Screen Time Recommendations by Age for a Healthy Lifestyle
Spending too much time on screen may lead to sleep problems, health problems, mood swings, fewer interactions with family and friends, low grades in school, not enough physical exercise needed for the body, poor self-image, and body image issues. One should not neglect these negative factors while spending too much screen time on devices. To help people limit the use of screen time, here are some screen time recommendations by age. This will help you understand the appropriate amount of time one should spend on devices/ screens.
- 0 to 18 months:
One should avoid screen time during this age, as the baby is just 1 year old and is still in a developing stage. Certain amounts of screen time on video calls would be fine if the parents are out of town. Otherwise, the screen should be avoided as much as possible during this initial developing age.
- 18 to 24 months:
It is an initial understanding age, it’s an age when a child starts to somewhat understand things, educational content should be viewed on-screen with parents being there, this would help the child learn quickly. The screen should be helping the child, it should be a supplement to an activity rather than being the focus of the activity.
- 2 to 5 years:
Educational screen time is fine, but anything non-educational should be not more than an hour, the sole focus should be on educational content, video games, and YouTube videos, which should be minimized.
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- 6 to 12 years:
At this age parents should encourage children to play outdoor games, rather than indoor games, if possible one should stay away from screen time during this age, one should focus on physical health and physical activities. During this age the child starts developing his personality, parents are the best personality development mentor, they help the child form a personality. The use of screen time would affect shaping the personality of the child. Rather than spending time on screens, the child should go out and take part in various activities which would give him the challenge to help shape his personality.
- Teenagers:
Surveys have found teenagers spend an average of more than seven hours a day looking at screens. Whereas 24 hours movement guidelines recommend that teens should get two hours of screen time per day. Teenagers should spend more time out on the field rather than spending time on screens, it’s an initial developing and learning stage. One learns about various things at this age, schools, Peers, and family play an important role in this age. Using more screen time during these years impacts teens positively as well as negatively, teens start comparing themselves with people on social media, this may result in bad mental health, personality development classes suggest teenagers minimize the use of screen time and maximize physical activities time. This might help in creating a strong personality for teens which would help them in near future. Teens compare themselves to celebrities and start following them and their behaviors, this keeps them on social sites for a longer period, they start questioning their own identity and self-worth, this impacts their mental health. Due to these reasons, studies suggest teens spend less time on screens and more time in recreational activities. Spending less time on screen will also keep teens healthy which would result in good grades, strong personality development, and good mental health.
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- Adults:
Mostly adults' work is based on screens. They use screens and devices daily for their work to be done. Studies suggest the time adults spend on the screen outside of work should be limited to one hour. As we cannot limit the screen time adults work on, we have to limit the screen time outside of work. Outside of work adults should spend some time with family and friends or take an active part in physical activities, this will help adults stay healthy. The work time adults spend on the screen should also be minimized if possible. Too much screen time and work may lead to sleep problems and stress-associated behaviors.
According to the World Health Organization screens encourage sedentary behaviors. People tend to be more inactive when they use too many screens or devices. Due to this WHO recommends screen time recommendations for everyone. They advise people to limit screen usage until the kids develop healthy habits that don’t revolve around videos, televisions, or any other devices. Everyone should follow the screen time recommendations provided by psychologists and doctors. This will help people live healthy life. Less usage of screen time would, in turn, lead to more family time, people will feel more connected, happy, and most importantly healthy. It would help benefit many mental and weight problems, physical health would be improved as people would transfer their screen time into physical activities, this would help in overall growth and development of people. So one should take into consideration the usage of screen time and limit its usage to lead a healthy life.
