For years, experts have warned that watching too much television is bad for your brain. But new evidence suggests that spending time in front of a screen may actually be beneficial for mental health.
In a published last year in Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychologya team of researchers crossed their own data on leisure time with information from the US Census Bureau regarding household size, stress levels and screen use habits.
According to the study results, people who have some “me time” at home, after work, they seem to be able to recover more easily the courage to face day-to-day responsibilities.
“The size of the household essentially has to do with the number of demands that a person faces when you get home,” he explained. love Min Toha behavior expert at the University of Toronto Mississauga and co-author of the study, at the university.
“We tend to think that home is a place of restbut the more people you have, especially if we look at the number of childrens, the greater the demands will be, and, therefore, nIt is always a recovery space“, said Toh.
To reach these conclusions, Toh and his colleague Xian Zhaofrom the University of Ohio, analyzed the responses of more than 61,000 married adults recorded in the American Time Use Survey, from the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics.
They focused, in particular, on amount of time that participants started watching television in relation to the number of childrenas well as declared levels of tiredness and stress.
Although it was not surprising to record a increased anxiety and fatigue in homes with small childrenthe researchers found a curious fact: the parents who watched more television reported feeling less exhausted e stress.
From there, Toh and Zhao surveyed more than 100 Canadian university students about life at home, asking them to classify statements like “I can’t hear my own thoughts at home.”
After the questionnaire, participants recorded daily, at night, the time they used their cell phone and their state of mind. Once again, hectic houses were associated with more negative emotions—but those feelings were less intense for those who spent more time on their cell phones.
In a final survey, another group of students was asked to indicate the total number of housemates, the time he dedicated to video games and possible difficulties in resuming responsibilities the following day.
As in previous phases, young adults with more roommates found it more difficult to return to classes or work the next day, but those who played the most video games they did not consider this return to be so painful.
“There is a damping effect from screen time to demands, tension and domestic chaos, to the number of people and responsibilities”, explained Toh.
However, the team warns of the danger of using these conclusions as an excuse to pass hours on end in front of the screen every night.
The study, for example, did not consider issues such as online addictionwhich often negates any short-term mental health benefits. At the same time, there may be a “zona Goldilocks”—an ideal balance—for many people, when it comes to using social media or trying to get to another level in a video game, without negative effects on their health.
“We are not suggesting that you should spend more time on your cell phone…but this break allows us to breathe and be in a space where we can disconnect from our responsibilities”, said Toh. “And that can be quite restful to recover energy.”
