Screen Damage: The Dangers of Digital Media for Children

by Michel Desmurget, Andrew Brown (Translator)

All forms of recreational digital consumption – whether on smartphones, tablets, game consoles or TVs – have skyrocketed in the younger generations. From the age of 2, children in the West clock up more than 2.5 hours of screen time a day; by the time they reach 13, it’s more than 7 hours a day. Added up over the first 18 years of life, this is the equivalent of almost 30 school years, or 15 years of full-time employment. Most media experts do not seem overly concerned about this children are adaptable, they say, they are ‘digital natives’, their brains have changed and screens make them smarter. But other specialists – including some paediatricians, psychiatrists, teachers and speech therapists – dispute these claims, and many parents worry about the long-term consequences of their children’s intensive exposure to screens.   Michel Desmurget, a leading neuroscientist, has carefully weighed up the scientific evidence concerning the impact of the digital activities of our children and adolescents, and his assessment does not make for happy he shows that these activities have significant detrimental consequences in terms of the health, behaviour and intellectual abilities of young people, and strongly affect their academic outcomes. A wake-up call for anyone concerned about the long-term impacts of our children’s over-exposure to screens.

Genres: Nonfiction, Education

302 pages, Paperback

Published October 28, 2022

Reviews

[Jez Symes]

Super interesting. Great skills in pulling apart deep longitudinal studies to analyse and report on relevance.

Protect our kids& their brains people!

[Grace]

This book sounds the alarm on the many ways that pervasive screens have impacted childhood and adolescence. Originally written in French and translated into English, this book is eye opening and thorough- excellent reading for parents especially, as this topic is very very pertinent to our lives these days.

Dense but with lots of references and data, regardless I was able to finish the book in a couple of days despite being not a fast reader. About 30-40% of the book is the references list, so it’s not as long as you think (only 210 pages of actual reading)

[Eduardo Dos]

As drugs, screens are addictive, detrimental to development and hurtful for the health of our younger humans... Full review here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/would-...

[Kass]

I think if you are interested in learning more about screens at school this is a great book to start with. I’ve read SEVERAL parenting books and it aligns with all that I’ve read. A good refresher on why screens at a young age is not necessary.

[Vickie T]

Well screens are damaging our kids. I read it because I spent a lot of time with my niece's children ages 8 and 11 and worried about their screen use. Now I am even more worried.

[Betsy T.]

A must read. Blows pro-tech myths out of the water with meticulous research.

[Kimberly Wax]

Very unbalanced, heavy-handed, redundant. Much better books tackling this subject.

[Kelsey Crawford]

All the research I’ve wanted to read wrapped in one lovely book. Written in an easy to read format.