Screen time does not inhibit social skills among kids

Screen time does not inhibit social skills among kids Today’s Video of the Day from Ohio State University describes an investigation into how screen time may impact the behavior and social skills of young people. 

The researchers found that kids today are just as socially skilled and possess a similar level of self-control as the previous generation, despite excessive use of smartphones and social media. 

“In virtually every comparison we made, either social skills stayed the same or actually went up modestly for the children born later,” said study lead author Douglas Downey. “There’s very little evidence that screen exposure was problematic for the growth of social skills.”

There has been extensive research that has shown that race and socioeconomic class are associated with the over all screen time. Also younger demographics and individuals who identify as Black and/or other race were associated with above average screen use.  

Also the Black and Latino Americans had longer screen times because of less access to desktop computers, which thus leads to more time on phones. In children, the divide is much larger. On average in 2011, White children spent 8.5 hours a day with there phones/media, and Black and Latino children spent about 13 hours a day on screens. Black and Latino children were also more likely to have TVs in their rooms, which contributed to their increased use of screen time.  Screen time does not inhibit social skills among kids as shown above in the video.

The study is published in the American Journal of Sociology.

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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer

Video Credit: Ohio State University