Escaping into the digital world makes children and young people lonely.
And the pandemic has exacerbated this trend.
It's bad enough: according to a study, around 20% of all children and young people in Germany had daily screen times (smartphone, PC, TV, etc.) of 8 hours or more even before coronavirus. Even worse: during the peak phase of the pandemic, this figure has now climbed to around 50%.
50% of all children and young people currently spend more than 8 hours in front of screens!
According to another study, "gaming" (online games) time alone has increased by around 75% - social media time makes children and young people uncommunicative and irritable and, above all, leads directly to social isolation.by around 66%! And the consequences of this are serious: according to a university study, long-term screen time of 6 or more hours per day already leads to serious social and health impairments for children!
Excessive internet/screen use makes children and young people uncommunicative and irritable and, above all, leads directly to social isolation.
Escaping into the digital world makes them lonely:
In view of the serious effects, a ministry against loneliness was set up in the UK a few years ago (Japan and the Netherlands have since followed suit)! This is because the demonstrably increased stress level of lonely people - regardless of age - can not only trigger depression and anxiety, it is also considered to be a co-trigger of (apparently) purely physical illnesses such as cancer or heart failure.
For health reasons alone, it is therefore important to show children and young people ways out of loneliness - the positive social consequences and the resulting improved developmental prognosis are on top of that!
