United States: A new survey found that half of young Americans aged 12 to 17 spend at least four hours a day using smartphones, computers, or watching TV. Researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that as technology becomes a bigger part of teenagers’ lives, screen time is increasing.
All of that screen time might not be great for teens’ psyches: To this, the research noted that while 26.8% of adolescents who used screen at least four hours a day reported have been anxious over the last two weeks, only 12.3% of adolescents who spend less time gazing at the screen.
As reported by the HealthDay, Screen time measured as four hours, or more was also associated with much higher self-reported depression prevalence of about 26% as opposed to 9.5% amongst non-consumers.
The new data derived from the responses provided by American teenagers to a federal anonymity survey between mid of the operating year 2021, and the last term of the year 2023.
There were small gender differences for screen use with the percentage of boys who watch TV, or sit and use their phone or computer, using it for four or more hours per day equaling 48.2 percent, while 52.5 percent of girls did the same.

Screen time did seem to rise with age, however: Thus, daily media time was 4 or more hours among 45.6% of children 12 to 14 years old and increased to 55% of the children 15 to 17 years old, according to the survey.
Less than three hours day children are looking at screens and overall a small 27% of teens fall into this category.
The researchers added that family income did not appear to influence the amount of time teenagers spent on the devices including TVs, phones and computers.
Location did matter, however: A greater percentage of urban kids were likely to be using screens for four or more hours every day compared to rural teens; 51.4% and 43.3% respectively.
The new report was compiled by Amanda Ng of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.
Her team pointed out that in prior work, people “who spent more time in front of screens were associated with health consequences such as poor sleep, fatigue, and signs of anxiety and even depression.”
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