Cellphones Create Stress for Parents, Just Like for Children: Michigan Medicine Study

Are you worried about your kids' screen time and that excessively being on the phone could be a stressor to them? But what about yourself? A study by the University of Michigan Medicine found that phones stress out parents as well, just like kids. So let's hear more about that study and what can be done about that. We bring in Dr. Marshall Runge. He is the CEO of Michigan Medicine and Executive Vice President of Medical Affairs at the University of Michigan. Good morning, Marshall. So let's start with what the study found. What are some of the main points to highlight here? Well, it's an important study that I think we have to pay attention to. They studied 62 parents and 62 children. Most of the parents were mothers, but not all of them. And what they found, I couldn't believe it. They found that they got 293 notifications on average on their cell phone and they responded or looked at their cell phone 93 times on average. And that was just staggering. And they felt, not surprisingly, very stressed. You might ask, well, why did they have all those notifications on? I don't know, but why did they look? And the reason is their children were between three and five years old. And if you have a child, you're a young parent, you have a child between three and five, you're always a little bit worried about it. And so they looked at 93 on average, 93 notifications. And it really distracted them from what they were trying to do, whether they were at work or at the store, wherever they were. So, not surprising in today's world, but staggering numbers. That's also true. Distracting from work, from children as well, from giving attention to the children. So, let's talk mentally. How would this affect parents and just adults in general from being on their phones so much, having almost 300 notifications a day? How does it affect one mentally? There is continuing data, and some of that was cited in this recent paper, that if you survey adults, that they feel, some adults feel as stressed as some children do, or adolescents, who feel that they must be on social media all the time. Adults, we all feel this. We have to be available 24 seven. And there's a price with that. There's a cost, and the cost is stress, depression. There's even a term for people, some people, it makes them very nervous not to be in touch. So, there's a study of what it feels like when you have to put your cell phone in a box for half an hour or half a day, and that's stressful. So, we live in a 24 seven world that is really making us distracted from what we're trying to do, and then we're not as effective, not as efficient. Those parents aren't paying as much attention to their children when they're home. Yeah, like you mentioned, there's two sides to this, and we will touch on that a little bit later. But first, I'm also wondering, because it is, like you said, so stressful, but it does seem like, in that study, you found that they pick up the phone more often now than in previous studies. Where, why do you think this is? You're absolutely correct. The percentage of those notifications that they responded to was much higher than in other studies, and I attribute that. The authors of the study couldn't conclusively say, but I think they, and I also attribute that to the concern about their children. So was their children involved in an accident, or did they get sick, or they wandered away? If you're a young parent, you wanna make sure that none of those things are happening with your children. Right, so the feeling of always having to be on, and fear of missing something, and of course that fear gets bigger if you feel like something could have happened to your child. And I saw that you told the New York Post that not having, like you just also mentioned here, that not having a phone could be even more stressful. Talk to me about that other side of this, and if that's the case, should that just, is that actually a worrying behavior? I think it's, I think it's a sign of our times. And I think it is, it is worrying. I find that when I need to be in a group of people, and we're going to be having a long conference or a discussion, you know, I'm a little nervous. Is there something I'm missing on my cell phone? And I'm not a person who likes to check my phone all the time, and I think for people who wanna really be in touch, when we've tried to have settings where people won't have their phone for half the day, it's really excruciating. It's hard for them to walk away from it. So it's a behavioral habit that has, I think, affected all of us. And I think the younger you are, the more it affects you, because you grew up more in this environment. Right, so on that note, what do you think, then, what can be done, or how can we build a better relationship with our phones? Do you have any tips or advice there? Well, I don't have any tips that I know that work. What I do know is, for a while, I would have emails from certain important people, my boss or whomever, they would always ding when they came in, and that, depending on who that boss was, or how many I had listed in that way, and I'm just giving that as an example, I was getting, my phone was dinging all day long, ding, ding, ding, and so those kind of notifications, you can turn on or turn off, and I think, for me, anyway, and I think for many people, if you turn off the notifications, except for a few, you could be sure that the very most important people in your life, whether it's by text, email, any kind of notification, you turn off the sound notification. The other thing I found, and I'm sure you have also, we're in a political season now, and I'm getting texts all day long, who'd you vote for, who are you gonna vote for, give money to this cause or that cause, and so those are all text notifications. I bet I have 10 or 15 of them a day now. Well, I think that's great tips, actually, to just individualize how certain people show up on your phone, or if they show up on your phone at all, to just take down that mental load for yourself. I think that's great, thank you so much. Dr. Marshall Orangi, I really appreciate your insights and tips today. Thank you very much for having me on the show.