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Social Networks Science

Children May Be Losing the Equivalent of One Night's Sleep a Week From Social Media Use, Study Suggests (businessinsider.com) 31

Posted by BeauHD from the FOMO-effects dept.
Children under 12 may be losing the equivalent of one night's sleep every week due to excessive social media use, a new study suggests. Insider reports: Almost 70% of the 60 children under 12 surveyed by De Montfort University in Leicester, UK, said they used social media for four hours a day or more. Two thirds said they used social media apps in the two hours before going to bed. The study also found that 12.5% of the children surveyed were waking up in the night to check their notifications.

Psychology lecturer John Shaw, who headed up the study, said children were supposed to sleep for between nine to 11 hours a night, per NHS guidelines, but those surveyed reported sleeping an average of 8.7 hours nightly. He said: "The fear of missing out, which is driven by social media, is directly affecting their sleep. They want to know what their friends are doing, and if you're not online when something is happening, it means you're not taking part in it. "And it can be a feedback loop. If you are anxious you are more likely to be on social media, you are more anxious as a result of that. And you're looking at something, that's stimulating and delaying sleep." "TikTok had the most engagement from the children, with 90% of those surveyed saying they used the app," notes Insider. "Snapchat was used by 84%, while just over half those surveyed said they used Instagram."
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Children May Be Losing the Equivalent of One Night's Sleep a Week From Social Media Use, Study Suggests More

Children May Be Losing the Equivalent of One Night's Sleep a Week From Social Media Use, Study Suggests

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  • Atari 2600 early '80s same thing (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19, 2022 @09:36PM (#62896731)

    During my "peak Atari playing" years I probably lost about that much sleep in a week, and that was just me vs. the machine.

    • During my "peak Atari playing" years I probably lost about that much sleep in a week, and that was just me vs. the machine.

      Back in the Atari days your parents and grandparents weren't sitting right next to you, up all night and just as addicted.

      Unlike today with social media.

      Oh, and you also weren't considering suicide when Mrs. Pac Man didn't swallow fast enough for you, while all you friends scored.

      Unlike today with social media.

      The problem with this particular problem of sleep deprivation? When everyone is an addict, no one is.

      • Oh, and you also weren't considering suicide when Mrs. Pac Man didn't swallow fast enough for you, while all you friends scored.

        Not Ms. Pac Man, no.

  • Definitely a better use of their time (Score:5, Funny)

    by jfdavis668 ( 1414919 ) on Monday September 19, 2022 @09:55PM (#62896753)
    Sleep is overrated. Ask anyone on /.

  • When I was a kid (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Monday September 19, 2022 @10:09PM (#62896773)
    We wouldn't lose sleep to social media. We stayed up all night playing video games and we liked it!

    Oh and my parents stayed up late watching TV and their parents stayed up late reading penny dreadfuls.

    Kids aren't losing sleep because of social media kids are losing sleep because kids are wired to sleep in longer than we allow them to because that's inconvenient for work schedules. We've known this for ages.

    Something something something Socrates quote.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Indeed. Kids stay up longer and sleep longer naturally than "modern" society allows.

    • If parents are concerned about this, they can use the firewall settings in their wireless routers to turn off internet access to specific devices during certain hours. This assumes the parents know how to set up firewall rules, but many companies like Asus [asus.com] list how to do this. It also assumes the parent knows how to set a manual assignment [asus.com] for specific MAC addresses so their kids devices get the same IP address for the filters to manage.

      If parents tell their kids "Internet access for your devices is disab

      • Kids aren't ready to sleep. You can block the internet all you want, they'll just find something else to do. If you don't let them they'll just sit quietly in the dark in a mix of anger and bitterness and fear. Either way they'll wake up tired the next morning.

    • There is a difference today: notifications. If they keep notifications for all the social media BS, they can be woken even during a hard sleep cycle by some other kid having a chocolate craving in the middle of the night of scooping up the perfect bowl of ice-cream for a snack. I wish we could train kids that notifications can be muted. The instant response dopamine hits are what keep so many of them attached to the phone.

      TV's and penny dreadfuls didn't ping you awake at 3 AM when you just went to bed at 2

  • Terms & Conditions - They shouldn't even be on (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Vomitgod ( 6659552 ) on Monday September 19, 2022 @10:51PM (#62896833)

    Instagram - must be 13 or older
    Snapchat - must be 13 or older.
    Facebook - Dunno - blocked at my house, but probably as above
    TokTik - Dunno - blocked at my house, but probably as above

    so asking 12 and under kids - who shouldn't even have access to the platforms, clearly the parents are doing an awesome job....

  • So (Score:3)

    by sjames ( 1099 ) on Monday September 19, 2022 @10:56PM (#62896845) Homepage Journal

    How much sleep are they losing because schools insist on starting hours before they are hard wired to wake up? Why are those lost hours OK?

