Reducing Cellular Screen Time in Teens

NAILA MOLOO

Age 15 | Ottawa, ON

Edited by Megan Clemens

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INTRODUCTION

Cell phones are ubiquitous — but we tend to spend far too much time on these devices, which leads to outcomes like mental health issues, depression, and even suicide. Teens average over seven hours a day on their phones (Jacob, J., 2019).

To address this issue, an intervention was created to reduce screen time in middle school students by designing a sticker to go on the back of a cellphone. 31 student volunteers were collected, and their baseline screen times gathered using a tracker in settings. Through a random number generator, they were split into either the intervention or control group. The intervention group saw a statistically sig- nificant impact, on average decreasing by 69 minutes per person per day.

This experiment was then extended by designing a phone wallpaper. 38 volunteers were collected from middle school, who were randomly assigned into either the wallpaper group or the sticker group. Using the same process, it was seen that they were both statistically significant experiments. The sticker indicated that the post-intervention results (Mdn = 40 minutes) were statistically significantly lower than that of the pre-intervention (Mdn = 108 minutes), p <0.001, and the wallpaper indicated that the post-intervention results (Mdn = 57 minutes) were statistically significantly lower than that of the pre-intervention (Mdn = 181 minutes), p <0.001. On average, students in the sticker group decreased by 65 minutes per person per day, similar to the previous findings, and the students in the wallpaper group decreased by 118 minutes per day.

The decrease in screen time for the wallpaper (Mdn = 99 minutes) was not statistically significantly lower than that of the sticker intervention (Mdn = 45), p <0.05. However, there was a trend toward significance.

Spending too much time on a phone is correlated with depression, anxiety, and an increase in diseases like diabetes and cancer (Garcia-Navarro, 2017). Youth spend hours on end on their phones, damaging their developing brains (Melissa, 2016). Screen time can cause major damage to an area known as the insula, which is involved in our capacity to know empathy and compassion for others. These skills impact the expanse and quality of personal relationships. Research has additionally shown that screen time causes a loss of integrity to the brain’s white matter (Hu et al., 2001). White matter connects networks from the brain to the body, and the body to the brain. Interrupted connections may slow down signals or cause them to be unpredictable, minimizing the facilitation of information transfer (Dunckley, 2014).

Constant reminders can strongly influence human behaviour. A good way to remind oneself of something is by using visual cues (Pirolli et al., 2017). These remind people to perform the same be- haviour repetitively. If there is something visual to look at each day to remind someone not to get on their phone, there is a chance there could be a decrease in screen time (Jason, 2017).

If two interventions are conducted to decrease middle school girls’ cell phone screen time, then the wallpaper intervention will have a stronger impact than the sticker. This is because the wallpaper is on the front of the phone rather than the back and has a catchy rhyme which is more memorable than the sticker’s slogan.

MATERIALS & METHODS

Research was conducted to observe the three most popular flowers, and three photos of flowers were selected. 97 surveys were distributed to everyone in the classes of grades six, seven, and eight. Each individual filled out a survey where they circled their favourite looking flower. The students with cell phones wrote down if they were willing to volunteer or not. The volunteers who owned iPhones went to settings and sent over their last seven days of screen time. The volunteers who owned Androids installed the app QualityTime-MyDigitalDiet, and they tracked for the next seven days and emailed over their data.

Video tutorials were personally created and sent to students for their aid. A few weeks later, half of the volunteers were randomly assigned the wallpaper intervention and the other half were assigned the sticker intervention. A random number generator was used; each person was assigned a number and the application was used to randomly assign students to either the control group or the intervention group. As proof that the randomization process hopefully resulted in groups that were balanced in terms of known and unknown factors that could influence the outcome, the number of students in each grade was similar between the two groups. Af- ter one week, the students emailed over their screen time. Three Wilcoxon Signed-Rank tests were conducted to observe if the changes in screen time were significant in each intervention and to measure if the changes in screen time from each intervention were significantly different from each other.

