Media Awareness and Screen Time Reduction in Children, Youth or Families: A Systematic Literature Review

Excessive use of screen media is a global public health issue and especially extensive screen exposure during very early childhood. This review was conducted in order to update previous reviews on the effectiveness of interventions to reduce screen time. An electronic literature search was carried out in MEDLINE, COCHRANE LIBRARY and CINAHL for articles indexed from June 2011 until October 2019. The search identified 933 publications of which 11 publications were included in this review. There are studies showing interventions with a positive influence on reduction of screen time and the participants’ awareness and behavior concerning the use of screen media, as well as studies without such effects. No intervention was identified to be superior. This warrants further investigation of potentially effective combinations of intervention components and long-term follow-up.

Images of Machines and Technology. Author’s Interpretations

The problem of interaction between machines and humans has been relevant at all times of human civilization’s development. This subject arose most acutely in the era of scientific and technical progress, giving rise to a wide problem field, many aspects of which still require scientific understanding. In this discussion, the researchers tried to analyze the situation of the widespread implantation of new technologies and machines into the art field. The integration of technology generates the necessity of the author’s interpretations about the relationship between the technological and the humanistic. The authors turned to the problem of identification and draw the boundaries of the human “I” in the era of computerization of many spheres of life, to the topic of technology’s images in cinema (Polish, American, documentary), to the image of industrialization in American art of the first half of the 20th century, to modern installations by A. Reichstein, to the screen media in the stage space, in the city, and even in the virtual environment (for example on incredibly popular TikTok platform). The authors conclude that machine civilization is closely intertwined with humans. The images of technology are overgrown with countless interpretations: they can act as a theme, device, context, decoration, character, conflict with humanity, fight for its prosperity, try to identify itself in the human world.

Conclusion/Coda

This Conclusion/Coda summarizes the book’s key argument: the postscreen as a visual phenomenon which, through contemporary instantiations via Virtual Reality, holographic and light projections, blurs boundaries between virtuality and actuality, and re-formulates conditions of media, reality, death, life, matter and history. The Conclusion also points the post-screen towards two further ideas which drive its concept: difference, in terms of screen boundaries demarcating image against surroundings, and on difference without positive terms; and gluttony of visual media, specifically in relation to play between the real and the unreal. Both ideas not only serve the diminished boundaries of the post-screen in terms of the book’s analyses, but also render the post-screen a framework for today’s politics of post-truth, misinformation and deepfakes as a moment of media history. Finally, the Conclusion extends the post-screen to the (as of writing) current Covid-19 pandemic as a mirror of the internalization that is of both post-screen media and virus – both are in us, and inescapable.

Introduction

This Introduction presents the context for the book’s argument of the post-screen, namely, an argument for a state of critical attention to the delimitations of screen media and the ensuing problematizations of relations between image and object; an intensifying evolution of the virtual and its role in defining media consumers and their realities; and an era of screen media marked by the disappearances of boundaries of differentiation between subject and object; and a point in media history. The central query of the post-screen lies in the growing imperceptibility and instability of screen boundaries. Where these thresholds begin to disappear is also where the need arises to re-question the definitional states of the actual and the virtual, and the renewed contestations for dominance between them.

The Post-Screen through Virtual Reality, Holograms and Light Projections

Screens are ubiquitous today. They display information; present image worlds; are portable; connect to mobile networks; mesmerize. However, contemporary screen media also seek to eliminate the presence of the screen and the visibilities of its boundaries. As what is image becomes increasingly indistinguishable against the viewer's actual surroundings, this unsettling prompts re-examination about not only what is the screen, but also how the screen demarcates and what it stands for in relation to our understanding of our realities in, outside and against images. Through case studies drawn from three media technologies - Virtual Reality; holograms; and light projections - this book develops new theories of the surfaces on and spaces in which images are displayed today, interrogating critical lines between art and life; virtuality and actuality; truth and lies. What we have today is not just the contestation of the real against illusion or the unreal, but the disappearance itself of difference and a gluttony of the unreal which both connect up to current politics of distorted truth values and corrupted terms of information. <i>The Post-Screen through Virtual Reality, Holograms and Light Projections: Where Screen Boundaries Lie</i> is thus about not only where the image's borders and demarcations are established, but also the screen boundary as the instrumentation of today's intense virtualizations that do not tell the truth. In all this, a new imagination for images emerges, with a new space for cultures of presence and absence, definitions of object and representation, and understandings of dis- and re-placement - the post-screen.

