Screen time – How long? is not as important as Why?
Do your children spend a lot of time in front of a screen such as a tablet, phone, TV or computer? How much is a lot of time? Do they spend more or less time than you do? How do you feel about it? How do they feel about it?
“Siri, how do you make healthy muffins?”
The Ipad came out in 2010 and a new era began. The amount of games and apps grew like wildfire and every company fought to create their own digital world to capture the attention of our children. Before that, the computer and TV game industry had already primed most of the generation that are now parents. Spending time in front of a screen is the new normal.
Now information is at our kid’s fingertips, or even at their disposal by just posing the question out loud to Siri or Alexa. Never has it been easier to stay in touch with friends or meeting new people from all over the world. The planet is accessible, for our kids, in a way that was just not possible for me growing up.
Wiki, Google and Storytel are aiding my kids in becoming self-reliant on facts and knowledge. For my birthday, a couple of months ago, my daughter wanted to bake muffins to surprise me. She knows I’m not into sugary treats so she asked Siri to help her find a recipe for healthy ones 🙂
The upside is huge
I have a background in IT and I believe this revolution is here to stay, evolving continuously into an even tighter dependency on computers. Artificial intelligence is knocking on our front door and humanity is in for some very serious questions regarding the future of our species.
Both using and understanding information technology, already is, and will be an increasingly important tool and whatever happens our kids will need to relate to and understand computers.
In our family we’ve been able to simplify our everyday lives significantly with the use of IT. Everything from sharing a calendar, so we don’t miss important events, to a family chat to be able to reach the entire family at once. Shopping lists and to do’s as well as shared storage for photos and videos of our memories. We use Facetime to keep close even when we’re physically apart.
School has caught on and nowadays we get all correspondence online, both information to us parents as well as homework and reports. There are also really smart Apps for learning things like increasing your memory capability, play the piano and speak foreign languages.
The upside is huge and I believe in moving forward instead of trying to hold on to the past and wishing for the (better or worse?) old days.
However I’m still not completely at ease with how we manage our screen time.. not when it comes to the kids and actually not when it comes to me neither.
Loosing myself in an inverted time warp called World of Warcraft
My dad, who’s been in the IT business since I was little, brought home our very first computer. It was from work, I believe an IBM 286, and with it came the introduction of computer games. Space quest, Tetris and Prince of Persia made their way into my heart. I spent hours playing, completely hocked. I couldn’t fall asleep because of the images of falling blocks that needed to be turned just right.
At some point I believe my parents limited my access to the games, or I lost interest, and it wasn’t until in my early twenties that I picked it up again. This time it was Age of Empires, and later World of Warcraft, that caught my attention. I was completely drawn into this world, doubly encouraged since all my friends were playing as well.
When the third expansion of World of Warcraft came out I started to lose interest. I remember doing the estimation on how much money Blizzard was making every month. There was a monthly fee times all the current amount of users. I realized what a gold mine they’d found and that a whole lot of that money went back into making sure people stayed interested in the game. All that money going to people that were experts at human behavior and knew exactly what buttons to push to ensure you kept playing month after month.
How many hours of my life was I spending in an alternate reality, lost to the world around me? Sure there are benefits. Thinking strategically, managing your stress levels, motor control, learning the weirdest words in a foreign language. But when Monday comes and you’re wondering what happened to your entire weekend you start thinking that life isn’t going so well.
How dependent are you on your phone?
I recently installed an App called “Moment” on my phone. It tracks your usage and gives you a daily report on your behavior. It’s been worrying and sobering to realize how often I pick up my phone.
It depends on what and why
You can do anything in excess they say. I guess that goes for screen time allowances as well. Should you set a time limit for yourself and your children? Control what they watch? I believe yes and yes, no matter how educational the activity there should be a time limit that ensures some physical action as well. Keeping an eye on what they watch and do online is a security measure. But the big one to keep an eye on, I believe, is “why?”. Why is your child engaging in online activities?
Maybe these questions might help you decide if you need to implement changes in your family. To make it a bit easier I’d make the answers to these questions binary.
- Does your child use the online time to avoid living life?
- Does she become anxious without a screen present?
- Is she using the online world to replace a boring or frightening real one?
- Is she dodging responsibilities or endangering her health?
Children always look to us for guidance, on how to live life, by watching us live our own. How much time do you spend online and why are you doing it? Turn the questions towards yourself and try answering them as honest as you can.