RESULTS

The first research question addressed whether the wallpaper intervention had a statistically significant impact on decreasing screen time. A Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test was conducted for the week- ly average to measure the wallpaper intervention’s effectiveness. The Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test for the wallpaper indicated that the post-intervention results (Mdn = 57) were statistically significantly lower than that of the pre-intervention (Mdn = 181), Z = -3.78, p <0.001.

The second research question addressed whether the sticker intervention had a statistically significant impact on decreasing screen time. A Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test was conducted for the weekly average to measure the sticker intervention’s effective- ness. The Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test for the sticker indicated that the post-intervention results (Mdn = 40) were statistically significantly lower than that of the pre-intervention (Mdn = 108), Z = -3.46, p <0.001.

The third research question addressed if the difference in student volunteer screen time differed significantly from each other in each intervention group. A Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test was conducted to measure if the average changes of screen time in each intervention were significantly different from each other. The Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test for the sticker indicated that the decrease in screen time for the wallpaper (Mdn = 99) was not statistically significantly lower than that of the sticker intervention (Mdn = 45), Z = -1.69, p <0.05.

It was found that both interventions were successful in that they were statistically significant. Overall, 94.74% of the wallpaper intervention participants decreased in screen time and 89.47% of the sticker intervention participants decreased in screen time. Importantly, the girls who received the wallpaper spent 118 minutes (nearly two hours) less per day on their phone and the girls who received the sticker spent about an hour less per day. Another observation made was that the scale was larger for the wallpaper intervention group compared to the sticker intervention group. The range for the wallpaper outcome was -2 to 398, and -28 to 354 with the sticker outcome.

The data partially supported the hypothesis. Although both interventions did have significant impacts, as shown by Wilcoxon Rank statistical tests, they were not statistically different from each other. The participants of the wallpaper group decreased by 118 minutes on average and the participants of the sticker group decreased by 65 minutes on average. This showed a trend toward being significantly different from each other but due to the lack of the number of volunteers, statistics could not prove this.

**Figure 1:** Comparing the daily average screen times of the middle school volunteers before and after the wallpaper interventions were given out.

**Figure 2:** Comparing the daily average screen times of the middle school volunteers before and after the sticker interventions were given out.

**Figure 3:** Comparing the daily average decrease in cell phone usage between the sticker and wallpaper group.

DISCUSSION

The wallpaper and sticker both had significant impacts due to numerous factors. The wallpaper had a rhyming phrase and the sticker had a very direct and firm statement (see figure 4). These are both said to attract peoples’ attention, although rhymes may achieve the job further because of their memorability (Inglis-Arkell, 2015).

The colour schemes also played an important role. The sticker was composed of red writing on a white background (see figure 5), because red is bold and eye-catching, symbolizing power and enhancing attention to detail (University of British Columbia, 2009). For these reasons this colour scheme is used in advertising and marketing as a strategy. The sticker may have accomplished this but the colour scheme on the wallpaper was easier to see and pay attention to for a longer time not. This is in part because it was of a much larger size and because it was on the front of the phone rather than the back. For the wallpaper, the design of a flower was used because this is a common symbol in female middle schoolers, and flowers are known to relax the brain (Dempsey, C., 2020). Orchids are one of the most popular flowers in the world. The blue colour of the wallpaper was relaxing and alluring because of its warmth and vibrancy (University of Brit- ish Columbia, 2009).

The majority of screen time interventions have been performed with students aged six and below since this is when parents have most control over lifestyle behaviour. Events and initiatives have been planned to educate students about the cause, like the Turn off the Screens intervention. However, despite high participation, the outcome in screen time was unclear (Ghassemi & Granger, 2012). Therefore, nothing like this experiment has been done before, least of all with high-yielding results.

CONCLUSION

The research question was: “Will a screen-based intervention have a greater effect than a sticker-based intervention in decreasing cellular phone screen time in middle school girls?” In response to this, the hypothesis was that the wallpaper intervention would have a stronger impact than the sticker intervention.

