Excessive phone and screen use tied to manic symptoms in pre-teens, study finds

A recent study from the University of California, San Francisco, indicates that pre-teens with greater exposure to certain types of tech use could be at a higher risk of developing manic symptoms.Published in the journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, the study analyzed a nationwide sample of 9,243 children in the U.S.between 10 and 11 years old.Young people who spent more time engaged with social media, texting, videos and video games were more likely to have “inflated self-esteem, decreased need for sleep, distractibility, rapid speech, racing thoughts and impulsivity — behaviors characteristic of manic episodes, a key feature of bipolar-spectrum disorders,” a press release noted.“This study underscores the importance of cultivating healthy screen use habits early,” said co-author Kyle Ganson, PhD, assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, in the release. “Future research can help us better understand the behaviors and brain mechanisms linking screen use with manic symptoms to help inform prevention and intervention efforts.”To mark the Global Day of Unplugging (March 7), Verizon hosted its first-ever “digital wellness summit” in New York City to share insights with the public about the safe use of technology.Sowmyanarayan Sampath, CEO of Verizon Consumer Group, discussed the importance of setting digital boundaries, especially for kids.“Digital wellness should be for every age, but really we need a new blueprint as parents, because we’ve never been through this before,” Sampath said at the event in the Big Apple. “This digital age is new to us all.

There’s no time in history we can reclaim how we handle that.”In a separate interview with Fox News Digital, Sampath shared compelling statistics on phone use, including findings from Verizon’s 2024 Consumer Connections Report.Kids and teenagers use social media for four to five hours a day and receive between 2...