Doctors at the Mayo Clinic say teens and adults should only clock 2 hours a day of screen time. Yes, you read that right — probably on a screen, even as I typed it on a screen. In 2016, A Nielsen audience report found that most Americans actually do 10-11 hours of screen time. And it’s likely that number only increased, between Covid lockdowns and technology becoming an even more pervasive force in our lives.
Parenting magazine Seattle’s Child explored parents and guardians’ feelings about screen time.
They isolate three parental trends and share anecdotes and insight from parents and caregivers who may feel powerless to control their children’s screen use. Contentious issues and parents’ complicated feelings about device use rank, as does the dichotomy of leading — or not — by example. The latter issue might be the most detrimental. The publication’s survey sheds light on why many parents struggle.
Life Imitating Art
A viral TikTok video, posted in January 2023, shows the screen effect at work: a young boy juggles two devices, playing Minecraft on an iPad and swiping through short-form videos on a cell phone. Though some commenters poke fun at the absurdity, many replies emphasize the detrimental effects often wrought by overstimulation, like compromised attention span.
Similar behaviors among children are increasingly common. So much so that TikTok Support dedicates an entire section of their guide to parental controls, showing adults how to institute usage limits that block young users from navigating the app after a given amount of time.
Screen Time’s Physical Implications
Even for parents who stringently regulate kids’ tablet or phone usage, the fight against screen time is ubiquitous, leaving many feeling powerless. Device reliance can have several adverse and long-lasting effects, most of which are preventable.
Excessive screen time in children leads to stunted cognitive and language skills. A single hour increase in TV exposure at two years of age corresponds to a 7% unit decrease in participation in class and a 6% unit decrease in math proficiency by the fourth grade. For all ages, extended screen time is directly correlated with obesity, sleep deprivation and reduced cognitive functioning.
Mobile phone and tablet use even have a unique medical condition — “Text Neck,” or “Tech Neck” — a term that came to light in 2008 after chiropractor Dr. Dean L. Fishman observed damage to young people crooking their necks downward while scrolling. Fishman even started the Text Neck Institute in 2009, helping youngsters aged 13 to 27 improve their posture and neck alignment.
Kids’ screen time can impact more than just their necks. Children’s Hospital of Orange County’s new findings say tech overuse can lead to language delays, vision problems, poor social skill development, and what experts call a “video deficit effect,” wherein young children take twice the amount of time to decipher, learn, or imitate information from videos than needed to understand in-person interactions.
Fighting Fire With Fire
Experts at the Child Mind Institute urge parents to put screen-obsessed kids’ well-being first by instituting practices like scheduled tech time, consistent time limits, and other parameters. Their guidelines suggest guardians:
- Start with wellness. Ensure your child has healthy in-person interactions with friends, exercises regularly, has extracurricular hobbies away from screens, and sleeps well.
- Set reasonable limits. Explore parental control settings on your son or daughter ‘s device. Adults can minimize time spent on particular apps, filter unsavory content, and prevent unauthorized in-app purchases. Monitor kids’ web history using your iPhone or iPad ’s settings menu or your Chromebook and Android device’s control center.
- Stay the course. Screen time monitoring is imperative for kids’ healthy development, regardless of the guilt trip they might give you. Enforce rules consistently, do not engage in family debates, and remind kids that healthy behaviors or academic success may grant greater tech access.
- Go easy on yourself — and your kids. Kids act as sponges, absorbing our mannerisms and behaviors. Guardians with tech reliance must remain vigilant and mindful of personal screen time and potentially adopt restrictions.
Build Better Habits
Pew Research Center recently explored American households’ tech usage by polling parents and their teens aged 13 to 17. Their report finds that 74% of U.S. teenagers feel “happy” when they don’t have a device nearby, and 72% report “peaceful” feelings. Around 38% of young respondents said they spend “too much time” on their smartphones, and one-quarter feel similarly about their social media usage.
Teens aren’t the only ones overconnected to tech. Almost half of teens surveyed said their parents were distracted by phones when they tried talking to them, and nearly half of parents (47%) admit they spend too much time scrolling.
Ultimately, experts’ solutions for fighting screen time reliance are the same, regardless of age group. Parents, however, should take the lead, acting as positive examples for kids. Enact “no phone” rules at the dinner table and store all devices in a communal space outside kids’ bedrooms. Moms and dads can also demonstrate the value of face-to-face conversation, outdoor activities, and tech-free family meals by stepping away from devices themselves.
This article was produced by Media Decision and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.