what about Screen Time is bad for kids? Is it the sitting around for long periods of time, the content they watch or just staring at a pixelated screen?
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There have been studies that have linked early childhood TV watching with autism. I don’t know how valid these studies are but they may play into the idea that you should limit screen time.
Babies and little kids have a lot of things to learn about the world. How things fall down. How things land when you throw them. And also they need to learn how their bodies move and hold onto things and how to walk and crawl.
When the screens are on, babies and little kids aren’t doing the important things that help them learn. They are sitting still and they’re just interested in funny lights and sounds. Those lights and sounds don’t teach them much when they’re so little, so it’s better to turn them off and let baby learn other things.
Screen time is bad in that a child isn’t getting the exercise, social interaction, and motor development they need. However, not all screen time is equally bad. There is a huge difference between a preschooler singing and dancing along with an educational kids’ show on a television and a teenager endlessly scrolling feeds on their phone that can damage their mental and emotional health.
The research on whether or not “screen time” is bad is non-conclusive and very much up for debate at this point. People will often cite one or two such studies without acknowledging the studies limitations (i.e. applying them too broadly) drawing conclusions that aren’t supported by the actual research (often the fault of attention grabbing but inaccurate headlines) or ignoring similar conflicting studies that call in to question the original conclusion. Its definitely something to be aware of, too much of any activity can be problematic, but often new forms of entertainment/engagement are treated this way (see radio, tv, etc.).
The main concerns seem to fall into two areas.
1. Impact on development of things like motor skills, attention, etc. due to lack of physical interaction and/or overstimulation
2. Lack of physical exercise due to sedentary nature of a lot of screen related activities (though not all, augmented reality such as Pokemon GO for example can increase physical activity).
The question is the degree to which either concern is merited. In all likelihood its one of those things where extreme amounts are probably bad, but done in moderation there is little to no downside.
Plus, as one of my parent friends recently joked, if the choices are my kid watching a tv show for 30-60 minutes or me (the parent) losing my mind, the former is probably better than the latter!
It’s the fact that the time that they spend in front of a TV is not spent doing something else.
If screen time is quality time, then it’s quality time (educational videos, homeworks, video lectures, video chat with friends, some games that require creativity/team work/intelligence).
But very often a screen can consume three hours of their afternoon with no purpose. If the screen was off, the kids would have had to be creative, find things to do, etc.
And in any case screen time does not help to develop fine and gross motor skills.
My toddlers have always been on their Fire Kids tablets.
It’s done nothing but teach them new stuff. My oldest set up a mock LAN party when he was 5 (I give him access to my retired equipment). Once a kid learns how YouTube tutorials work, they take off like a rocket.
There are going to be multiple issues broken into the following categories
* Dangers directly from screen time
* Downsides form not doing something else
Media nowadays, give you massive surges of dopamine very quickly. That means back in everyday life it’s going to be much hard to concentrate on stuff like classes, reading, playing music, etc. So it’s going to be harder to get children/adults to want to spend their time doing more worthwhile and productive activities, since they can get more dopamine from browsing ticktok.
Then also they are less likely to be active. For the brain to work properly and without disease you need to be active an exercising every day. That’s simply not happening if they are spending time on ticktok rather than out cycling with friends, or whatever.
Screen time isn’t bad for kids. *Too much* screen time is bad for anyone, and getting used to it as kids makes it worse. It isn’t the screen or the immobility, it is the intellectual passivity of the experience.
Overall too much screen time hinders development. Kids aren’t getting face-to-face social interaction, if they get any at all, which is crucial for them early on, they also aren’t getting to move their muscles and that’s just asking for pain later on bc their body is so used to growing in an inactive state. Content I think is the least concern over the negative health impacts (by no means am I dismissing it. I have my own fair share of trauma from not being supervised on the internet). At least parents can control what content their kids consume (in theory. But so many ppl I’ve known are just irresponsible with their kids screen time).
On the flip screen time can be hugely beneficial but like everything in life moderation is key.
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