Ingrid Forsler and Carina Guyard
In recent years, excessive screen time has been widely discussed not least in relation to children and young people. Parents are advised to limit the amount of time their kids spend using digital devices, such as smartphones, tablets or computers, and there is a wide selection of apps that parents can use to monitor and manage their children’s screen time. The arguments against spending too much time in front of different screens include fear of addiction, depression and other medical conditions, but also an increasing focus on how excessive screen time and constant connection affect social and cognitive abilities. Compulsory engagement with online technologies is assumed to make individuals absent- minded, easily distracted and indifferent to whatever goes around in the physical environment (Blum- Ross & Livingstone 2016; Kardefelt-Winther 2017). The latter debate emanates from the assumption that people, especially children and adolescents, are unable to control their impulsive behavior in relation to digital media. This inability among young people to resist their smartphones, although it might have negative outcomes, has sometimes been referred to as a contemporary moral panic in the media debate (c.f. Malik 2019; Orben, Etchells & Przybylski 2018; Therrien 2018).
Moral panics often occur when a new media technology is introduced and the users of these new media show disapproved forms of behavior, such as passivity or aggression. Historically there have been panic campaigns over a wide range of so-called low culture; comic books, rock ‘n’ roll, video nasties, et cetera, that is believed to degenerate in particular the younger generation due to violent or vulgar content (Buckingham & Strandgaard Jensen 2012; Carlsson 2010; Drotner 1999; Critcher 2008). Increasingly, though, the concerns in relation to new media technologies focus specifically on the use of the media rather than with any particular content. As Alicia Blum-Ross and Sonia Livingstone (2016; 2018) has shown, the term “screen time” indicates a homogenization of media activities that does not take different practices or modes of engagement into account, but only considers the amount of time spent online (see also Kardefelt-Winther 2017: 14). Indeed, the evidence cited in reports about screen time is dominated by short-time, quantitative studies that do not consider the broader life contexts of children. Additionally, in line with previous moral panics, they tend to focus on risks rather than on the opportunities of new media practices (Blum-Ross & Livingstone 2016: 13; Kardefelt-Winther 2017: 10). Other more qualitative inclined studies on children and media use have responded to this imbalance by highlighting the particularities of different media forms and uses as well as how parents react differently to advices on screen time depending on socio-economic and cultural factors (e.g. Blum-Ross & Livingstone 2016; 2018; boyd & Hargittai 2013; Clark 2012; Lee 2013; Livingstone, et al 2015; Livingstone & Byrne 2018). In this chapter, we wish to contribute to this body of research by questioning the dominant perspective on the impacts of excessive screen time on young people.