Is screen time good or bad? It’s not that simple
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Is screen time good or bad? It’s not that simple
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Re: Is screen time good or bad? It’s not that simple
#2Well I think this depends on what you're measuring as the impact of screen time.
There are some negative effects of screen time that are not in doubt. It leads to a sedentary life style, this has negative impacts on fitness and health. It also isn't great for your eyes to maintain the same focal distance for long periods of time.
Re: Is screen time good or bad? It’s not that simple
#3Well I think this depends on what you're measuring as the impact of screen time. There are some negative effects of screen time that are not in doubt. It leads to a sedentary life style, this has negative impacts on fitness and health. It also isn't great for your eyes to maintain the same focal distance for long periods of time.
The same is true for reading a book but you don't see people up in arms about that.
Re: Is screen time good or bad? It’s not that simple
#4Well I think this depends on what you're measuring as the impact of screen time. There are some negative effects of screen time that are not in doubt. It leads to a sedentary life style, this has negative impacts on fitness and health. It also isn't great for your eyes to maintain the same focal distance for long periods of time.
Yes, I think that's the point of the analysis: that "screen time" is wildly underspecified and that it's probably correlated to other unconsidered factors.
Re: Is screen time good or bad? It’s not that simple
#5Well I think this depends on what you're measuring as the impact of screen time. There are some negative effects of screen time that are not in doubt. It leads to a sedentary life style, this has negative impacts on fitness and health. It also isn't great for your eyes to maintain the same focal distance for long periods of time.
Screen exposure before bedtime can also drastically affect sleep. Different color temperature and intensity and all, but on top of that is also the barrage of information that the screens deliver, which keeps our minds on alert. I find that I'm sleeping much better now that I turn off all screens at least half an hour before I start getting ready to go to sleep.
Re: Is screen time good or bad? It’s not that simple
#6Correct. Screen Time is an Apple product, and an invention of marketing.
The reality is that human behavior is drastically modified by mobile devices, the cloud and ubiquitous wireless broadband.
You couldn’t escape if you tried. The frogs are boiling.
Re: Is screen time good or bad? It’s not that simple
#7"Screen time" != "Screen time".
That's my main problem with all this "screen time is bad" stuff.
There's a huge difference between a kid spending 2 hours playing Flappy Bird and spending 2 hours playing with an educational app, or drawing/painting in an app, or watching tutorials on YouTube.
It's like saying "time at the park is bad for you" because some kids go to the park to smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol.
Screen time isn't bad for kids. Parents not controlling what kids DO on the screens is bad for kids. It's all just another convenient thing for parents to point at and blame for their lazy parenting.
Moderate what your kids do, push them towards using screens and technology in educational and beneficial ways that stimulate their imagination and creativity, control the amount of time they spend sedentary, and teach them that like all things in life, balance and variety are important.
(Parent of 2 kids, who get unlimited access to TV, game consoles, and a tablet, and would much rather play Lego)
Re: Is screen time good or bad? It’s not that simple
#8Well I think this depends on what you're measuring as the impact of screen time. There are some negative effects of screen time that are not in doubt. It leads to a sedentary life style, this has negative impacts on fitness and health. It also isn't great for your eyes to maintain the same focal distance for long periods of time.
The same is true for reading a book but you don't see people up in arms about that.
I think you overestimate most people’s tolerance for children who are always reading. My interest was not exactly reinforced by adult praise and encouragement all the time. I’m confident there are plenty of people who got copious negative reinforcement for reading.
> [Writing] will create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality.
> Socrates
Re: Is screen time good or bad? It’s not that simple
#9"Screen time" != "Screen time". That's my main problem with all this "screen time is bad" stuff. There's a huge difference between a kid spending 2 hours playing Flappy Bird and spending 2 hours playing with an educational app, or drawing/painting in an app, or watching tutorials on YouTube. It's like saying "time at the park is bad for you" because some kids go to the park to smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol. Scre…
but even then excessive screen time is still bad because of what it precludes the kid from doing instead. like socializing or exercise. but that’s in the extreme case and would also apply to excessive anything, like reading
Re: Is screen time good or bad? It’s not that simple
#10Meta-analyses aren't science, either. They're hardly more than commentary as it's very easy to interpret many studies in a particular way.