Excessive Internet Use - Overview

MediaSmarts’ research shows that on average, Canadian youth spend 1-2 hours per day using digital devices each weekday (not counting time spent using them for schoolwork) and more than three hours per weekend day.[1] Average weekday screen time, therefore, falls just within the range recommended by the Canadian Pediatric Society’s Digital Health Task Force, though weekend screen time does not.[2] There is evidence, though, that while excessive weekday screen time is associated with a number of risks and negative experiences, such as witnessing and engaging in online meanness and cruelty, there is little or no relationship between these things and weekend screen time.[3]

While research suggests that we should be cautious about screen time, it has also shown that what our kids do with these devices is at least as important as how much time they spend doing it. Most importantly, the message we send with our own behaviour speaks as loudly as anything we say.

Screen use can be positive or negative

While very high levels of screen time are connected to poor mental well-being, very low levels of it are, as well. There is also a large range of time where there’s no direct connection to well-being.[4]

Most research, though, has found that screen time is less important than screen use and that “digital technology can have both positive and negative effects on child well-being, depending on the activity and how much time is spent.”[5] As well, different screen activities can have positive or negative impacts on different children, or even on the same child at different ages or times in their life. There’s also increasing evidence that how we think about our screen use is important too: taking an “agentic” view – seeing digital technology as something that is under control and which we use at specific times for specific purposes – has been linked to lower rates of anxiety, stress and depression than thinking of screen use in terms of addiction.[6]

How screen use can hurt mental wellness

The clearest way that screen time can harm mental wellness is through its impact on sleep. A significant number of teens use digital devices in their rooms after they’ve gone to bed and are often awakened by texts and notifications.[7] This means both less sleep and worse sleep,[8] both of which can have negative consequences on general mental wellness and brain development.[9] Unfortunately, almost half of Canadian children frequently use a screen device after they’ve gone to bed most nights;[10] along with its impact on sleep, keeping a phone in the bedroom is associated with a higher likelihood of experiencing, witnessing and engaging in online meanness and cruelty[11] and of seeing racist or sexist content online.[12] Most strikingly, MediaSmarts’ Young Canadians in a Wireless World survey found that every single youth surveyed who had sent a sext also kept their phone in the bedroom at night (though it should be noted that even among youth who kept their phones in their bedrooms, only a small number – 12 percent –had sent a sext).[13]

Screen use is most likely to cause problems when it meets a need that we aren’t getting elsewhere, or one that is easier to get through digital devices. One of the more common problems associated with smartphones, for example, is anxiety caused by not wanting to miss what your friends might be doing or talking about on social media. What these teens really want, though, is the connection to their friends and the sense of being a part of their lives that social media delivers.[14] In this way, a smartphone isn’t that different from the phones many of us spent hours on when we were teenagers, but there are some important differences. Social networks are a “party line” where messages from any of your friends could come at any time. When kids have problems with video games, it’s usually because the games are providing something – friendship, a feeling of mastery and achievement – that they can’t get, or can’t get as easily in other parts of their lives.

There’s also some evidence that screen use can make it harder for kids to manage their emotions, partly because digital communication doesn’t deliver emotional cues and partly because teens sometimes use digital media to escape emotionally uncomfortable situations.[15]

Screen use and vulnerable children

The negative effects of screen use are more powerful on vulnerable children – but so are the positive ones. Teens who report having low mental well-being are more likely to say that they feel bad if nobody likes or comments on their posts, to say they’ve felt left out after seeing friends’ posts and to say they’ve had negative experiences on social media, in general. These same teens, though, are more likely to say that social media has an overall positive impact on them, that it makes them feel better about themselves and that it makes them less lonely.[16]

Social media and gaming can be a lifeline for vulnerable youth, but these can have an outsized negative impact on them, as well. As with other parts of their lives, parents of vulnerable youth need to be closely involved in their kids’ digital lives and make sure that they’re supporting the positive aspects while helping to handle the negative ones.

What youth say about screen time

Studies that have asked young people how they feel about screen use have generally found it has more positive than negative impacts on them. Some of these benefits include making them feel less lonely[17], helping them make new friends and/or keep in touch with friends and family[18] and letting them connect with support and health services.[19]

However, teens often say that screen use can have negative effects, as well – especially on other teens[20] and on their parents.[21] Many teens have taken at least some steps to manage their screen use, such as trying to limit how much time they spend on social media or playing video games.[22]

Young Canadians have conflicting views when it comes to their device use. Just under half sometimes worry that they spend too much time online; however, youth who worry they spend too much time online report essentially the same levels of screen time as those who don’t, suggesting that this worry doesn’t spur meaningful changes in behaviour.[23] It may be, however, that these worries are related not to how much time youth are spending online but to what they are experiencing during that time. For instance, youth who had engaged in or experienced meanness and cruelty online were more likely to worry they spend too much time online,[24] as were those who had sent sexts.[25]

While young people often recognize that they have problems managing their screen use, many are receiving conflicting messages from their parents. Around 60 percent of parents say they spend too much time on their smartphones and 68 percent report being distracted by their phone while spending time with their children.[26] When kids were asked what screen time rules parents should follow, they said: “Put down the phone when your child is trying to say something important,” “Don’t spend all your free time on this stuff” and “Practice what you preach.”[27]

[1] MediaSmarts. (2022). “Young Canadians in a Wireless World, Phase IV: Life Online.” MediaSmarts. Ottawa.

