Carey, Benedict. “‘Screen Time’ Is Over.” International New York Times 5 June 2019. Business Insights: Global. Web. 30 Mar. 2020.URL
https://bi-gale-com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/global/article/GALE|A595560222?u=ucinc_main&sid=summon

“Screen time” is something that almost everyone is familiar with. What is screen time? This article discusses the idea that “screen time” is too generalized. It is hard to form a question about how screen time effects mental health because there is no clear cut definition for what screen time really is. Is it time spent watching tv, surfing the web, working, or using social media? Dr. Reeves and his colleagues developed a study that followed 12 people’s phone screen habits. By taking screen shots of their phone every few minutes, they were able to determine the content that these people look at, and how often they switch between different types of content. This study let to the discussion of another study on how these types of interactions effect the daily experience, mood, or depression. Johannes Eichstaedt of the University of Pennsylvania conducted a study analyzing social media use and content and how this contributed to later diagnoses of depression. Results concluded that certain behaviors, and content viewing led to a later diagnoses of depression with up to 70% accuracy. The author hopes that as time goes on and these questions gain more traction in the scientific community, that we will be able to do further research on the subject.

This source could be useful for my paper because it gives insights to the type of behavior and content on social platforms that can lead to depression diagnoses. It is current, published in the International New York Times. Most people consider the New York Times a reliable source of news reported as accurately as possible. Though everything going through the Times is written by a person, and people can have their own bias, this article was pretty straight forward with the facts.

This source helps shape my argument because it furthers the point that content correlates with depression, and in this case could even be an indicator of depression. The studies presented in this source could be a useful statistic to further my aim.

Kueppers, Courtney. “Study Links Too Much Screen Time to Changes in Young Kids’ Brains.” TCA Regional News, Nov 06, 2019. ProQuest, https://search-proquest-com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/docview/2312202121?accountid=2909.

This article is about how too much screen time can alter children’s brains. White matter is a part of the brain that is responsible for cognitive and language function and it appears that too much screen time in small children results in diminished white matter. These results came from an MRI study of children 3-5 years old. Children with a higher “screenq” were behind in language skills and other signs of cognitive development. The article encourages parents to limit children’s screen time and create plenty of screen free activities.

This article was written by Courtney Kueppers for TCA Regional News, Chicago. This source is a little bit different than others in my bibliography because it is about small children and not teens and young adults. This article focuses more on the developmental aspect of screen time rather than the possible depressive symptoms screen time can cause. I would say the source is biased because it provides only one study, in which the results may not be 100% accurate because of outside factors that are unaccounted for. While it does mention that, it still encourages decreased use of screen time among young children.

This article is not too helpful for my current aim. The study that this article reports has too many inconsistencies. My current aim is about the content that people are viewing contributing to depression and not how it effects development at a young age.

“Digital depression: Study links social media and TV, but not video gaming, to teens’ mental well-being.” Globe & Mail [Toronto, Canada], 16 July 2019, p. A1,A15. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, https://link-gale-com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/apps/doc/A594257631/OVIC?u=ucinc_main&sid=OVIC&xid=d3bdc23e. Accessed 30 Mar. 2020.

“Digital depression” discusses a study held about whether or not screen time effects young people’s mental well being. Social media and TV were found to lead to increased feelings of depression, but the use of video games did not. The scientists attributed this to their hypothesis of “upward social comparison” which is the idea that social media and tv gives young adults unrealistic expectations about life, and looks which can have negative impacts of mental health. They believe that if someone has depressive tendencies, the algorithms that social media uses to present content, will continue to show those people depressive content and worsen symptoms. Video games on the other hand did not contribute to depressive behavior and it was believed that was because they create “positive inter-group relations, some increased physical activity and problem solving.” It is still encouraged that people be literate about the content they view and be aware of what is effecting them negatively.

This was published by Globe and Mail, a conservative news reporting group in Canada. I would consider this a reliable source because the study evaluated multiple factors. The goal of this source is to get readers thinking about what it is about screen time that can cause depression. It seems that video games aren’t the problem, but TV and social media use are. This creates the idea that content is what creates depressive symptoms and behaviors.

This source could be incredibly useful for my argument. The results support the hypothesis that it is content and the amount of time spent looking at screens that contributes to depression. This source was helpful because it gave insight to the different types of media that people are using, and which one result in the most depressive symptoms.