06/07/2024

Stop Counting Screen Time

Screens are not the only source of misfortune

Tracking screen time is like counting calories: It is partially accurate but misleading. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) provide time-based guidelines for screens in young children: For babies and toddlers, keep the screens to Facetime family and friends. For younger kids, 1 to 2 hours, and from ages 6 to 12, keep it to roughly 2 hours.

For those who are not raising children, the guidelines seem straightforward. Shouldn't it be easy to count one hour of PBS before dinner? That’s not most people's reality. Older siblings watch shows near younger ones. Tablets are in the car. Texting arrives earlier than parents expect and comes in spurts of screen time throughout the day. Even the most media-stringent parents get submerged by elementary school in a nebulous cloud. Screens bleed into play and school activities.

As someone who reads empirical research for a living, I am quite cautious about my children’s screen time. But screens are not the only source of childhood misfortune. The minute-by-minute guilt reminds me of the burden of counting calories. A push for detailed, numbers-driven control must surely tame the unruly beast. But it doesn’t.

Please select this link to read the complete article from TIME.