Between the loss of time and stress, the overexposure to the screens and social networks amputas the French GDP by 0.6 points (and would even be 2.3 points in 2060)

Excessive time dedicated to social networks and certain platforms could, by degrading mental health and cognitive abilities of children, cost up to 2.3 GDP points per year in 2060, according to a recent study. Put online on the site of the Ministry of Economy, these works by economist Solal Chardon-Boucaud Stive, in view of an analysis of existing scientific studies, to encrypt the socio-economic cost of the negative effects of “the economy of attention to the digital age”.

The expression designates the social networks model and certain digital platforms, designed to maximize the time spent online by its users and, therefore, the profits taken from advertising and data collection.

They come from a “direct” effect linked to the digital application, generation of stress hormones, and the functionalities of certain tools, such as social comparisons on social networks, “summarizes. According to Insee, 57% of children under 20 say they can feel at least one of the harmful effects of screens (reduction in sleep time …).

The generative AI could lead to a “cognitive debt”

This impact on mental health, added to the productive loss of time linked to digital uses (frequent interruptions, slow executive …), it would cost today “0.6 GDP”, the economist estimates.

This could increase to 2.3 PIB points per year by decreasing, by 2060, French productivity: today’s children overexposed to screens, 30% of children aged 12 to 17 who spend more than 35 hours per week in front of a screen, according to Le Credoc, will enter the labor market.

Many studies already show that “strong exposure to screens from an early age, and in particular the use of social networks and smartphone, has a particularly strong impact on care, memorization and linguistic skills,” recalls the expert.

Students who use “smartphones at school for more than 3 hours a day have mathematics scores between 30 and 50 lower points” for those who use it less than 2 hours a day, according to the Pisa 2022 study, he says. And the potential effects of the generative AI are not yet integrated: when asking for a lower effort, its use could lead in the long term to a “cognitive debt” (critical spirit and less creativity), according to a study.