What Economic Survey 2023-24 says about your screen time and social media habits

The Economic Survey of 2023 and 2024 raised concerns about the negative impact of increasing screen time and use of social media on the mental health of Indian youth. The document was tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday during the budget session at the parliament.

The survey that gave an insight into the current state of the Indian economy was tabled by the finance minister a day before she’ll be presenting the 2024 Union Budget. The survey highlighted that India’s working-age population needs skills and good health to be “gainfully employed”.

“Social media, screen time, sedentary habits, and unhealthy food are a lethal mix that can undermine public health and productivity and diminish India’s economic potential,” the survey emphasized. The document also raised concerns about the impact of social media on the mental health of the youth.

Social media and the mental health of children and youth

The survey emphasised that the “sound mental health” of children and adolescents is the very foundation of the holistic development of the country and emerges as a critical step to ensure strong economic growth. It linked the mental health issue to the overuse of the internet and social media.

“The increase in mental health issues in children and adolescents is often linked to the overuse of the internet and, specifically, social media. Unrestrained and unsupervised use of the internet by children can culminate into a range of problems, from the more prevalent obsessive consumption of social media or “doom scrolling” to severe ones such as cyberbullying,” the survey reads.

The survey cited the work of Jonathan Haidt, a famous American social psychologist and author who explored the impact of increased screen time and reduced free play on the mental health of youngsters. The document cited Haidt’s work in his book ‘The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Children is Causing an Epidemic of
mental illness to support its argument.

The book suggested that the epidemic of mental health issues hit the world in the early 2010s with the advent of mobile phones. “This ‘great rewiring of childhood’ has interfered with children’s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism,” the survey reads.

Social media akin to tobacco 

The 2023-2024 economic survey also cited Vivek Murthy, the US Surgeon General who talked about social media being akin to tobacco and suggested warning labels on the tech platforms.

In a 2021 study on the ‘Effects of using Mobile Phones and other devices with Internet accessibility by children,’  the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights mentioned that 23.8 per cent of children use smartphones while they are in bed, whereas 37.2 per cent of children experience reduced levels of concentration due to smartphone use.