Feasibility of two screen media reduction interventions: Results from the SCREENS pilot trial

Background Advancements in screen media devices has transformed the way families engage with screen media. Although these modern devices offer many opportunities, e.g. communication and research online, an in-depth understanding of how these devices affect our health, is lacking. Before a definite randomized controlled trial, the SCREENS pilot study was conducted to assess compliance to and feasibility of two interventions, a measurement protocol, and a survey-based recruitment strategy. Also, the potential of the interventions to impact leisure time spent non-sedentary in children six-to-ten years of age was explored. Methods Families (N = 12) were recruited through a population-based survey sent out in October of 2018 to adults (N = 1,675) in the Municipality of Middelfart, Denmark. Families were randomized to one of two two-week interventions; an Evening Restriction intervention (no screen media use after six pm) and a General Restrict intervention (limit entertainment-based screen media to three hours/week/person). Intervention compliance was assessed objectively by measuring household TV usage, smartphone and tablet activity via an application, and via screen media diaries. During baseline and follow-up, as part of larger protocol, family members wore two triaxial accelerometers for seven consecutive days. The potential of the interventions to impact non-sedentary time was explored based on means and standard errors (SEs). Results Despite almost 85% and 75% reductions in leisure screen media use 0% and 50% of families were compliant in the Evening Restrict group and General Restrict group, respectively, based on strict a priori criteria. Participant feedback indicated that the General Restrict intervention generally was feasibly. Compliance to the accelerometry wear protocol was high (median non-wear was <1 hour/week). Moreover, the recruitment strategy was implemented and was feasible. The General restrict intervention might increase children’s non-sedentary time (mean (SE): 36.6 (23) min/day, N = 6). Conclusions The General Restriction intervention, the accelerometer wear protocol and recruitment strategy, appeared feasible. Trial registration NCT03788525 at https://clinicaltrials.gov [Retrospectively registered; 27th of December, 2018].

Correlates of Screen Time in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review Study

Introduction: The use of screen media by children and adolescents is increasing and has destructive effects on various development aspects. This study was done to determine the correlates of Screen Time (ST) in children and adolescents. Materials and Methods: Published articles from January 2000 to September 2020 were searched through PubMed, PsycNet, Science Direct, Medline, Scopus, and Web of Science databases. Magiran, SID, and IranDoc databases were searched for Persian studies with no time limitation. The used keywords were correlates OR predictors + screen time, screen use, screen viewing, screen media, mobile use, cellphone use, TV/ television viewing, TV/ television use, TV/ television, computer use, video game, Media exposure, Media use, electronic media, digital media, digital devices, tablet use + adolescent, youth, infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and children. The literature search identified 51 studies that met the inclusion criteria. Results: After reviewing the studies according to the PRISMA checklist, the correlates were Grouped in five categories: (i) child biological and demographic correlates, (ii) behavioral correlates, (iii) family biological and demographic correlates, (iv) family structure related correlates, and (v) socio-cultural and environmental correlates. The most common correlates found were age, sex, and Body Mass Index (BMI) of children, age and education of parents, socio-economic status, physical activity, quality of the neighborhood, parents’ ST, rules, and Digital Devices (DD) in the child/ adolescent’s bedroom. Conclusion: The ST in children and adolescents is associated with several factors at intrapersonal, interpersonal, and social/ cultural levels. It is suggested that health promotion programs to reduce the use of these devices should be implemented with a comprehensive view of the individual, family, and society.

Melodrama's Modern

Confronting the paradox of melodrama as an apparently outdated Victorian stage form now argued as the overarching modality of modern screen fiction, this essay rethinks the nature of melodrama's 'modern' as an aesthetic modality capable of channelling the social through individual protagonists. Devising staging and plotting that foregrounds emotional and moral consequences of actions, and drawing on musicalisation of performance and word to embody feeling, the melodramatic mode creates haptic connection with audiences, inviting empathy with the sensations and 'human interest' of other's experiences, while it discursively binds the social into the personal in the acculturated images, turns of speech, and cultural references through which its characters' emotions and actions are expressed. Arguing shifting criteria of verisimilitude under pressure of changing social conditions and emergence of new technologies, the essay shows how melodrama's personalisation of the social evolves in modern screen media through the resources of cinematography.