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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

#141

Post by ph1sch3r »

imaginationra wrote: post #121

Adult here that NEVER used any kind of mobile phone/tablet- never even had a flip/dumb phone. I do programming amongst other creative computer based things- the thing I've noticed between me and the normal phone/tablet human- is the ability to focus. I can focus for hours, weeks, months, years on tasks etc. Everyone around me feels like focus wimps- they focus for 15 minutes or an hour and are proud of themselves and…

When engaged in a difficult task - perhaps when working at the limit of one's working memory or understanding, I often get a jolt of frustration and want to 'switch tabs' (figuratively or literally).

It's becoming more apparent to me that important traits are:

1) raising the threshold of discomfort that makes one want to task switch 2) the ability to avoid task switching immediately once the task becomes uncomfortable or difficult (or at least avoid task switching in a mindless way)

I find that impactful work often takes sustained periods of focus with some level of discomfort. (For example, watch chess grandmasters at work. Their behaviors of often are a mixture of grimaces, frowns and exasperated sighs.)

Having said that, I find taking a walk is often fruitful, and has a different valence/intentionality to a mindless task switch.

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#142

Post by heckelson »

Terr_ wrote: post #67
raincole wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It does make some evolutionary sense Does it? It sounds total bs to me. "When you have an object close to your face, it's registered as food, because you need to get close to your meal to eat it." "When you have an object close to your face, it's registered as love, because parents needs to get close to their child to look after them." When you have a statement that you can bend in an arbitrary way and still make s…

Yeah, sometimes I put a morning banana by my bed, and I'm pretty sure my body doesn't treat it is a threat . Seeking a charitable explanation, "near things are a threat" is a garbled form of "near things cause physiological arousal"? That more-inclusive version would then cover cases like "delicious fruit" and "scary spider" and "the thing I put down next to me as a reminder to do something with it as soon as I got u…

> morning banana by my bed

this person is living in the year 3200 with moves as smart as this one

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#143

Post by gnz11 »

kranke155 wrote: post #109

I have no choice but to use screens for work. What should I do then?

Take breaks? Maybe not worry so much about "wellness" articles? More often than not the anxiety these articles create is more detrimental than whatever the topic is about. For example, the article introduces an absurd "20-20-20" rule which states:

"This rule suggests that individuals look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds every 20 minutes of the day."

Now clearly this is a rule that is impossible to realistically meet or maintain but yet the seed of anxiety is planted in the reader that they are not following yet another "rule" for better health (in this case eye health).

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#144

Post by MavisBacon »

hypfer wrote: post #103
ulrikrasmussen wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That quote made me lose interest in anything that article had to say. It's such a ridiculous claim to say that everything that is close to my face is automatically registered as a threat, and I bet that 99.99% of things that regularly gets close to peoples faces (even disregarding smartphones from that statistic) are actually not threats at all. I don't think it makes evolutionary sense at all since it would cause us…

I'm surprised you made it that far before filing it as the BS it is, given that "Screens" in general have been the enemy in that article. Not what they display, how they operate or any other detail. No. Screens. A thing that displays information.

Yes this sort of logic always maddens me. And it has extended to medicine for sure. Simplifying "screen time" as if what type of screen, the size of the screen, brightness, and what you are doing on it are insignificant. Anecdotally I had a "sleep specialist" actually give "no screens before bed" as medical advice. So what am I supposed to do- stare at the wall and think about if I'll be able to sleep? Reading a book will require more illumination which will disrupt circadian rhythm

What's more important is being conscious of what we are doing with screens at what times. I stop using my computer after 7pm typically, no social media before bed or upon waking

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#145

Post by mrweasel »

strken wrote: post #134
mrweasel wrote: post #111

I've seen this advise from other sources as well: "Spend time outside and get morning light" (In the first hour of getting up). That is a really stupid advise, it only for a few months a year. The rest of the time it's dark when I get up and will remain dark for more than an hour.

Your perceived inability to follow the advice because you live too close to the poles does not mean the advice itself is wrong, and definitely doesn't mean it's stupid. Many people in similar climates to you use sun lamps during winter, for example.

It's not wrong, but I still think it's stupid, because of how it's normally stated. I've never heard it presented as "if your location allows it" or "We understand that that isn't an option for large parts of the world so here an alternative". People have been living in this part of the world for thousands of years, without sun lamps, it might be good if you can get it, but sun light first thing in the morning certainly isn't a requirement.

It might be good thing to do, but as general advise, it's has a pretty obviously flaw. That is NEVER address by the type of people who brings us this advise and to me that hurt credibility.

"Get sun light into your eyes first thing in the morning", perfect, I'll just sleep until 10.

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#146

Post by bdjsiqoocwk »

jamager wrote: post #112
devjab wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that there are a lot of issues with the way Duolingo motives people through unhealthy incentives, but research does show that it works. Though it will need to be used in conjunction with other methods of learning to be truly helpful. But then, why would you learn a language if you’re not going to actively use it? https://www.researchgate.net/publication/379288394_The_Effec...

No, research doesn't show that it works. That research you link has been conducted by Xiangying Jiang and Bozena Pajak (first and last authors). If you want to contact them about how totally objective and unbiased they are, here are their emails: xiangying@duolingo.com bozena@duolingo.com

There's a subreddit for this, it's r/MurderedByWords

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#147

Post by felipereigosa »

MavisBacon wrote: post #144
hypfer wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised you made it that far before filing it as the BS it is, given that "Screens" in general have been the enemy in that article. Not what they display, how they operate or any other detail. No. Screens. A thing that displays information.

Yes this sort of logic always maddens me. And it has extended to medicine for sure. Simplifying "screen time" as if what type of screen, the size of the screen, brightness, and what you are doing on it are insignificant. Anecdotally I had a "sleep specialist" actually give "no screens before bed" as medical advice. So what am I supposed to do- stare at the wall and think about if I'll be able to sleep? Reading a book…

Two things work for me, either reading on my phone (I have a support thing) with the eye shield to avoid the blue light or listening to music until I feel sleepy enough to stop.

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#148

Post by Toorkit »

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 open the lichess app in bed and do chess puzzles. Not even 2 minutes and I'm out like a light.

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#149

Post by karma_fountain »

bjornsing wrote: post #123
makeitdouble wrote: post #58

While trying to go a bit deeper into the sources, they honestly feel extremely weak... An example of how negative impact on the brain is backed: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11469-019-00182-2 From the abstract: > we systematically identified articles meeting the following inclusion criteria: published in English between January 1999–July 2019; human or animal subjects; primary and secondary sources incl…

Yeah and it’s not hard to come up with a hypothesis with reverse causation: people struggling with mental health tend to (on average) live more solitary lives with more screen time.

Also people watching five hours of TV a day maybe aren't doing too much exercise.

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#150

Post by gandalfgreybeer »

Refusing23 wrote: post #69

This reads like people spend and hour in bed looking at their phone before getting up... lol i wake up, turn off my phones alarm. then i get up, go wake up my kid, take a shower while he eats breakfast and we're off after that.

>This reads like people spend and hour in bed looking at their phone before getting up... lol

This is very normal for a lot of people I know irl (at least those within my generation).

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