentary on your phone doesn't have the same effect as scrolling through Instagram.
“What researchers have been saying over the last 10 to 15 years is that the challenging thing about focusing on time limits is that it distracts from the substantive conversation, and that the substantive conversation should be what we lead with,” she says.
That's why you don't necessarily need to panic if your weekly iPhone screen time report gives you a high grade, says Dr. Dimitri Christakis, a pediatrician, epidemiologist and director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children's. The research institute, which has examined screen time across all age groups. The total amount of screen time isn't as important as the breakdown of how you used it, he says. Many experts have found that time spent on social media apps is the most concerning. “We can't just treat all screen time as equal,” says Christakis. “Look at things that you find purely recreational, or a total waste of your time, and ask yourself: Is there a way you could have spent your time better?”
If you feel like your screen time has become too much, Uhls recommends asking yourself five important questions:
“If all these things are happening, I wouldn't worry about your screen time,” says Uhls.
Many experts hesitate to offer universal screen time limits, but here are some general, research-oriented guidelines you can follow.
Limit social media to 30-60 minutes per day for better mental health
For years, research has pointed to social media as the most difficult type of content. Ainspectionpublished 2018 iJournal of Social and Clinical Psychologyexamined how Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat affected the mental health of 143 college students. If these young people showed depressive symptoms at the start of the study, their social media use reduced to just 10 minutes per day on each platform – a total of 30 minutes on social media per day – over three weeks their symptoms of depression decreased and loneliness disappeared .
Study author Melissa Hunt, associate director of clinical training at the University of Pennsylvania's department of psychology, has since conducted two follow-up studies.In, published in 2021, found that students who used social media for 30 minutes a day – which the researchers described as a “modest” amount of time – had the highest well-being compared to those who were not using social media at the time. all or who used it excessively. “They are the most connected, the least lonely and the least depressed compared to people who use way too much, but also compared to people who use nothing,” she says.
Hunt says her second, upcoming follow-up study found that writing and communicating with others on social media (vs. passive scrolling) and following people they knew in real life versus strangers, celebrities and influencers (who tend to focusing on creating the perfect image of their lives, which can lead to unhealthy social comparisons). “Celebrities and influencers exaggerate all the negative effects of social media,” including social comparison and body dissatisfaction, she says.
“It's not that social media itself is problematic,” says Hunt. “The fact is that using too much of it or using it in the wrong way is very problematic. My advice is: if you are going to use social media, follow friends for about an hour a day” – a figure she draws on the results of other studies suggesting that “60 minutes is probably the sweet spot,” and that shooting more than 30 minutes a day is a more realistic goal for people.
Spend three to four hours without screens every day
Another way to build a healthier relationship with screens is to protect the time you spend away from screens. People should be completely disconnected from screens for at least three to four hours every day, Christakis says. His research has shown that screen time affects children's timelanguage proficiencyand is correlated with itpossible behavioral problems. “I think what we really need to focus on as a society is having other, more healthy, traditional ways of relating to people in front of you or even yourself,” he says.
To get the most benefits, make sure you spend some of your screen-free time being physically active. A2020 surveyconducted in Canada studied people during the pandemic and found that when people performed two habits together – limiting screen time and exercising outdoors – they got the biggest boost to their mental and overall health compared to people who increased their screen time or didn't exercise outdoors.
Stop using screens at least an hour before bedtime to sleep better
Dr. Gregory Marcus, associate chief of cardiology research at UCSF Health, examined the relationship between screen time and sleep as part of the Health eHeart Study, an ongoing global study of participants ages 18 to 80. Him and his teamfound itthat using a screen within an hour of going to bed makes it more difficult to fall asleep and negatively affects both sleep quality and sleep duration.
“For people who have trouble sleeping, whether it's falling asleep or staying asleep, I recommend leaving your phone in another room,” says Marcus. “Make it hard to get to your phone so you don't just grab it.”
Take a break every 20 minutes for your eye health
Excessive screen use can also damage the eyes. Many adults now suffer from digital eye strain, a condition caused by focusing on nearby objects — such as phone screens — for too long, which can lead to eye strain, eye pain and blurred vision, says Dr. Megan Collins, assistant professor of ophthalmology at Wilmer Eye Institute of Johns Hopkins Medicine. Someearly researchalso suggest that excessive screen time during the pandemic may even lead to an increased incidence of myopia or farsightedness.
Collins says ophthalmologists often tout the benefits of the 20-20-20 rule: For every 20 minutes you spend on a screen, give your eyes a 20-second break by focusing on something 20 feet or more away. “It helps the eyes to be in this long-term state of accommodation and focus on things up close,” she says.
Set even lower limits for yourself when you're older
Recent researchhave found that too much screen time can have detrimental effects on children's memory, attention, communication, and social and language skills. And parents learn how much screen time is acceptable by, for example:inspectionpublished in the magazineBMC Public Healthfound that adults who limit their own screen time are more likely to limit their children's screen time as well.
“It is not only the presence of rules and restrictions on screen time that is important, but also the support through adult modeling of low screen use,” the study authors wrote. "Parents who model low screen time are more likely to impose stricter screen time rules on their children. In contrast, if parents use a lot of screen time themselves, their efforts to impose screen time limits on children are more likely to fail."