  • Blocked at my router (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Ritz_Just_Ritz ( 883997 ) on Monday September 19, 2022 @11:02PM (#62896859)

    I don't allow my young children to consume any of that crap. They get incidental exposure at school, which I cannot control. They're otherwise free to play sports, play outside, read books, and do any number of other things that young children can/should do.

    Social media is not a baby sitter.

    • past a certain age, social media is a central aspect of their peer group. cutting children off from it would be like a parent refusing to send a child to kindergarten. The don't technically need it, but miss out on some friendships and personal growth.

      • miss out on some friendships and personal growth

        Any friendship that relies on social media isn't a real friendship. Any personal development that can occur on social media can be achieved more effectively through other means. Sorry, social media is for entertainment only and even that sort of entertainment becomes wearisome after about 20 minutes.

        • True Scotsman argument. A real friendship online is clearly possible, most of us have done this. I doubt you're in any position to judge the realness of a child's friends. If you want to qualify friendships, focus on practical factors such as trust, empathy, and mutual interests.

          Any personal development that can occur on social media can be achieved more effectively through other means

          Interesting hypothesis. No such study exists to determine this.

          Sorry, social media is for entertainment only

          Spend 20 minutes with a child and you'll realize they see it very differently. You can argue that a child's own feelings are wrong, but that's probably a waste of time.

          W

  • Pffft. How about book hangovers? How many of us started a book at 10 pm and said "Eh, 30 pages tonight" only to have the sun come up and the schoolbus pull up when you're finishing the thing? (Christine)

    Or a video hangover? Before there was videotape in the house? I stayed up 'til 3 am to watch TAPS*

    Or hacking hangovers?

    Nothing new under the sun

    * I have a bone to pick with the producer of TAPS. In his commentary on the blu-ray he says he made it to showcase the "indoctrination" in military academies.

  • Children? Whew, that was a close one.

    • Well, of course children. We would never dare to infringe on your addiction, or even call it one, you're an adult and responsible, right?

      • kinda like how we sell malt liquior to adults but not children.

      • That's right .. They do not hesitate to take away from children the way of life that they understand and are accustomed to .. But such people will never give even what is not always useful for themselves. They disappear all day in gadgets where they are interested in couple seeking woman - https://www.nastyhookups.com/hookup/chat-room.html [nastyhookups.com] Just count how much time you yourself spend on your smartphone, computer or TV .. If you do not lie to yourself, then this will be most of the day.
  • For me, it was a bedside box of Popular Electronics magazines and a flashlight. There was one Carl and Jerry that gave me nightmares because it involved a tornado.

  • Wrong line of thinking. (Score:3)

    by xonen ( 774419 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2022 @03:15AM (#62897235) Journal

    First it was reading. Then came the TV. Then came computer games. Then blue light. Now it's social media.

    For some reason, researchers seem to be very concerned about the children's sleep habits over the years. Does it help? No, cause kids stay kids. And they are hungry for information, day and night and apparently mostly at night when they are supposed to sleep, and not at day when they are supposed to be eager for facts at school.

    Adults seem frustrated kids are not malleable as they wish. Maybe consider just giving them more attention instead of more research if it bothers you.

  • From the survey report: "team had questioned 60 children, all aged ten".

    So why report it as "Children under 12"?

    • And also why say "an hour of sleep" when it's 8.7 instead of 9-11 hours? Not sleeping the recommended hours isn't necessarily losing sleep the way we mean it. And why say "children are losing sleep" when it's 13% of them? That's pretty weasely. If two kids do something you can say "kids do x" but it's deceptive. The whole thing is massively overblown for clicks.
    • More importantly, what kind of statistical power does a survey sample size of n=60 have? How good are 10 year-olds at remembering how many hours they typically spend at any activity that they don't time? ( = What's available to consciousness/What they're self-aware of/What they're able to disclose) How conscientious were the 10 year-olds at responding to the survey, i.e. How many may have been worried their parents would find out even after being told the survey was confidential? ( = What they're willing to
  • Unfortunately, it's true. I've recently decided to check my screen time and I was in shock. IT'S 7 HOURS in the middle! Now I'm trying to take my phone only for an important reason but that's so hard. I think it's addiction.
  • "Psychology lecturer John Shaw, who headed up the study, said children were supposed to sleep for between nine to 11 hours a night, per NHS guidelines, but those surveyed reported sleeping an average of 8.7 hours nightly."

    So he's comparing what they are "supposed" to sleep with what they actually sleep?

    Why not compare actual sleep patterns before social media with those currently, rather than some arbitrary selected measure of what something is "supposed" to be.

    Hell I am supposed to be 6 foot, buil
  • We cannot deny the fact that we live in a digital age, and the only way to communicate with each other is through smart phones and social media. But there has to be some restrictions especially for children who are still in their physical, mental, and psychological development process. While children may argue that they might be missing out with their friends if they do not have a phone, parents should also come to some terms with its use. Parents should make their children understand the benefits of social

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