Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

longevity.stanford.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 201 posts

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#11

Post by MrJagil »

“One of the biggest issues with picking up the phone right away in the morning is that when you have an object close to your face, it’s registered as a threat,” says Loeffler. “You wouldn’t want to wake up and look a bear in the face every morning. On a physiological level, it’s the same thing.”

This is interesting to me. It does make some evolutionary sense but at the same time, i wake up every morning and look at my girlfriends face, hopefully that does not subconsciously trigger the same response.

That said, the "sky before screens" idea has been rummaging in my mind since i first heard about it https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/sky-before-screens-has-ma...

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#12

Post by virtue3 »

siquick wrote: post #10
Helmut10001 wrote: post #2

Regarding the recommendation to not spend the first hour of the day in front of the screen. I found the other way around more helpful: Not spending the last 1-2 hours in front of screens. This helps me to get better sleep. In the morning, I find it not so difficult and screen time (+coffee) helps me to wake up slowly.

I try and avoid screens before sleep but also use a Kindle for reading before sleeping - wondering if the e-ink displays count as screen time in studies like this?

LED backlight might. If no backlight probably fine.

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#14

Post by kome »

XorNot wrote: post #6
kome wrote: post #4

and many spend 8 hours at work in front a screen :(

"screentime" is the worst term because it has almost nothing to do with what they're actually talking about - i.e. does an eReader count as screentime? Why? Why does a book not?

i don't know but i think it does indeed, i guess there is a relationship between body and mind that screen completely efface. even moving pages, physically, make reading more meaningful: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/well-read/202402/the...

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#16

Post by curtisblaine »

csvm wrote: post #8

On my family's iPhones, we have a Shortcut (automation) that kicks in every evening at 9 pm: 1. Turn Mobile Data Off 2. Turn Bluetooth Off 3. Turn WiFi Off 4. Turn AppleTV off (this one is fun because it can cut off a show mid-sentence) 5. Set brightness to 10%. Then, a reverse of the above at 6am the following day. Normal phone signal is still enabled for any emergency calls, but most apps become useless without the…

> Then, a reverse of the above at 6am the following day.

I understand that's not the case, but I want to imagine your AppleTV coming back to life at 6am every morning, resuming the show mid-sentence at 100% volume. Instant alarm clock.

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#17

Post by dataengineer56 »

I wonder if any of these studies distinguish between people who use screentime more productively. I use my phone on a morning for Duolingo and logging my workouts. That's quite different to doomscrolling, but I still wonder if it's good or bad.

There's also the category of people who stew infront of a TV all day - it's unsurprising that these people will have lower cognitive functions, but is that because they don't have the drive or ambition to do anything else? Is that comparable to someone who comes back from work tired and watches 3 hours of Netflix while doomscrolling?

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#18

Post by sebst »

XorNot wrote: post #6
kome wrote: post #4

and many spend 8 hours at work in front a screen :(

"screentime" is the worst term because it has almost nothing to do with what they're actually talking about - i.e. does an eReader count as screentime? Why? Why does a book not?

I guess there are two main effects of “screentime”: consumption only (doomscrolling or binge watching) and the light effect.

A book would not tick any of those marks

An ereader would account for looking into a light source only if you use background illumination. And even then, it can be set to emit significantly less light than a smartphone screen, especially in the blue frequencies

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#19

Post by thomasfromcdnjs »

csvm wrote: post #8

On my family's iPhones, we have a Shortcut (automation) that kicks in every evening at 9 pm: 1. Turn Mobile Data Off 2. Turn Bluetooth Off 3. Turn WiFi Off 4. Turn AppleTV off (this one is fun because it can cut off a show mid-sentence) 5. Set brightness to 10%. Then, a reverse of the above at 6am the following day. Normal phone signal is still enabled for any emergency calls, but most apps become useless without the…

Sounds about right.

Curious question, up until age 18 did you have a similar upbringing?

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#20

Post by darkhorn »

csvm wrote: post #8

On my family's iPhones, we have a Shortcut (automation) that kicks in every evening at 9 pm: 1. Turn Mobile Data Off 2. Turn Bluetooth Off 3. Turn WiFi Off 4. Turn AppleTV off (this one is fun because it can cut off a show mid-sentence) 5. Set brightness to 10%. Then, a reverse of the above at 6am the following day. Normal phone signal is still enabled for any emergency calls, but most apps become useless without the…

When I turn them all of them off somehow it stays connected to my car (when I am in my car).
Post reply on HN