Screen time myth debunked
Ah, January. The time of year when anyone with school-age children wonders how they are going to manage the weeks until the new term starts. Just how much time should our kids be spending on digital devices? Oxford University researchers Amy Orben and Andrew Przybylski looked at the relationship between youth mental health and digital device use after seeing so many conflicting news stories on the topic. They found that teen screen use is no more harmful than eating potatoes but less harmful than wearing glasses. While the parent in me breathed a big sigh of relief at that news, the scientist in me was keen to know more.
In their study, Orben and Przybylski answer a more important question – how is it that sometimes researchers can’t agree on whether something is good or bad for us even when they use the same data? It all depends on definitions and how different researchers do their analysis. When analysing data, most researchers are looking for results that are statistically significant. But the word significant here doesn’t actually mean important. It’s just a measure of the likelihood that a relationship between things is caused by something other than chance.
Using datasets with information on more than 300,000 people, Orben and Przybylski showed that if they varied their definitions and analyses they could conclude that using digital devices was bad for teens, good for teens, or had no effect. Statistically speaking at least.
If researchers aren’t careful, we can use big datasets to tell any story. To fix this, Orben and Przybylski used a new statistical technique, Specification Curve Analysis, which pulled other information from the datasets to put the statistical findings in context. They found that the impact of screen time on young people’s mental health was minimal, the same as regularly eating potatoes. While I think the impact of how young people use devices is still an open question, the study showed what does have a big negative impact on teen wellbeing: wearing glasses, smoking marijuana, and not eating breakfast. Oh, and being bullied. Perhaps that explains the glasses.
While the parent in me breathed a big sigh of relief at that news, the scientist in me was keen to know more.