Article - Bad for Kids - Screen Addiction

[Galant]

NY Times Blog - Screen Addiction is Taking it's Toll on Children

Brings up the question - just how important is our screen time - even as adults? How much of it is cyclical, either channel surfing on the TV, or the internet equivalent? If we cut it out, how much would be a genuine loss?

[HelldiverS]

Surprised no one replied to this. I think its fairly obvious much of our screen time is a waste. Maybe thats why no one replied!

[PorcupineTime]

There's a whole bunch of interesting stuff in this article.

I have a 14 month old son, who already plays a little with my phone. We turn on the front facing camera and he laughs at his 'reflection'. We do limit it quite heavily though, and much prefer real contact with people over screen time. That said, he's a fan of Skype and we often call distant relatives with him so they can see how he's doing.

While we don't want to be Amish about the situation, we do want to limit the time spent on technology. There are some great and useful things that we can do now that we couldn't in years gone by, but my wife and I still both feel the benefit of having grown up without the internet and smartphones.

I think finding the balance is going to be hard and I've no idea how it will go with my sons generation, who are likely to have no perception/understanding of life without the internet. I hope that as we demonstrate multiple ways to play, interact and learn he will follow. I love to exercise and play outdoors, I hope that he gets that same love.

Sometimes, with my most terrified and reactionary outlooks, it's easy to be worried. But, naively, I trust the youths will work it out and find things that aren't screens to entertain them.

/introspective worry-wart rant.

[DanceswithUnix]

Sometimes, with my most terrified and reactionary outlooks, it's easy to be worried. But, naively, I trust the youths will work it out and find things that aren't screens to entertain them.

/introspective worry-wart rant.

Just don't stress too much over it.

My kids are now 10 and 13. For them, lots of homework is done online on school websites, as is the research to do the work. If they want to learn how to do something, their first stop is YouTube for an instructional video. Their idea of celebrity is DanTDM and similar Youtubers. They go and see friends, but they interact with them a lot over Skype and on Minecraft Servers (which Minecraft server to be arranged over Skype).

For them, TV channels are some weird thing that delivers content to the TV recorder because catch-up TV only works for old series of things.

Was amused to see in that article that reading is said to be better than screen interaction. I could lose myself for days in a book when I was a kid, and that is a purely passive experience of soaking up someone elses thoughts (no better than TV watching). The big thing these days seems to be Minecraft, which is very open and interactive with some awesome things being created to the point I think they find the likes of Lego frustratingly slow and limited to use.

Technology is a tool for this generation, and that includes social interaction so it all seems good to me. Use of imagination seems far from stifled too, drawing stuff on reams of paper will probably never go out of style for kids. Tip for the day: buy lots of crayons & coloured pencils, you will need them

[HelldiverS]

While I generally agree with some of your point this I don't.

.... I could lose myself for days in a book when I was a kid, and that is a purely passive experience of soaking up someone elses thoughts (no better than TV watching). The big thing these days seems to be Minecraft, which is very open and interactive with some awesome things being created to the point I think they find the likes of Lego frustratingly slow and limited to use....

I think books do a lot more than that. They don't spoon feed you everything, your brain and imagination has fill in the gaps. Whereas on the computer, it doesn't. The use of language is more complex and diverse than you get on-screen.

I find screen time a huge battle. One of ours has real problems managing their time on it. I think it has a real detriment effect on their imagination and creativity. All of which improve dramatically away from a screen. Same with their general mood is much improved away from the computer. The other kids don't have the same problem yet. It something I struggle with a lot. I've spent a lot of time of computers, work with them etc. and was a gamer. I think its problem for some kids and not others, its depends on their personality.