A study suggests a majority of Montreal teens have greatly increased their screen time in full confinement in spring 2021. However, many of them say that they get “bored” by screens, while their intensive use is associated with less well-being and less motivation.
Posted at 12:00 p.m
Frederik Xavier Duhamel The press
The study by the Regional Health Authority (DRSP) of the CIUSSS du Center-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal focuses on 725 young people aged 13 to 17 who were interviewed between the months of April and May 2021, “a very restrictive containment period of the COVID-19 pandemic”, which is characterized in particular by the first curfew and the third wave of infections.
It shows that 7 in 10 young Montreal respondents say they have greatly increased at least one type of screen use, such as watching videos, using social media or playing video games.
“We are not surprised by the increase, because everything was closed to young people,” says Jean-François Biron, researcher at the DRSP and first author of the study. “Their social spaces, their recreational spaces were inaccessible for a long time. »
And many of them feel uncomfortable in this situation, while 39% of them say they get “bored” with screens sometimes or often. Almost half (45%) of respondents say their screen use has “sometimes or often interfered with their sleep,” and 37% believe it has interfered with their work or school performance.
Nonetheless, no fewer than 27% of those surveyed spend five hours or more of their free time in front of the screen on weekdays, not counting study time.
This “intensive use” is associated with “lower motivation to study, poorer academic performance and lower morale,” it says. Heavy users also show higher levels of dissatisfaction with their lives and relationships, and they are more likely to have reduced their physical activity.
“That’s a bit worrying, but it has to be related to the exact time of the pandemic,” puts Biron into perspective. For him, the exercise also shows the relevance of initiatives such as the Break Your Screen campaign or the Center for Emotional Intelligence Online, which offer resources to young people struggling with problems related to the use of screens.
And not everything is gloomy in the portrait painted by the DRSP. The majority of participants used their screens to “maintain and develop relationships” (76%) and to “learn new things” (70%).
The methodology used does not allow one to speak of a probabilistic sample strictly representative of the population studied, but the survey nevertheless offers “good benchmarks” according to Mr. Biron, given the characteristics of the participants.
However, there are no data that allow a comparison with the time before the pandemic. “The studies on screens are under construction,” explains the researcher. “Usages are changing pretty quickly, so the questions that were asked 10 years ago aren’t really comparable anymore. »