[2] Ponti, M., & Canadian Pediatric Society Digital Health Task Force. (2022) Screen time and preschool children: Promoting health and development in a digital world. https://cps.ca/en/documents/position/screen-time-and-preschool-children

[3] MediaSmarts. (2023). “Young Canadians in a Wireless World, Phase IV: Relationships and Technology - Online Meanness and Cruelty.” MediaSmarts. Ottawa.

[4] Przybylski, Andrew K., and Netta Weinstein. “A Large-Scale Test of the Goldilocks Hypothesis.” Psychological Science, vol. 28, no. 2, 2017, pp. 204–215., doi:10.1177/0956797616678438.

[5] Kardefelt-Winther, D. (2017) How does the time children spend using digital technology impact their mental well-being, social relationships and physical activity? An evidence-focused literature review. UNICEF Office of Research

[6] Lee, A. Y., Ellison, N. B., & Hancock, J. T. (2023). To use or be used? The role of agency in social media use and well-being. Frontiers in Computer Science, 5, 1123323.

[7] Karsay, K., Schmuck, D., Stevic, A. & Matthes, J. (2022) “Sleeping with the smartphone: a panel study investigating parental mediation, adolescents’ tiredness, and physical well-being.” Behaviour & Information Technology. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2022.2100277

[8] Karsay, K., Schmuck, D., Stevic, A., & Matthes, J. (2022). Sleeping with the smartphone: a panel study investigating parental mediation, adolescents’ tiredness, and physical well-being. Behaviour & Information Technology, 1-12.

[9] Cramer, C & Inkster B. (2017) “#StatusOfMind: Social media and young people’s mental health and wellbeing.” Status of Mind, Royal Society for Public Health.”

[10] MediaSmarts. (2022). “Young Canadians in a Wireless World, Phase IV: Life Online.” MediaSmarts. Ottawa.

[11] MediaSmarts. (2023). “Young Canadians in a Wireless World, Phase IV: Relationships and Technology - Online Meanness and Cruelty.” MediaSmarts. Ottawa.

[12] MediaSmarts. (2022). “Young Canadians in a Wireless World, Phase IV: Encountering Harmful and Discomforting Content Online.” MediaSmarts. Ottawa.

[13] MediaSmarts. (2023). “Young Canadians in a Wireless World, Phase IV: Relationships and Technology - Sexting.” MediaSmarts. Ottawa.

[14] Veissière SPL and Stendel M (2018) Hypernatural Monitoring: A Social Rehearsal Account of Smartphone Addiction. Front. Psychol. 9:141. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00141

[15] Hoge, E., Bickham, D., and Cantor, J. (2017). Digital media, anxiety, and depression in children. Pediatrics, 140(Supplement 2):S76{S80.

[16] Rideout, V., & Robb, M.B. (2018) “Social Media, Social Life.” Common Sense Media.

[17] Rideout, V., & Robb, M.B. (2018) “Social Media, Social Life.” Common Sense Media.

[18] Frith, E. (2017). Social media and children’s mental health: a review of the evidence. Accessed from: https://epi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Social-Media_Mental-Health_EPIReport.pdf

[19] Cramer, C & Inkster B. (2017) “#StatusOfMind: Social media and young people’s mental health and wellbeing.” Status of Mind, Royal Society for Public Health.”

[20] Pew Research Centre (2022) “Connection, Creativity and Drama: Teen Life on Social Media in 2022.”

[21] Pew Research Center, August 2018, “How Teens and Parents Navigate Screen Time and Device Distractions.”

[22] Pew Research Center, August 2018, “How Teens and Parents Navigate Screen Time and Device Distractions.”

[23] MediaSmarts. (2022). “Young Canadians in a Wireless World, Phase IV: Life Online.” MediaSmarts. Ottawa.

[24] MediaSmarts. (2023). “Young Canadians in a Wireless World, Phase IV: Relationships and Technology - Online Meanness and Cruelty.” MediaSmarts. Ottawa.

[25] MediaSmarts. (2023). “Young Canadians in a Wireless World, Phase IV: Relationships and Technology - Sexting.” MediaSmarts. Ottawa.

[26] Pew Research Center, July 2020, “Parents attitudes – and experiences – related to digital technology".

[27] Hiniker, A., Schoenebeck, S. Y., Kientz, J. A. (2016, February). Not at the dinner table: Parents’ and children’s perspectives on family technology rules. In Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (pp. 1376–1389). ACM. Google Scholar, Crossref