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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

#31

Post by Cthulhu_ »

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 think all the activities mentioned stimulate the little dopamine rushes; Duolingo and workout loggers both gamify progress, where getting the points or progression in those apps is more important than what they're intended to quantify. Doomscrolling will get you the dopamine rush of the various emotional ups and downs it provides.

I mean I'm guilty as well, I often browse reddit mindlessly, often r/all which opens up the floodgates (although it's not really 'all' anymore, it used to include porn as well and subreddits can opt-out I believe).

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#32

Post by Cthulhu_ »

throwing_away wrote: post #13
gyosko wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

8 hours in front of a screen while working is not the same as 8 hours doomscrolling content, at least that's my guess.

there's probably a lot of overlap

Some, work has less of the gamified aspects... although sites like github do have some of it.

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#35

Post by FrostKiwi »

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…

First time hearing about Sky before screens. Lifestyle advice that would work well with software as a profession, I imagine.

> i wake up every morning and look at my girlfriends face, hopefully that does not subconsciously trigger the same response

Giggled out loud, funniest thing I heard all day.

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#36

Post by darkstar_16 »

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 am the first one to wake up (with an alarm) in my house on weekdays. I also find the light from the phone actually helps me wake up slowly. If I don't wake up early (get ready myself) and get the kids ready for school, it'll have a cascading effect on the whole day, so screen time works for me for that purpose. And it's usually only 10-15 minutes max. In that time, I don't see or do work stuff. Since, we have family around the world, I usually just go through the family chat messages, some light social etc in that time. I get why it's a bad habit but I also have a reason why it works. On weekends, of course the alarms are off and I wake up when I wake up.

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#37

Post by fernandotakai »

simmerup wrote: post #3
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.

What do you do instead of TV/Computer before bed?

i listen to audiobooks -- because i can get some "book time" to myself without having to strain my eyes.

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#38

Post by dataengineer56 »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #31
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 think all the activities mentioned stimulate the little dopamine rushes; Duolingo and workout loggers both gamify progress, where getting the points or progression in those apps is more important than what they're intended to quantify. Doomscrolling will get you the dopamine rush of the various emotional ups and downs it provides. I mean I'm guilty as well, I often browse reddit mindlessly, often r/all which opens…

> workout loggers both gamify progress

I agree but I just find it too useful to be able to see what my workout is going to be and what I did last time, as well as my progress on different exercises. The alternative would be printing out my workout app before each workout, filling it in with pen and paper and then inputting it back into the app later. I'd love an alternative.

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#40

Post by bdjsiqoocwk »

frereubu wrote: post #29
bdjsiqoocwk wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 fa…

Learning fast is fun to me.

Edit: yes, I am dismissive because I've tried it and seen that its obviously a scam, in the sense that it's sold as a fun way of learning but it's actually just a fun way of not learning.

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