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3 researchers discuss how smartphone use is affecting us
“A new awareness has emerged that we have been seduced. Now we must take back our lives and those of our children,” says researcher.
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Recently, the Norwegian government introduced national screen guidelines for children, adolescents, and parents. They are intended to promote good health and help people find the balance between screen time and other activities.
Could we all benefit from becoming more aware of our phone use?
Three experts summarise what research says about the consequences.
Link to mental health
Many studies have found a connection between the use of social media and poorer mental health, says Jens Christoffer Skogen at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
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This is especially true for young people, but has also been seen in adults. Skogen says researchers have found a link between high screen use and symptoms of anxiety, depression, stress, and lower reported quality of life. He studies social media use and mental health among children and adolescents.
But not all research shows the same thing.
Saying anything about causality is challenging, Skogen points out.
In other words: Is it high screen use that causes problems? Or is it that people with mental health problems spend more time on their phones and watching TV?
“It's probably a bit of both. One can reinforce the other,” the researcher says.
At the same time, young people also report positive experiences with social media.
Through the internet, we can maintain relationships with people we know and feel less lonely.
Spend less time on other things
Ole Petter Hjelle is a doctor, researcher at the University of Inland Norway, and head of the ABEL Institute. He has written the book Det digitale dopet – hvordan bli kvitt skjermavhengigheten (The digital drug – How to break screen addiction).
“In 2010, the iPhone became widespread. Not much has been done to study the long-term consequences,” Hjelle says.
Adults spend an average of almost four hours in front of a screen during their free time every day, according to Nordic Monitoring.
“If you spend four hours on a screen, you spend four hours less on something else,” Hjelle says. “We know that screens are time thieves; they steal time from other activities that we know are important for our health.”
One finding from research is that when we spend a lot of time on screens, we are less physically active, sleep less, and have less social contact, he explains.
“These are three of the pillars of a good quality of life,” he says.
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There is a great deal of evidence that if you use screens a lot but are still social, active, and sleep well, the negative effects of screen use disappear, according to Hjelle.
“This suggests that the main problem is the lack of other activities, not the screen itself,” he says.
Social media – an exception
There is one exception, says Hjelle:
“The more time you spend on social media, the greater the likelihood of having poor mental health. One can speculate about what comes first."
However, recent studies suggest that there may be a causal relationship, he notes.
“We don’t know for sure what this is all about,” he says.
But there are hypotheses. The one Hjelle considers the strongest is called the comparison hypothesis.
Comparing ourselves to others
This hypothesis suggests that how we value our own lives and how we feel depends on how we perceive the lives of those around us, explains Hjelle.
“We use other people's lives as a benchmark for how we feel about our own. What characterises social media is that people often post idealised versions of their lives,” he says.
Posts about romantic dinners, workouts, and promotions can give the impression that others have much better lives than you.
This can affect your own mental health, says Hjelle.
“Children and young people have a self-image that's still developing and are much more vulnerable to negative influence than adults,” he says.
Drawn to things you didn't choose yourself
Steinar Krokstad is a professor of social medicine at NTNU and studies the socioeconomic causes of poor health.
He also highlights social comparison as a reason for the link between social media and poorer mental health.
Krokstad also points out that the platforms are addictive.
People are enticed to spend time on the platforms through new content appearing automatically, occasional rewards in the form of likes and comments, and by promoting engagement, says Krokstad.
“You are drawn to spend time on things you were not actually looking for, but are served anyway,” he says.
The third point Krokstad raises is that these platforms are personalised.
“If you start having problems and focus on things that are harmful and negative, you will get more of that,” he says.
People who are in the process of developing an eating disorder may be exposed to more content about food, calories, and dieting.
Does this affect concentration?
One concern that has been raised is that our phone habits are destroying our ability to concentrate. Is there any truth to this?
“There are indications that frequently being exposed to brief impressions and constant interruptions at least affects attention in the moment. Whether it has any lasting effects is a bigger question. The research on this is unclear,” says Jens Christoffer Skogen.
It is, in any case, easy to be interrupted when notifications need to be checked.
“Neither adults nor children can really multitask. What you are doing is rapidly switching between activities,” he says.
Much of the business model behind social media is to distract people away from what they are doing and onto the tech giants' platforms, says Ole Petter Hjelle.
“On Snapchat and TikTok, you are served short videos with quick scene changes, which provide an immediate reward. This is like digital candy for kid's and teen's brains,” he says.
A consequence of this is that you are easily distracted and lose focus. This can affect learning and social relationships, says Hjelle.
“There is much evidence that our collective ability to concentrate on tasks has deteriorated,” he says.
If you have problems with concentration because of your phone, it can be mistaken as a symptom of ADHD or exacerbate the symptoms in those who have it, explains Hjelle.
"A kind of awakening"
Steinar Krokstad believes it is clear that smartphones and social media have had a negative effect on mental health, especially among young people.
“There has been a kind of awakening. I think many parents have struggled with what their children's everyday lives should look like, given the enormous commercial pressure to digitise childhood,” he says.
At first, it was uncertain what kind of consequences it would have, according to Krokstad.
“It has become clearer and clearer that this is a huge problem. When research shows us this, people recognise it,” he says. " A new awareness has emerged that we have been seduced. Now we must take back our lives and those of our children.”
"Landmark changes"
Krokstad works with the Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT). This is a large population study that has been ongoing since 1984.
He and his colleagues have studied health data from the population between 2006 and 2017.
“During that decade, there was a dramatic deterioration in what adolescents and young adults reported about their health,” he says.
The negative trend began around 2010 to 2012. Research from other countries shows the same thing, according to Krokstad.
At this time, smartphones became widespread.
The HUNT study shows a doubling in the proportion of adolescents and young adults reporting mental health problems over the course of a decade, says Krokstad.
“These are truly striking, landmark changes over a short period of time,” he says. “We have speculated about what happened in the youth population.”
The strongest hypothesis, they believe, is that this change reflects screen time and the use of social media.
Older adults have improved mental health
For women in their 50s, 60s, and 70s, researchers see an improvement in mental health over the past decade in the HUNT study.
“Many people my age also find themselves scrolling on their phones. But I think we know what life is like without it and more easily appreciate the benefits of putting the phone away – and we also don't risk being socially excluded,” says Krokstad.
Social media can also have positive effects, such as opportunities for networking, experiencing support, or expressing oneself. Krokstad believes adults may have benefited more from this.
Academic debate
Not everyone agrees that smartphones and social media are to blame for young people reporting poorer mental health.
“There has been an academic dispute about this. Some say we don't really know anything about it, that the evidence is weak,” Krokstad says. “Phones and technology have affected us all. That makes it very difficult to study, because no one is unexposed.”
Studies that look at differences in time use between individuals find effects, but they are not very clear, he notes.
What complicates the picture is that whether we use our phones a lot or a little, we are still affected by the cultural change. For example, you may feel anxious about missing out on something.
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Translated by Nancy Bazilchuk
Read the Norwegian version of this article on forskning.no
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