Multi-screening: What is multi-screening and should I worry about it?

Psychotherapist Dr Aaron Balick shares his expertise on multi-screening.

Of the children aged 3-17 questioned as part of the Children and parents: media use and attitudes report only 4% said that they never do anything else while watching TV. This finding was further reinforced by the Children’s Media Lives report, which found children aged 8-18 to be ‘compulsively multi-screening.' This division of attention across multiple screens may have a negative effect on children’s concentration.

Here’s a short guide to ‘multi-screening’ and how you might be able to help your child:

Multi-screening is pretty much what it says on the tin, that is, looking at more than one screen at the same time. Usually this involves watching a TV or a tablet at the same time as using a mobile phone – but it can be any two screens used at once. We’ve known about multi-screening for a while. Until recently, children multi-screened in order to watch content like a TV show on one screen, while using the other screen to socialise through messaging platforms. However the new Ofcom reports reveal that these days children may be using multiple screens to manage their attention. When something happening on one screen gets a bit boring, the other screen offers something new and shiny to pay attention to.

For most children (and for most adults too, if we’re being honest) multi-screening can be a signal of finding it hard to concentrate on a single thing. If that single thing is homework, for example, a second screen can disrupt attention and get in the way of children’s learning. Parents should be alert to how their child is studying at home and do their best to ensure that their learning style is best met – which means avoiding multi-screening, except when necessary, and especially when learning.

This is best done through discussion with your child and discovering what works best for them, and then working with them to maintain good habits around their use of tech.

Parents can help their kids by working with them to create habits that develop their attention. You can do this by identifying when sustained attention is important, for example when doing homework, engaged with a hobby, or when a guest is visiting, and creating strategies to support it. You can support your child’s concentration with home study by:

• Creating a space with your child that’s just for study. A quiet space where they can concentrate is ideal. In a small or crowded home, a reserved space and time at the kitchen table is perfect.
• Ensuring distractions are minimised by ensuring this space is clean and clutter-free, and that phones and other distractions are safely stowed away.
• Finding out your child’s “optimal study time window” - how long they can comfortably concentrate between breaks. For some it may be just ten minutes – for others it could be as long as 45. No matter what, it’s better to build in breaks around short periods of genuine attention rather than persisting for long periods where they are more likely to get frustrated and seek distraction.
• Ensuring their energy levels are right. In general, kids should be well-exercised, rested, hydrated, and fed so they can better sustain attention when studying.
• Modelling good practice for your child. If you are distracting yourself, multi-screening all the time, you can’t expect them not to be!

Most advice suggests no more than two hours of recreational screen time a day. This can be tough to manage, you can help by providing a rich home environment so your kids aren’t reaching for screens first thing.

Plan plenty of activities, encourage non-screen related hobbies and lots of physical activity, and try to make sure nobody is on their phones during “family time” (even if that’s just two of you). Model good behaviour by having phone-free periods (e.g. dinner time or watching a movie together), and by turning them off an hour before bedtime.

Reflect on how hard it is for you to balance your own screen time with other activities and responsibilities – it’s tough right? It’s even harder for your kids. They naturally have shorter attention spans and are being tempted by a variety of games and apps all the time. Learn about the why, how, and what your child is doing on their devices. By being interested in what they are actually doing and why, they’ll be more likely to take you seriously.

While with younger kids you’ll need to be more directive, with older ones you can work together to create appropriate boundaries. Instead of hard, fast rules – create flexible guidelines that are responsive to your kids’ real lives, monitoring and changing them as necessary. For example, different guidelines on school nights and weekends and holidays makes perfect sense so long as they are reasonable.

Guidelines work better if everybody adheres to them, so be sure your phone is stowed away when connecting with your child about their day, eating a meal, or sharing any kind of activity together. No cheating! Saying, “I just have to check something for work,” can undermine these guidelines if it happens too much. You might be surprised that your child prefers your undivided attention to a screen – at least sometimes!

Because screens are everywhere, all of the time, controlling them can really feel like an uphill climb. And while rules and guidelines are necessary to keeping appropriate boundaries, they won’t work on their own. Create ways of being with your child that are more interesting than their screens. Engaging in fun activities where they have the undivided attention of friends and loved ones is a sure-fire way to lure them away from their screens.

At the same time, we all enjoy some down-time, fiddling with our phones now and then – and so long as it’s kept in perspective, that’s fine too. So instead of creating rigid rules and worrying about every minute spent in front of screens, help your child build attention habits that will last a lifetime.

Dr Aaron Balick is a psychotherapist, helping people with their psychological and emotional wellbeing.