In conclusion, the results from both the sticker and wallpaper interventions were statistically significant. Although the inter- ventions were not statistically significant from one another, there was a trend toward significance, meaning the wallpaper was more effective at decreasing screen time than the sticker.

One potential source of error could have come from the in- tentions of the volunteers which could lead to bias. Some students may have decreased or increased in screen time on purpose. Since they were aware of what the project objective was, this could have influenced how much time they spent on their cell phones. To avoid this, it would have been better to have a larger sample to obtain more data and gain further accuracy and certainty in the results.

Secondly, the extra-curriculars, activities, and schedules could have also been a determining factor of how much time one spent on their cell phone. This could involve if someone was sick, if they had tests or assignments a certain week, or if they had a changed schedule one of the weeks. If someone was sick, they may spend more time on their cell phone and if someone had a test one week, they may spend more time studying rather than being on their phone. To avoid this, it would have been better to run the experiment for a longer period of time.

A question that could be asked could be: do high schoolers have more or less screen time than middle schoolers, and why exactly? Another is: if the wallpaper and stickers were to be left on students’ phones for a longer period of time, would the interventions continue to impact their behaviour, and for how long?

Some extensions could be the following:

We know that screen time is linked to mental health issues, depression, suicide, vision loss, less sleep, an increase in weight, the changing of one’s personality, and more (Heid, M., 2018). Therefore, to test if there is a correlation between the use of the sticker or wallpaper and one of these outcomes, additions like a happiness questionnaire could have been included in a broader experiment. The students could be asked to take a happiness survey before and after the intervention, and if their screen time decreased, it would be observed if their happiness substantially increased simultaneously.
High schoolers are likely busier than middle schoolers. Therefore, another extension could have been to include all grades 6-12 to test if there was a major difference between high school and middle school, e.g., middle schoolers may have more screen time because they have less of a workload and more free time.
As mentioned earlier, there is always the chance that students could have been biased with their screen time. Therefore, perhaps one month later, they could send over their screen time and it could be observed if there was a longer-lasting impact of the in- terventions. This could be repeated for two months, three months, even up to one year later. It would be observed how their screen time changed, and at what points in the year they increased the most, like summer.

This shows that a simple intervention can have radical effects on the screen habits of middle schoolers. Since screen time is associated with many bad outcomes, having something simple like this is a very important finding. Bringing awareness to this accessible wallpaper has the potential to improve the mental health of thou- sands of teenagers.

**Figure 4:** The wallpaper design that was used as the intervention.

**Figure 5:** The sticker design that was used as the other intervention.

REFERENCES

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Dempsey, C. (2020). Popular Types of Flowers: Top 12 Women’s Favorite Flowers. Minivan-momma. http://www.minivan-momma.com/popular-types-flow- ers-top-12-womens-favorite-flowers/

Dunckley, V. (2014). Gray Matters: Too Much Screen Time Damages the Brain. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/men- tal-wealth/201402/gray-matters-too-much-screen-time-damages-the-brain

Garcia-Navarro, L. (2017). The risk of teen depression and suicide is linked to smart- phone use, study says. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2017/12/17/571443683/ the-call-in-teens-and-depression

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Inglis-Arkell, E. (2015). Why rhyming phrases are more persuasive. Giz- modo. https://gizmodo.com/why-rhyming-phrases-are-more-persua- sive-1524861998

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Naila Moloo

Naila Moloo is a 15-year-old passionate about making impact in the sustainability sector. She is currently developing transparent and flexible solar cells leveraging nanomaterials where she is researching silver nanowires and perovskites. Naila is also working with Pond Biomaterials on building a 3D printable bioplastic from duckweed where she has been experimenting in the Carleton University lab in Ottawa. Her latest area of exploration is machine learning where she built an algorithm to predict the output of photovoltaic systems. Outside of STEM, Naila is the author of Chronicles of Illusions: The Blue Wild" which was published when she was 14.