Not keen on screens
Last week’s column touched nerves, from parents and grandparents, some of whom seem to have only one nerve left. The cause of this outpouring of frustration and worry; screen devices.
June wrote: “I especially want to say KUDOS to you for declaring Heart’s Content a device free zone for children. It’s so sad today that so many children are growing up attached to ear phones, cell phones, games, i-pads, and the list goes on. You hardly see children outdoors playing any more ... talk about getting fresh air!!!!! I often remember spending days on the beach, playing in the back yard with friends, and even playing in the rain and snow. A great childhood! And now my two grandchildren (ages 29 and 22) often recall things they did with Grandma when they were kids ... lots of outdoor stuff. Memories! I wonder what children 30 years from now will be doing!!!!!”
I remember reading somewhere that through the mid-twentieth century there were more technological advancements than any other period in history, big ones like telephones common in homes, cars common in driveways, smaller ones like power steering and transistor radios. (Well, that last one was a big one back then. You had to have a transistor radio just like you had to have a portable record player and your own hair dryer).
Maybe I’m being selective in my memories, but I can’t for the life of me think of anything that was harmful to children. Picking up American pop stations when we were supposed to be asleep or reading smuggled in True Stories under the covers with a flashlight was about as bad as it got at bedtime and at least we didn’t start doing it as soon as we were old enough to turn a switch. (Who remembers WWVA, Wheeling, West Virginia?)
Now it’s been proven that because of the effect on the brain, the screen light from cell phones, tablets, ipads and TVS interferes with sleep even after the devices are turned off. Makes the transistor radio look good.
Crankiness, obesity and other health problems, short attention span, poor decision-making skills, lethargy and poor results in school are being traced back to too much screen time. And how do they learn how to interact well with actual people if they spend hours interacting on a screen?
I know, I know. We can’t stop progress. I know I have to keep up with stuff to a certain extent, so my grandchildren won’t look at me as a total dinosaur but none of their memories of me will involve playing video games.
Saturday morning cartoons
I’m not being holier than thou; I loved that we had Saturday morning cartoons to plunk the kids in front of so we could sleep in a bit. Plus, you can’t blame the kids when the parents don’t get it.
Teachers in pre-kindergarten meetings now ask parents how much screen time a child has. I know of one who was pleasantly shocked to hear it consisted solely of watching TV on the weekends. The pressure will be on the parents once school starts, but I think a lot of newer parents are realizing that screen time does a lot more than “keep them occupied.”
Janine thinks the time will come when allowing your child too much screen time will be considered child abuse and treated as such. There will be a hotline where you can report the abuse by text or e-mail. Ha ha.
And then again, just listen to this from a modern young father who is concerned about the effect of screen time on his child “I have no plans to hand my son an iphone or tablet, or to set him down in front of a computer (other than to Skype with the grandparents) until his second birthday.”
Me nerves!
Ps. Please keep sending me garden pictures so I don’t have to post my own and caption it “neglected garden gone wild”
Crankiness, obesity and other health problems, short attention span, poor decision-making skills, lethargy and poor results in school are being traced back to too much screen time. And how do they learn how to interact well with actual people if they spend hours interacting on a screen? Janine thinks the time will come when allowing your child too much screen time will be considered child abuse and treated as such. There will be a hotline where you can report the abuse by text or e-mail.