Smartphones, tablets and other connected objects are an important part of our daily lives and we can not live without them. Today, even the youngest and the youngest have become perfect followers. Only the exposure of the youngest and especially the youngest to smartphones and tablets can have a negative impact on their health and early childhood professionals all agree to warn parents about the psychological consequences of this practice. .
Smartphones and tablets - Public health problem?
Smartphones and other connected objects such as tablets are an integral part of our daily lives. Whether in our private life, professional or even during the holidays, no one can do without these "high-tech" high-tech objects.
Even the youngest ones will have taken a liking to it, creating a certain dependence, not without consequences for health. According to Médiamétrie, among young people of 15-24 year olds, each averaged 63 minutes per day on a cell phone in October 2017, and this daily time is 73 minutes in March 2018.
What about the little ones? Especially when we know that the brain of adults is more developed and less prone to a certain sensitivity, that of children and especially the very small, is undeniably more sensitive to the consequences that can create overexposure, or even a dependence on the screen.
Between concentration deficit, radiation effects of smartphones and other mobile phones; disruption of sleep, migraines, or even cancers, it would seem that the precautions to put into practice are in order. The school success of children would really suffer from this bad habit of staying on the screen for a long time.
Moreover, the use of smartphones and tablets for personal use has just been prohibited in French primary schools and colleges since the start of the 2018 academic year.
Study highlights misdeeds of smartphone use among the youngest
A study conducted by two American universities, highlights the significant link between the decline in psychological well-being among US teens after 2012 and the time spent on electronic communications and screens including smartphones and other tablets.
Psychological well-being was lower in years when teens spent more time on screens and higher in years when they spent more time on screen-free activities, with changes in activities generally preceding declines in well-being. be.
The study's researchers, Professors Jean Twenge and Keith Campbell, said that the time spent on smartphones was a serious but preventable cause of mental health problems and that it was necessary to identify factors related to these health risks. psychological. Parents and teachers need to reduce the time children spend online or watch TV while studying, socializing, eating or even playing sports.
The study also showed that even moderate use of smartphones and tablets for four hours was associated with psychological well-being of less than one hour per day.
Preschoolers or under-five children with prolonged overexposure are twice as likely to get angry, and 46% more likely to not be able to calm down when excited.
Among the 14 to 17 year olds, more than four in ten (42.2%) of study participants who spent more than seven hours a day on screens had not completed their tasks. About one in eleven (9%) of 11- to 13-year-olds who spent an hour on screens every day was not curious or interested in learning new things.
Toddlers who regularly use smartphones and / or tablets would be more likely to get upset quickly and lose patience, than those who have less, if any, access to these connected objects and after only one hour of time spent staring at the screen, their curiosity would also be seriously altered.
Moreover, if a dependency on the screen is created, the fact of spending time on a smartphone or a tablet, would give them a euphoric effect, even tranquillizing, and without that, they would be easily irritable and angry, state that the would lead in the short or medium term to some form of anxiety.
Hence the importance for parents in the first place, to establish basic rules by defining the moments with or without smartphones and other tablets available and this, firmly, while empowering them by drawing their attention to the reasons and consequences that may result from prolonged exposure, or even a dependence on these connected objects that may eventually prove to be harmful to their health.
