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Average adult will spend 34 years of their life staring at screens

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Re: Average adult will spend 34 years of their life staring at screens

#101

Post by jedberg »

goostavos wrote: post #96
literalanyone wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really wish this was discussed more often. As a parent, I am constantly bombarded with people telling me I should limit my kids' "screen time." Generational skepticism of new technology is played out. Can we move on yet?

Eh, I'm in camp "limit their screen time" if the screen time is all junk food. I also don't have kids, so what do I actually know? :) The only context for this opinion knowledge of the army of adults whose job it is to "maximize engagement" and give little dopamine hits. Some apps just seem predatory.

> Some apps just seem predatory.

Oh boy are they ever. We spend a lot of time curating the kids' screen time. We try every app first.

Youtube Kids is banned. Youtube's AI sucks at vetting content and they refuse to put humans on the job.

The apps from PBS are all gold. Disney+ has so for proven to be good at making sure all the content is kid appropriate.

Re: Average adult will spend 34 years of their life staring at screens

#102

Post by s_dev »

literalanyone wrote: post #87
martindbp wrote: post #2

Well, personally I don't sit staring at a screen, I watch movies, play games, talk to people, build stuff and learn new things. You wouldn't say reading a book is "staring at paper" would you?

I really wish this was discussed more often. As a parent, I am constantly bombarded with people telling me I should limit my kids' "screen time." Generational skepticism of new technology is played out. Can we move on yet?

Both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates limited their kids screentime.

Re: Average adult will spend 34 years of their life staring at screens

#103

Post by snazz »

vzidex wrote: post #54
snazz wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Staring at anything too close to your eyes for a long period of time isn't good for them. If you are taking appropriate breaks, my understanding is that screen time is harmless.

I've got the same understanding - I asked my ophthalmologist about it as well because my vision is already quite bad and I'm a computer engineer. For breaks, she recommended the "20/20/20 rule" - focus your eyes on something at least 20 feet away, for 20 seconds, every 20 minutes of screen usage.

Yes, I've gotten that recommendation as well. Apparently more natural light exposure may also decrease the risk for nearsightedness. Having a window near my computer monitor makes it easy to remember to look outside whenever I'm not actively looking at the screen.

Re: Average adult will spend 34 years of their life staring at screens

#105

Post by j45 »

literalanyone wrote: post #87
martindbp wrote: post #2

Well, personally I don't sit staring at a screen, I watch movies, play games, talk to people, build stuff and learn new things. You wouldn't say reading a book is "staring at paper" would you?

I really wish this was discussed more often. As a parent, I am constantly bombarded with people telling me I should limit my kids' "screen time." Generational skepticism of new technology is played out. Can we move on yet?

I find it's more helpful to see screen time in two buckets..

Creating/creative/thinking time spent on a screen is very different than passive consuming time.

Re: Average adult will spend 34 years of their life staring at screens

#106

Post by osrec »

martindbp wrote: post #2

Well, personally I don't sit staring at a screen, I watch movies, play games, talk to people, build stuff and learn new things. You wouldn't say reading a book is "staring at paper" would you?

Funnily enough, I remember talking to a historian who said centuries ago, reading a book was considered "mindless entertainment", much as we think about our smartphones now. Eventually, reading evolved into being considered something generally "smart" people did.

Re: Average adult will spend 34 years of their life staring at screens

#107

Post by exclusiv »

literalanyone wrote: post #87
martindbp wrote: post #2

Well, personally I don't sit staring at a screen, I watch movies, play games, talk to people, build stuff and learn new things. You wouldn't say reading a book is "staring at paper" would you?

I really wish this was discussed more often. As a parent, I am constantly bombarded with people telling me I should limit my kids' "screen time." Generational skepticism of new technology is played out. Can we move on yet?

I'm with you but I think social media should be limited when they get to that point.

Some parents also think you should be playing with your child at all times and that's absurd too. It's good for kids to learn how to entertain themselves and be creative as individuals. There's not much more obnoxious than kids who grew up with their parents always playing with them or managing their attention and the kids complain about being bored.

Re: Average adult will spend 34 years of their life staring at screens

#108

Post by lhorie »

s_dev wrote: post #102
literalanyone wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really wish this was discussed more often. As a parent, I am constantly bombarded with people telling me I should limit my kids' "screen time." Generational skepticism of new technology is played out. Can we move on yet?

Both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates limited their kids screentime.

So did John Doe. Not sure I understand what the argument here is.

Re: Average adult will spend 34 years of their life staring at screens

#109

Post by jrochkind1 »

jedberg wrote: post #92
literalanyone wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really wish this was discussed more often. As a parent, I am constantly bombarded with people telling me I should limit my kids' "screen time." Generational skepticism of new technology is played out. Can we move on yet?

Yeah me too. Anecdotally with my two children, they make huge educational jumps every time we increase their screen time. Screen time for us was playing games with an educational value and watching TV with at least some educational value. Recently we've started letting the five year old watch TV purely for entertainment, and the three year old sometimes watches too, but even then, both of them suddenly got a lot bett…

You started out I was expecting you to be very liberal with 'screen time', especially agreeing with the GP who seemed the same. But:

> The rule in our house is that you can't use a screen if the sun is up unless it's a weekend

I think that's actually limiting screentime more than most US households, you aren't actually on the "no need to limit screentime" side at all!

Re: Average adult will spend 34 years of their life staring at screens

#110

Post by falcor84 »

jedberg wrote: post #101
goostavos wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, I'm in camp "limit their screen time" if the screen time is all junk food. I also don't have kids, so what do I actually know? :) The only context for this opinion knowledge of the army of adults whose job it is to "maximize engagement" and give little dopamine hits. Some apps just seem predatory.

> Some apps just seem predatory. Oh boy are they ever. We spend a lot of time curating the kids' screen time. We try every app first. Youtube Kids is banned. Youtube's AI sucks at vetting content and they refuse to put humans on the job. The apps from PBS are all gold. Disney+ has so for proven to be good at making sure all the content is kid appropriate.

YouTube Kids also lacks an option to disable Autoplay, which makes it pure evil in my eyes.
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