Introduction

Selected topic for this study is “Screen time and Young Children”. In this study, discussion will be made through the potential evidence about the subject that excessive screen time exposure is dangerous for children under 12 years. For parents in the digital age, fights over screen time and gadgets have turned into a discouraging piece of family life. Regardless of whether it’s three-year-old pitching fits when the iPad is removed, seven-year-old viewing YouTube throughout the night, nine-year-old requesting their very own telephones, 11-year-old pestering to play 18-appraised computer games (Larson, et. al., 2019). Parents are also concern that watching too much can affect the retina of their child (Neumann, 2015). It has been noted that the concept of screen time is becoming more intense due to the development of technology. Young children are addicted with the fancy video content and fictional characters that they always see on the tele-vision and on other gadgets (Przybylski & Weinstein, 2019).

Literature Review

According to Carson, Streans & Janssen, (2015) there are many clinical and psychological effect for children who are indulging their huge time in watching television, enjoying on their iPads and continuously watching other gadgets which put adverse effect on their retina. However, children and their parents need to understand that this process put the adverse lasting effects over the physical and psychological state of children. The excessive screen time create the adverse pattern in the subconscious mind of the children. This also affects their sleeping pattern because it is noted from the secondary research that children see the fictional character and stories in their dreams (Carson, Streans & Janssen, 2015). Author had used the secondary method for obtaining the data. In the secondary method, author has obtained data from various other journals and researches. The strength of this article is that this article is describing well about the psychological effect due to excessive allowance to the screen time to the children. On the other hand, weakness of this article is that the author conducted the secondary research only through journals and data of other researchers. More accurate context can be figure out if author obtain the data through latest websites.

It has been noted that children who spend most of their time to guild over the screen and more likely to develop risk which directly affects their emotional, physical and psychological health. According to Xu, Wen, Hardy & Rissel, (2016) subconscious mind create fictional stories and children imagines themselves as the superhero who saves the world from aliens or other enemies (Xu, Wen, Hardy & Rissel, 2016). Watching excessive tele-vison at early ages also affects the brain development of children and allowance to excessive screen time also discourages the reading habits from the children

According to Lissak, (2018) excessive screen allowing to children develops the symptoms of insomnia, anxiety, depression, sleep disorder and chronic insomnia disorders till the age when they turn into 11-12 years. Author has conducted the primary research by considering 2000 participants in Canada (Lissak, 2018). The participants of this research are children who are between 11-12 years and parents are required to fill the questionnaire with their children. This questionnaire contains the questions regarding the average screen time, study time, sleeping hours in a day, level of anger in the children, their favourite cartoon character, etc. The strength of this article is that the author describes deeply about the diseases which raises due to excessive screen allowance. On the other hand, weakness of this article is that the author conducted primary research only on 2000 participant. Thus, the conclusion drawn can be different from the actual result of actions.

According to Liu, Wu & Yao, (2016) the author describes about the functioning of excessive screen time with the mental pattern phenomenon. The way to understand the method behind the functioning of too much screen exposure can be understand easily through this example. For example: Johnson who is 11 months old has started watching cartoon and other videos on YouTube. At the age of 11 months he is not understanding any content, he is feeling happy for seeing the colour combination and fancy style with cartoon characters utilizes. As his age grows, he started understanding meaning and he even started developing various scenario in his mind, like: he also has same the magic wand or he is also capable to fight with aliens in outer space, etc (Liu, Wu & Yao, 2016). Such imaginary scenes give birth to above stated problem. Author has utilized the secondary research method for drawn the results on the relationship between excessive screen time with the subconscious mind functioning. The strength of this article is that author explained it very well about the functioning of subconscious mind. Identified weakness of this article is that the author every children’s mind is different. Thus, it is not sure that the all the children will experience same subconscious phenomenon.

