Health Risks: Digital Screen Schooling During COVID-19 Pandemic

    Many health problems are cropping up as screen time increases for adults due to schools being shut because of the COVID-19 pandemic The potential risk in over usage of over-electronic devices caused many mental and physical health problems such as sleep disturbance, depression, anxiety, myopia etc., Lockdown protocols restricted the normalcy of classroom education and entered into a more intense virtual world. The COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in India caused physical and psychological distress among the teenagers and adult groups.

     The COVID-19 outbreak in India has spread over to all states and union territories, infecting more than millions of people. The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a “pandemic” (WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 - 11 May 2020) outbreak and the increase in pandemic cases has alerted people all across the world to follow the lockdown procedures to mitigate the mass spread of the virus. COVID-19 has resulted in schools shut all across the world. Over “1.2 billion children” (Cathy LI) are out of the classroom to a virtual one. As a result, education has changed dramatically, with the distinctive rise of e-learning, whereby teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms.

     Digital technological advancement aided in coping with the pandemic scenario and we are currently engaged in various domains in the field of e-learning. The prolonged use of electronic media is a risk factor for both adolescents’ sleep disturbance and may also result in depression, according to the “recent meta-analysis summarizing longitudinal and treatment studies that examined the prospective role of sleep disturbance in the development of depression and vice versa during adolescence” (Lemola 408).

     The close proximity between sleep, depressive symptoms and electronic media use examined changes in adolescents’ behaviour. It has been particularly pronounced that there is an increase in the use of electronic media during leisure time among children and adolescents, and this case of pandemic has affected their communication with digitals. “During the last several decades, there has been a particularly pronounced increase in the use of electronic media during leisure time among children and adolescents. Moreover, there is a clear increase in media use from childhood to adolescence” (Lemola 406). The chronicity of sleep problems is very high with “73 % of adolescents with depressive disorder also suffering from a sleep disorder” (Lui 30)

     Excessive screen time in turn leads to behavioural problems. In the contemporary educational process managed by screen time access increased these problems to new heights. Such problems were already prevalent with the current tech development scenarios, but it has surged tremendously these days. The associations between youth screen time and compromised sleep have compromised behavioral health outcomes “internalizing, externalizing, & peer problems” (Pediatr). Indeed has also resulted in many psychosocial, and biological issues. The psychosocial interference of the extended digital media use uplifted by educational works and classes mitigated the time to fall asleep. The biological disturbance is the effect of screen radiation light producing irritation to the eyes.

     The dependency of digital device usage had comparatively increased time spent indoors and the education conferred in the radiation screens inflated the risk of myopia in teenagers and adults. Traditional reading and writing had been replaced by educational screen time, which in turn caused widespread of such eye problems.

     A large cohort study of 5074 children in Rotterdam (the Generation R study), found an association between increased computer use and myopia at 9 years of age (odds ratio = 1.005 [95% confidence interval, 1.001-1.009])… A study of 418 students found that device-recorded smartphone data usage,      an objective surrogate for time spent using the smartphone, was independently associated with             myopia in a study of 418 students (odds ratio = 1.08 [95% confidence interval, 1.03-1.14] (Pediatr)

     Thus the extended closure of educational institutions and substitution opened in the form of e-learning platforms increased the existing issues of over-technological use. The present scenario elevated the time spent before the digital screen causing such harsh health problems in society. Although in the COVID-19  scenario digitals played a prime role in accessing the educational platforms, such awareness about the health condition is to be considered as there is an extensive affirmation of these digital technologies in their future.

 

 

References:

1.  Cathy LI, Farah Lalni. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed education forever. This is how. 29 April 2020. Accessed on 25 February 2021.
2.  Lemola, S., Perkinson-Gloor, N., Brand, S. et al. Adolescents’ Electronic Media Use at Night, Sleep Disturbance, and Depressive Symptoms in the Smartphone Age. J Youth Adolescence 44, 405–418 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-014-0176-x. n.d.
3.  Lui, X., Buysse, D. J., Gentzler, A. L., Kiss, E., Mayer, L., Kepornai, K., et al. (2007). Insomnia and hypersomnia associated with phenomenology and comorbidity in childhood depression. Sleep, 30, 83–90
4.  Pediatr, J Dev Behav. "Youth Screen Time and Behavioral Health Problems: The Role of Sleep Duration and Disturbances." HHS Public Access (2017): 277-284.
5.  WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 - 11 May 2020. 2020. https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---11-march-2020