Smartphone generation
Every family handles digital media differently. What they all have in common is that using it at least occasionally causes red heads. «Every screen magically attracts him,» says Marianne, 48, about her son Silas, 10, who loves to play on the Playstation or watch YouTube videos. «It's a real suction effect. He doesn't even listen anymore when I offer him an ice cream.» A good reason for the mum to maintain a strict media regime: Television and game times are limited to 30 and 40 minutes per week respectively. Until recently, the parents of Anna, 15, left it up to their daughter how much time she spent in front of the screen. Recently, the limit has been 10 p.m. - that's when the Wi-Fi switches off. «Anna overdid it,» says her father Reto, 50. «She was on her smartphone until well after midnight.»
Girls are socialising, boys are gaming
In the past, screen time primarily meant television consumption, followed by computers and games consoles. Today, the smartphone is the most widely used screen medium. 99 per cent of young people in Germany own one. In 2020, they spent more than three hours on it during the week and up to five hours on weekends. This is the conclusion of the JAMES study, which analyses the media consumption of 12 to 19-year-olds in Switzerland. According to Daniel Süss, media psychologist at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences and co-director of the JAMES study, young people use their smartphones most frequently for messaging services, social networks and surfing. «As all of this takes place on the internet, mobile phone and internet use are almost inseparable,» says Süss. There were differences between the sexes: «Girls use their mobile phones more often to communicate on social networks and take more photos. For boys, games and online videos are more important.»
«It is impossible today to lay down rules that apply to all families and circumstances,» says French psychoanalyst Serge Tisseron in response to the question of how much screen time parents should allow. Yet it was Tisseron himself
who set clear limits with his 3-6-9-12 rule. According to this rule, children under the age of three should not consume any screen media and children aged twelve should not consume more than ten hours per week. However, the rule dates back to 2008, when smartphones had just come onto the market and tablets had not even been invented yet. Today, digital media is omnipresent, supplementing conventional media or replacing it altogether. Children learn with apps as well as books, and in many places the mobile phone has replaced the camera. Should a three-year-old be deprived of pictures from an outing so that he doesn't see a screen? Or deduct the hour that a primary school pupil spends on the e-learning platform from her permitted screen time? These examples show: Digital media have permeated our everyday lives to such an extent that rigid time limits make little sense.
Media time alone is not decisive
Instead, parents should focus on how a child organises their leisure time as a whole, advises Daniel Süss. «Children and young people have needs: for communication, information, learning, social networking and entertainment. Then there are their specific interests - games, music and sport, for example,» says the expert. «Which channel the child uses to fulfil their needs and interests is not the decisive question. Rather, we should ask ourselves: is our child socially integrated and are they experiencing that they can utilise and develop their talents?»
Digital media have permeated our everyday lives to such an extent that rigid time limits make little sense.
If the child suddenly neglects friends or schoolwork, gets too little exercise and not enough sleep, these are possible indications that digital media is taking up too much space. «But even here, reducing media time is not the solution,» says Süss. «You have to look for the reasons for excessive media use. For example, it could be that a child has too little sense of achievement. And then they suddenly get a lot of recognition in the gaming community. Or children who are bullied at school look for spaces where they can forget these problems.»
Computer games as a bone of contention
The World Health Organisation also has no clear answer to the question of what constitutes problematic media consumption. It only recognises computer game addiction as a disease. Addiction counselling centres in Germany report that it is almost always only parents with gaming sons who seek help from them. By contrast, hardly anyone comes to them with daughters who spend a similar amount of time on social networks or chats. «One reason for this could be that mothers - and it is almost always only mothers who bring their children to addiction counselling centres - are particularly critical of gaming because they are not familiar with it from their own media use,» says Larissa Hauser, a member of the expert group on online addiction commissioned by the Federal Office of Public Health.
According to the JAMES study, around 20 percent of young people exhibit risky or even problematic media behaviour. For example, they stated in the survey that they hid their media consumption, neglected their friends and school or had difficulties going offline. These young people are also more likely to disclose private data on social networks, spread media violence more often and are confronted with cyberbullying more frequently than their peers on average.
Influence on brain development
The question of how digital media affects the social behaviour of children and adolescents is also a major focus of research. The focus is on frustration tolerance and attention span, for example, both of which have to do with the ability to stick with something and not give up straight away. «It is difficult for children and young people to work for a delayed reward,» says Lutz Jäncke, Professor of Neuropsychology at the University of Zurich. «This has to do with brain development. The child's brain is very easily distracted.» The reason for this is «remodelling work» in the frontal cortex, which is completely rewired between the ages of 11 and 14 and is not fully developed until the age of 18. Digital media not only offers children distraction, but also the prospect of immediate rewards: likes on social media, a points victory in gaming - all of this is inspiring. «The crux of the matter,» says Jäncke, «is that the more often a child surrenders to the impulse of immediate reward, the slower the frontal cortex develops.» And, as the brain researcher knows, children and adolescents cannot possibly limit themselves: «Their brains are not capable of doing this. Parents have to replace their missing frontal cortex - that's parenting.» However, experts emphasise that this is only effective if a good example is set: if parents are constantly distracted by smartphones and the like, it will be difficult to encourage children to use them mindfully.
Digital media at school
In the discussion about risks, it is sometimes forgotten that digital media represent huge potential. For example, in terms of learning, says media educator Eveline Hipeli: «Digital media are a valuable addition to conventional media, especially at school, because they broaden the range of learning experiences. Many children benefit from being able to acquire additional content via alternative channels such as films or learning apps.» Zurich secondary school teacher and media expert Philippe Wampfler uses an example to explain how digital media enriches everyday learning. «Let's take German lessons, for example,» he says. «I could simply write on the blackboard what «experienced speech» is. Or I could have the students search for it on their smartphones, create a shared text document and use it to collate various pieces of information. They can then compare: What is a good source? They realise that there are different definitions, so there is no consensus.»
In the discussion about risks, it is often forgotten that digital media represent huge potential. In terms of learning, for example.
Digitalisation is one of the major challenges facing schools. However, it has progressed to varying degrees: How much and what children learn with the help of computers, tablets or mobile phones depends on the individual school and the teacher's affinity for technology. «The media and IT module has given digital media a permanent place in Curriculum 21,» says Wampfler. This is a success story. «Because it creates commitment. Even if there is room for improvement - as far as the weighting of digital media and skills in the curriculum and the associated training and further education of teachers is concerned, Swiss schools are much further ahead than schools in Germany, for example.»
Leisure time can also be analogue
At least the results of the JAMES study do not give cause for concern that analogue life is being neglected due to all the digital media. «As in previous years, many young people do sport regularly or sometimes do nothing at all,» says the 2020 edition, adding that creative activities such as making music, painting and handicrafts have even increased slightly, which may be due to the pandemic-related restrictions.
According to the authors, the coronavirus crisis probably also played a part in the fact that significantly fewer young people (62 per cent) met friends several times a week in 2020 than in 2010 (81 per cent), but all the more (29 per cent) regularly did something with their family than 11 years ago (16 per cent). Making music, painting, crafting or spending time with their pets are activities that obviously act as protective factors in connection with problematic media consumption - they are mentioned more often than average by young people who do not exhibit any risk behaviour in this regard.
