The headlines are difficult to ignore these days.

One cannot help but feel a bit of anxiety when consuming the state of our affairs in the news — war, climate, and the economy.

So you may turn to social media instead for an escape?

Perhaps consuming manicured images or videos of travel, food, and design can help you feel less anxious.

We forget though that this constant intake of information, regardless of the attributes, can be an overload that can further create stress.

As adults, we have had some years of practice to regulate and gate our emotions and thoughts from our daily intake of information, but yet, more of us are overwhelmed than ever before.

According to an American Psychiatric Association study at the end of 2022, 37% of Americans rated their mental health being fair or poor, up from 31% the year before.

If The Adults Are Feeling This Way, What About Our Children?

This brings me to the topic of our kids. How are they to navigate amidst our current state of affairs? Our children have had information overload coming out of the pandemic in addition to the constant change in their routines with school closures.

The Surgeon General has described mental health as the “defining public health crisis of our time” and made a mission to address the health crisis that is defining a generation.

A recent CDC reportTrusted Source showed the alarming increased statistics of Emergency Department-related visits associated with mental health diagnoses — anxiety, eating disorders, depression, etc.

The call to action for many in the healthcare space is to advocate for solutions that help to prevent, identify, and address these issues in our youths before they are in crisis mode.

I wholeheartedly agree with this approach so that we can bring the right resources to improve the infrastructure for education and literacy, access improvement, and programming development.

But more than anything, we need to address that access to devices and social media at a young age can result in the culmination of what we are seeing today in our preteens and teens.

Should We Limit Access To Devices?

The Sapien Labs recently published a pioneering global study with over 27,000 young adult participants. The conclusion is that the later a young adult receives a smartphone the better their mental well-being as adults.

Much research on child brain development has focused on how neural pathways — or the connections within the brain are made by the stimulation of our senses from an early age.

While it certainly is convenient to hand over our mobile device when a child asks for it, the amount of time spent on a device can potentially be re-wiring those connections that are changing sleep patterns and/or creativity as suggested by this Harvard study.

I saw this in my own children after a limited amount of screen time when they were toddlers — the disrupted sleep that ensued.

Social Media And Mental Health

More than just the timing or the time spent on devices, social media continues to play a big role as well.

A survey on behalf of OnOurSleeves initiative out of Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus shows that 7 out of 10 parents believe that image editing and filtering apps have a negative influence on their children’s body image.

The Surgeon General today issued a report calling for more action from the tech community in protecting our children’s data.

The same report also addresses the need for families to develop plans around “tech-free” times.

While devices, technology, and social media have many benefits, the deleterious effects on our children — the young brains under development, are contributing to this mental health crisis.

We are just seeing the cumulative effects of over a decade of social media exposure.

We have to decide how we want to act individually and collectively.

As adults, we have our experiences to lean on for developing our habits to take care of our mental well-being.

Our children do not have that luxury.

Important Notice: This article was also published at www.healthline.com by Jenny Yu, MD FACS where all credits are due.

Disclaimer

The watching, interacting, and participation of any kind with anything on this page does not constitute or initiate a doctor-patient relationship with Dr. Farrah™. None of the statements here have been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The products of Dr. Farrah™ are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. The information being provided should only be considered for education and entertainment purposes only. If you feel that anything you see or hear may be of value to you on this page or on any other medium of any kind associated with, showing, or quoting anything relating to Dr. Farrah™ in any way at any time, you are encouraged to and agree to consult with a licensed healthcare professional in your area to discuss it. If you feel that you’re having a healthcare emergency, seek medical attention immediately. The views expressed here are simply either the views and opinions of Dr. Farrah™ or others appearing and are protected under the first amendment.

Dr. Farrah™ is a highly experienced Licensed Medical Doctor certified in evidence-based clinical nutrition, not some enthusiast, formulator, or medium promoting the wild and unrestrained use of nutrition products for health issues without clinical experience and scientific evidence of therapeutic benefit. Dr. Farrah™ has personally and keenly studied everything she recommends, and more importantly, she’s closely observed the reactions and results in a clinical setting countless times over the course of her career involving the treatment of over 150,000 patients.

Dr. Farrah™ promotes evidence-based natural approaches to health, which means integrating her individual scientific and clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research. By individual clinical expertise, I refer to the proficiency and judgment that individual clinicians acquire through clinical experience and clinical practice.

Dr. Farrah™ does not make any representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability, fitness, or completeness of any multimedia content provided. Dr. Farrah™ does not warrant the performance, effectiveness, or applicability of any sites listed, linked, or referenced to, in, or by any multimedia content.

To be clear, the multimedia content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read or seen in any website, video, image, or media of any kind. Dr. Farrah™ hereby disclaims any and all liability to any party for any direct, indirect, implied, punitive, special, incidental, or other consequential damages arising directly or indirectly from any use of the content, which is provided as is, and without warranties.