“What’s the Zoom code?”
“I think you’re muted – try talking again?”
Who knew that these phrases would become so common over the past year?
In 2020, many children and teenagers had their eyes glued to screens. Bustling in-person weddings turned into endearing Zoom sessions with a sprinkling of the occasional awkward silence. Celebrating a cozy New Years with extended family turned into cold, bandwidth draining Facetimes with confused grandparents. Sweating at the gym turned into binging YouTube videos of other people sweating, in their home gym.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly nine in every 10 surveyed children exceeded the two-hour daily limit on non-school screen time recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. According to Dr. Michael Rich, screens likely provide an impoverished stimulation of the brain compared to vibrant stimulation from reality, hindering the growth of the developing brain. Research from the National Institutes of Health indicates that children with more than two hours of daily screen time scored lower on language and thinking tests. While governments distribute vaccines boasting increased immunity, how immune are we to the effects of increased screen time?
That said, research conducted at Binghamton University shows that there may be some benefit to increased screen usage: it could enhance your visual perception.
Think of your visual perception system as a relay race. The baton? Light. The first runner is your retina, which “sees” what you “see” in the outside world. Afterward, the baton is passed to light-receiving cells called receptors. A series of electrochemical signals then carry the baton towards the brain, who finishes the race. When the baton of light reaches the brain, you are able comprehend what you are seeing. Now imagine that your visual perception relay team is running in a busy metropolis. As your team passes the baton of light, you begin to notice horizontal and vertical orientations, formed by the edges of skyscrapers, roads, and sidewalks. Identifying these orientations are a fundamental aspect of how you understand the outside world.
Binghamton University Professor, Peter Gerhardstein, tested college students’ abilities to perceive certain orientations before and after they played four hours of Minecraft. He found that the students were able to identify horizontal and vertical orientations more easily after playing video games. In essence, increased screen time improved the speed of their visual perception relay team. According to Professor Gerhardstein, this indicated “the impressive extent to which the young adult visual system [could] rapidly adapt” to new environments.
Knowing the human brain can adjust to screens signifies a beacon of hope in our rapidly digitalized future, in which screens may dominate our lives. While additional screen time may hinder brain development, these extra hours could also train your visual perception to become faster “sprinters”, helping you understand what you’re seeing more quickly. So, what does this mean for a post-pandemic world? Maybe it’s time to learn more about the full scope of screen time’s impact. Then, we can wield our devices with confidence, and with our eyes wide open.
Works Cited
Hulick, Kathryn. “Healthy Screen Time Is One Challenge of Distance Learning.” Science News for Students, 4 Sept. 2020, http://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/healthy-screen-time-is-one-challenge-of-distance-learning.
Micale, Jennifer. “Screen Time Can Change Visual Perception – and That’s Not Necessarily Bad – Binghamton News.” News – Binghamton University, 30 Sept. 2020, http://www.binghamton.edu/news/story/2650/screen-time-can-change-visual-perception-and-thats-not-necessarily-bad#:~:text=Screen%20time%20can%20change%20visual%20perception%20%E2%80%94%20and,photo%20of%20a%20version%20playing%20a%20video%20game.
Richtel, Matt. “Children’s Screen Time Has Soared in the Pandemic, Alarming Parents and Researchers.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 16 Jan. 2021, http://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/16/health/covid-kids-tech-use.html.
Ruder, Debra Bradley. “Screen Time and the Brain.” Neurobiology, neuro.hms.harvard.edu/centers-and-initiatives/harvard-mahoney-neuroscience-institute/about-hmni/archive-brain-0.
“What Does Too Much Screen Time Do to Kids’ Brains?” New York Presbyterian, 5 Oct. 2020, healthmatters.nyp.org/what-does-too-much-screen-time-do-to-childrens-brains/.