New Research Flips The Script On The Effects of Screen Time

The cultural conversation around managing screen time has historically focused on the impact screens have on a developing brain, and the social-emotional effects screens and social media have on tweens and teens. We’ve seen that debate even reach the senate, where Meta pushed back on research that suggested social media was harmful for mental health. US adults, at the height of the pandemic, reported an average of 28.5 hours of phone use per week; up 3 hours from the year prior, not even including screen time spent on a computer or Zooming.

If you are 30 today, you were 16 when the first iPhone came out. 30 is also the new median age for giving birth in the US. Being native to digital is no longer a cultural context unique only to today's youth demographic, it’s the new normal for parenting too. The American Psychological Association may have released updated guidelines this month for adolescents and social media use, but a different and arguably more thought provoking study, has something to say about the effects of screen time use among parents.

A new study from UC Santa Barbara found that parents’ phone use creates a type of “still face”. This term dates back to 1975, when a developmental researcher named Edward Tronick, shared findings that found after three minutes of interaction with a non-responsive expressionless parent, infants become "rapidly sober and grow wary." This newer study links parents’ phone use with the effects of “an expressionless appearance that’s often interpreted as depression" by children. The published research concludes that as a result, parents’ phone use in front of their kids hinders the development of emotional intelligence.