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What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

longevity.stanford.edu

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Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#21

Post by frereubu »

MrJagil wrote: post #11

“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 m…

This sounds like hocus pocus to me, along the lines of the claim that phone alert tones activate the "love centre" of the brain. Just so happens that the "love centre" is also the "vomiting centre" along with a load of other stuff. I'd treat this hand-wavy claim with the same kind of skepticism - your counter-example is an excellent one. I agree that looking at a phone first thing in the morning is a bad idea, but for very different reasons.

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#22

Post by bdjsiqoocwk »

dataengineer56 wrote: post #17

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…

> I use my phone on a morning for Duolingo

Duolingo is extremely passive. you're not learning a language, you're learning how to answer correctly on an app.

It's a lot more time efficient to do exercises from a grammar. But... It doesn't feel as good. Which is exactly the point.

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#24

Post by Scarblac »

simmerup wrote: post #15
gyosko wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about a nice book?

I read but every night for 1-2hours? No way.

There's also chores, talking with people, board games, going for a walk, a bath, sex, exercise, just doing nothing in particular for a bit, etc. The choice isnt only screens or books.

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#25

Post by ZeroGravitas »

sebst wrote: post #18
XorNot wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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

If you want to read a book then you need some source of light.

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#26

Post by frereubu »

dataengineer56 wrote: post #17

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…

I imagine, like most things, it's on a spectrum. No screen (for the first hour of the day) is probably better than Duolingo, which is better than doomscrolling. I also imagine it varies between people. I can get overstimulated by screen use, so I feel much better if I don't use it for the first and last hours of the day, but I'm not always good at keeping to that rule!

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#27

Post by Cthulhu_ »

virtue3 wrote: post #12
siquick wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah but you need some light in order to read, and most lights are LED nowadays. That said, I have a Philips wake-up light that has a very pleasant yellow and dimmable light. I wonder what its frequency is though, some cheaper leds don't blink fast enough and especially when I'm tired it's noticeable. I just checked it with the slow-mo camera of my phone, my overhead lamps have a visible flickering, but the wake-up light has an interesting shuttering / interlacing effect, when I up the brightness (which increases brightness and shifts the light more to white) it seems to alternate between a white and orange light source. Might be multiple bulbs interlacing.

Anyway, LED backlight shouldn't be a problem if it's not white light. Best to have some additional light in the room though, to reduce contrast / eye strain between the screen and the background.

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#28

Post by hug »

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?

From anecdotal experience, it makes essentially no difference.

I read for an hour or two before bed every night. Paper, kindle, or my current iPad mini make no real difference to my sleep.

Dim lights, relaxing, and trying to clear my brain of distractions other than what I’m reading make more of a difference. It’s almost but not quite like meditation.

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#29

Post by frereubu »

bdjsiqoocwk wrote: post #22
dataengineer56 wrote: post #17

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…

> I use my phone on a morning for Duolingo Duolingo is extremely passive. you're not learning a language, you're learning how to answer correctly on an app. It's a lot more time efficient to do exercises from a grammar. But... It doesn't feel as good. Which is exactly the point.

That's too dismissive in my view. Duolingo isn't as good as in-person lessons, but it's still way better than nothing. I'd also argue that grammar exercises are cripplingly boring for most people, so if the choice is not learning or grammar exercises they'd choose not learning, which is worse. I'd also argue that you're only talking strictly about learning language in the most efficient way, but missing out on the fact that if you can make it fun, the enjoyment in itself is a valid reason for doing something.

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#30

Post by NamTaf »

simmerup wrote: post #15
gyosko wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about a nice book?

I read but every night for 1-2hours? No way.

What's so strange about that as a concept? As someone who grew up in the 90s, the idea of doing so is totally normal for me. I mean, I don't do it, but I wouldn't blink at someone else saying they did.

How do you think people achieve the goal of 50 books in a year, for example?

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