Engl. transl.: Features of screen time among teenagers

The scientific and policy discourse on the effects of media usage and, especially the technology usage of teenagers, mainly discusses the potential risks and harms (Blum-Ross – Livingstone 2016). In connection, the time spent with screen activities and its connection with one's psychological wellbeing is a very important topic in the international literature (lsd.: Fitzpatrick et al. 2019, Lobel et al. 2016; Babic et al. 2017). However, it the empirical results are so far controversial in revealing whether the time spent with screen activities, regardless the type of the technology and the goal of the usage, has a positive or negative effect on the general wellbeing of teenagers. Moreover, the research of the topic is mainly driven by psychological approaches. This is one of the reasons why the body of Hungarian research known to us (Bányai et al. 2017; Prievara – Pikó 2016, Király et al. 2015) rather focuses on problematic usage and their results usually magnify the negative consequences of media usage, while do not report on general social effects, like on the connection of screen activities and general wellbeing. It is important to emphasize that there are significant social inequalities in the access to different technologies and to the internet According to the analysis of Fehérvári (2017) on the regional data of household and the technologies they own, that ICT-access in Hungary shows great differences between the different regions and educational levels. Two other factors, age and gender, need to be also underlined as those are determine the amount of time one spend with screen activities (Bucksch et al. 2016, Talves – Kalmus 2015). Screen time is increasing with age, so as the time spent on social media sites. In younger age groups boys spend more time with screen activities, but in the late teenager years this difference breaks off, and the type of activities shows variations. Playing video games is an all around activity among boys, while girls rather use social media sites, thus their online activity is on a higher level (Pew Research Center 2018). In this paper we examine the patterns of screen activities of teenagers and how the time they spent with these activities is connected to their psychological wellbeing. Our paper structured as follow: first we introduce the instruments we used, then we discuss the characteristics of social media usage and videogames. Finally, we discuss the connections with psychological wellbeing. In the conclusion part results regarding the investigations on the effects of screen time is summarized.

According to the data the usage of social media sites are more widespread among teenagers than playing with videogames. Girls spend more time on social media sites, while boys spend more times with videogames. The type of residence did not show any connection with screen time, while the type of the school respondents had been enrolled did so with both types of activities. The perception on one's own screen usage showed a similar pattern. Regarding results on psychological wellbeing, generally if respondents feel that they do not have enough time for these activities they feel worse. In most cases the amount of time spent with these activities showed a connection with psychiatric wellbeing. While social media use showed a connection with low self-esteem, in case of videogames the direction of the connection was the opposite. "Összegezve, a képernyőhasználatban jelentősek a nemek közötti különbségek, és az iskola típusa szerint is eltérő jellemzőket találunk, ami a használat társadalmi különbségeit igazolja. Ezek a társadalmi különbségek a technológiahasználattal kapcsolatos vélekedésekben is megmutatkoznak, erre enged következtetni az az eredmény, hogy a gimnazisták annak ellenére sokallják a képernyő előtt töltött idejüket, hogy ők töltenek el ezzel a legkevesebb időt. A várakozásoktól eltérő eredmény a videojátékozás és a lelki állapot alakulása közötti pozitív kapcsolat. Ugyanakkor fontos hangsúlyozni, hogy az általunk vizsgált összefüggések nem jelentenek ok-okozati kapcsolatot. További elemzések szükségesek ahhoz, hogy háttérben lévő oksági magyarázatokat felfedjük." (Kutrovácz Kitti- Gelencsér Anna-Hajdú Miklós: Kamaszok képernyő előtt eltöltött idejének jellemzői, in: Elekes Zs.-Arnold Petra- Bencsik Nóra (eds.): Iskolások egészségkárosító magatartása 25 év távlatában, Corvinus Egyetem, Budapest, 2018, 111.old) "In summary there are significant gender differences in screen usage and differences connected to school type was also found, indicating social differences in ICT usage. These social differences also appear in the opinions regarding technology usage showed by the controversy that students attending gymnasium think most that they spend too much time with screen activities, while they are the ones who spend the least time watching screens. Unexpected results is the positive connection between playing videogames and psychological wellbeing. However, it is important to note that these connections do not necessarily mean causational relationship. More investigations are needed to reveal the causationality behind these relationships." (Kutrovácz Kitti- Gelencsér Anna-Hajdú Miklós: Kamaszok képernyő előtt eltöltött idejének jellemzői, in:Elekes Zs.-Arnold Petra- Bencsik Nóra (eds.): Iskolások egészségkárosító magatartása 25 év távlatában, Corvinus Egyetem, Budapest, 2018, 111.old) - translated by the coder