The quantity of time spent in front of short videos is associated with more intense inattention symptoms, especially among younger children.
The short videos that without the realization of it consume whole hours of our time on social media are ruining the attention of young people? It is a complex question that deserves in -depth studies, but one published recently found an interesting connection between the high consumption of these content e Attention problems in children. The research was published in the magazine Brain and Behavior.
The smartphone as a babysitter
A group of psychiatrists from Srinakharinwirot University, in Thailand, has conducted an investigation into the guardians of 528 children between 6 and 12 years of the Rural Thailand, in an area where it is common that children are entrusted to the care of grandparents while parents emigrate to urban areas for work reasons.
The scientists asked adults information on the total time that the children who attended spent in front of the screens, and even if they showed the typical symptoms of attention deficits, such as the tendency to forget things, the ease of distraction, the difficulty in supporting attention and propensity to make distraction errors.
It emerged that the children spent in front of the screen On average 3.6 hours a day, 1.9 of which in front of short videos. It is A slice of consistent timeconsidering that children and teenagers of that community are at home from school from 16.00 and go to bed for 9.00 pm. The team was already aware of the fact that their adult tutors, especially the older ones, tend to grant much time in front of videos because they don’t know how to entertain them.
More videos, less attention skills
Children who spent more time in front of short videos showed significantly more important symptoms of inattention than otherseven net of the total time spent on the screen (also a factor independently associated with attention problems). The relationship between short videos and attention problems seemed even more marked in the youngest among the children included in the study. 11.6% of the participating children had previously received a diagnosis of ADHD, attention deficit syndrome and hyperactivity.
No relationship was found among other behaviors usually connected to attention disorders (impulsiveness, hyperactivity, oppositional attitudes) and the consumption of short videos – while these traits are associated with the total amount of time spent on the screen.
Two possible interpretations
According to the authors of the research, that found is a “preliminary evidence” of the fact that Short videos are associated with greater attention problemsan independent effect from that exerted by the past time on the screen.
On the reason for this association there are Two possible hypotheses.
One is that children with pre -existing difficulties in attention they tend more than others to look at this type of contentwhich constitute an intense, repetitive, immediately accessible and which requires low concentration levels.
The second hypothesis is that they are the characteristics of short -lived videos, amplified by algorithms, to introduce a cognitive overload which impoverishes the ability of attention and makes it more difficult to exercise emotional regulation. There is also to consider that spending hours in front of short videos it takes away precious time to other types of activities which instead have a beneficial effect on cognitive development, such as face -to -face interactions or outdoor game.