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Parenting in The Digital Age: The Consequences of Excessive Screen Time

by | Feb 1, 2025 | Manuscripts | 0 comments

Cindy Niangsuanbawi, B.Optom

Paediatric Optometrist and Clinic Specialist , Vision Sense, Noida, India

 

Technology has become an integral part of modern parenting, offering valuable educational tools like learning apps and games and access to information. Parents increasingly use digital devices to motivate their children to complete tasks and achieve goals. They can also be used as a distraction tool to keep them occupied or entertained so they can focus on work or other tasks without distraction. In addition, using a mobile to calm a crying child can be seen as a convenient and effective tool, providing a moment of peace in a chaotic situation. Still, parents must find a balance between leveraging the benefits of technology and their children’s healthy growth and well-being and well-being of their children.  While giving a child a mobile/tablet can be a helpful short-term solution for busy parents, it is important to use this strategy in moderation and with careful supervision, since excessive screen time at a young age can have potential consequences.

Effects of excessive screen exposure at a young age:

  1. Delayed visual development: Children who have parents who talk to them, play, and expose them to different activities and experiences, have better development than those children who are exposed to screens at a very young age, due to lack of physical activities, difficulty regulating emotion and focus and unresponsive to what is around them when they are on screen. Excessive screen time can slow progress in achieving visual milestones like tracking, scanning, and recognising objects and can also lead to communication delays. (1,2)
  2. Digital eye strain: Prolonged screen time can lead to eye strain because we blink less when staring at the screen or while doing near work. It can also cause sleep deprivation, and too much time on devices can affect a child’s attention span, making it hard for them to focus on non-digital activities. (3)
  3. Potential for refractive errors: Most refractive errors are genetics, but it can also be influenced by environmental factors.
    • Myopia (near-sightedness) associated with prolonged near work. For the genetic cause of myopia excessive screen exposure can lead to an increase in progression of myopia at a very young age. (4)
    • Astigmatism (blurry vision at all distances) is caused because of excessive rubbing of the eye because of dryness/irritation due to a decrease in blinking rate which is caused due to prolonged exposure to the screen. This can cause change in the shape of the cornea and can result in astigmatism.
  4. Strabismus: Focusing on a screen at a close distance for an extended period can disrupt the coordination between the eyes, increasing the risk of developing strabismus in infants.
  5. Impact on sleep: Exposure to blue light from the screen, especially before sleep can disrupt melatonin production causes difficulty falling asleep, disrupting sleep patterns and irritability. (5)

To navigate these challenges what are the prevention tips that parents can do:

  1. Set boundaries and reduce screen time
  2. Natural visual exposure: Provide infants with colourful toys and encourage outdoor activities and face-to-face interaction.
  3. Avoid screen before sleep
  4. Encourage regular breaks by following the 20-20-20 rule (look away from the screen after every 20 minutes to look at 20 feet distance for 20 seconds)
  5. Encourage blinking (Frequent blinking can prevent dryness and irritation).
  6. Routine eye examination can help detect and address any developing ocular issues early.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while digital devices have become an essential part of our lives, their use at a very young age requires careful consideration. The potential ocular problems highlighted the need for moderation and supervision in children’s screen time. Balancing the use of smartphones with traditional parenting practices is crucial for fostering healthy ocular development and strong parent-child relationships in the digital age.

 

References:

  1. Screen time & Developmental Delays: How much TV is okay? https://www.hackensackmeridianhealth.org/en/healthu/2023/09/11/screen-time-and-developmental
  2. Zhao, J., Yu, Z., Sun, X., Wu, S., Zhang, J., Zhang, D., … & Jiang, F. (2022). Association between screen time trajectory and early childhood development in children in China. JAMA pediatrics, 176(8), 768-775.
  3. Computer vision syndrome https://www.cedars-sinai.org/health-library/diseases-and-conditions/c/computer-vision
  4. What do you know about the connection between childhood myopia and screen time https://www.westoncontactlens.com/childhood-myopia-screen-time/
  5. American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) – ‘Digital Devices and your eyes’ by Daniel Porter http://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/digital-devices-your-eyes

 

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