It can be understood that children who spent their huge in watching series, fictional shows, cartoons, etc are more likely to become victims of bullying, aggressive, shows lower interpersonal skills, develops the habits of intaking unhealth diet, show symptoms for depression, etc. All this problem does not process immediately but it takes time for years to develop (Liu, Wu & Yao, 2016).

According to Tooth, Moss, Hockey & Mishra, (2015) allowing children to spend long time watching a screen (whether it include to allow them to watch tele-vision, smartphone or tablet) it makes children more sedentary and make them less mindful about food they eat and other activities. Author further describes that children become fascinate by the computer games more than the tele-vision (Tooth, Moss, Hockey & Mishra, 2015). Computer games also incorporates various adverse effect on the health of children. When children spent huge time on games which incorporates violence and blood scenes then slowly such scenario create the adverse pattern in the subconscious mind (Przybylski & Weinstein, 2019). Thus, this give birth to stimulating anger, violence, obesity, epilepsy, social isolation and other damages which are related to the mental health. Apart from this, computer games are highly addicted and guided the thoughts of children in the direction of war, alien enemies, space war, etc. For this study author has incorporated the primary research method. Author has conducted the study on 1000 participants who belongs from the age group of 13-16 years. These participants include children who plays computer games and watches tele-vision daily. Interview and questionnaire are design to obtain the data. The strength of this article is screen time uses is explained by incorporating the computer game cycle also. On the other hand, identified weakness of this article is that not all the computer games design on the subject of blood or war. Many computer games also design to improve the mathematical of children, improves their communication skills, etc.

Conclusion

It has been concluded that the too much allowing for screen time has adversely affect the mental and physical health of the children. Children who watches tele-vision or other screen time gadgets are more likely to be impacted from various health and mental problems which includes insomnia, anxiety, sleep disorder, etc. Apart from this, it is also concluded that adverse pattern starts developing in the subconscious mind of children which slowly affects the functioning of mind. Moreover, in this literature review the strength and weakness of each article is also explained. Below each article a short personal reflection is also giving about the views and understanding of the article.

References

Carson, V., Stearns, J., & Janssen, I. (2015). The relationship between parental physical activity and screen time behaviors and the behaviors of their young children. Pediatric exercise science, 27(3), 390-395.

Ehret, C. (2019). Proliterate Rhythms of Screen Time and Homework. The Reading Teacher, 72(4), 533-538.

Larson, L. R., Szczytko, R., Bowers, E. P., Stephens, L. E., Stevenson, K. T., & Floyd, M. F. (2019). Outdoor time, screen time, and connection to nature: Troubling trends among rural youth?. Environment and Behavior, 51(8), 966-991.

Lissak, G. (2018). Adverse physiological and psychological effects of screen time on children and adolescents: Literature review and case study. Environmental research, 164(1), 149-157.

Liu, M., Wu, L., & Yao, S. (2016). Dose–response association of screen time-based sedentary behaviour in children and adolescents and depression: a meta-analysis of observational studies. Br J Sports Med, 50(20), 1252-1258.

Neumann, M. M. (2015). Young children and screen time: Creating a mindful approach to digital technology. Australian educational computing, 30(2), 34-54.

Przybylski, A. K., & Weinstein, N. (2019). Digital Screen Time Limits and Young Children’s Psychological Well?Being: Evidence From a Population?Based Study. Child development, 90(1), 56-65.

Stewart, T., Duncan, S., Walker, C., Berry, S., & Schofield, G. (2019). Effects of screen time on preschool health and development. Abingdon: Routledge

Tooth, L., Moss, K., Hockey, R., & Mishra, G. D. (2015). Adherence to screen time recommendations for Australian children aged 0–12 years. Women’s Health, 44(1547), 1547-1547.

Xu, H., Wen, L. M., Hardy, L. L., & Rissel, C. (2016). Associations of outdoor play and screen time with nocturnal sleep duration and pattern among young children. Acta Paediatrica, 105(3), 297-303