Too much summer screen time for kids can increase anxiety, affect person-to-person relationships

Too much summer screen time for kids can increase anxiety, affect person-to-person relationships

With summer right around the corner, children will be out of school and away from the daily routine of seeing their peers. With that extra time on their hands, they may naturally gravitate to phones or other electronic devices, but officials at Emplify Health by Gundersen are encouraging parents to set limits for the good of their child's physical and mental health.

A recent study found that children younger than 12 who have phones are at higher risk of developing obesity and depression. To Jeff Reiland, a child and family therapist at Emplify Health by Gundersen, those findings aren't a surprise.

"Screens are generally a sedentary activity, so you're sitting, you're not doing as much, you're not as active when you're plugged in. That kind of makes sense," he said. "The harder one is to understand why that increase seems to be associated with screens and depression or anxiety."

Reiland says that when kids as young as 12 get invested in social media and video games, they typically spend less time outdoors being physically active, and they're not involved in face-to-face activities.

"We are human beings, and we need connection, but we need real connection to real people in real time, not virtual connection," he said.

Over the past 20 years, Reiland says he's heard much concern from young people about the quality of their relationships because of the influence of screens - social media for women and video games for men. Both a very singular activities, and if much time is spent doing them, that same amount of time is lost on beneficial actions.

"How much time are we invested in doing those things where our nose is in a screen, versus practicing social interaction between people?" Reiland said. "If we're plugged in for four or five hours a day or more, that's time spent not doing something else - the talking, the getting social skills and practicing those really important people skills that we don't get from a screen."

To learn more about how screen time affects children, visit gundersenhealth.rog/health-wellness/pregnancy-kids/how-screen-time-affects-your-kids-health.