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Two-thirds of babies watch screens – some for eight hours a day

thetimes.com

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Re: Two-thirds of babies watch screens – some for eight hours a day

#21

Post by giwook »

mothballed wrote: post #17
x187463 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dude, go grocery shopping with a 2-year-old and see if you want them walking around. They'll be peeling a sticker off the floor for two minutes, then grabbing everything off the shelf. It's perfectly normal to cart the kid around so you can actually make progress through the aisles. They can reasonably follow you around between 3-4.

They just leave them outside in the stroller in someplace like Sweden. It's hilarious how on HN the nordic countries are idolized and leaving strollers outside while the kid stares at the street man smoking fentanyl out of a piece of aluminum foil indicates you are a glorious liberated member of intelligentsia but by god if you put a tablet on to get a moment of peace while you take a shower then you are a hideous su…

Giving them a tablet so you can get a brief moment of respite to do something you have to do is different from watching 8 hours of a screen a day!

Re: Two-thirds of babies watch screens – some for eight hours a day

#22

Post by frizlab »

x187463 wrote: post #13
schnitzelstoat wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A 2-year old should be able to walk unless they are pretty severely developmentally delayed.

My dude, go grocery shopping with a 2-year-old and see if you want them walking around. They'll be peeling a sticker off the floor for two minutes, then grabbing everything off the shelf. It's perfectly normal to cart the kid around so you can actually make progress through the aisles. They can reasonably follow you around between 3-4.

OP said “how can a child that can't even walk yet have the practice to know how to skip the ads.” A two year old should definitely know how to walk. Obviously you will not have it strutting around in a store, but it should know how to walk.

Also I don’t let my two year old near screens on her own, and generally do not allow screen time at all, but she absorbs things at a pace which is incredible. If I were to “skip ads” in front of her, I’d only have to do it around twice for her to be able to do it on her own…

Re: Two-thirds of babies watch screens – some for eight hours a day

#23

Post by close04 »

littlecranky67 wrote: post #6

I once in a supermarket saw a probably 2-year old sitting in a stroller, holding a smartphone watching Youtube. When the ads came up, the little fella confidently pressed the "skip ad" button. I was perplexed and stunned, how can a child that can't even walk yet have the practice to know how to skip the ads. I don't even want to know the screentime that kid has.

> how can a child that can't even walk yet have the practice to know how to skip the ads

At 2 kids can walk and have fine enough motor skills to press a small button, if that was the direction you were thinking.

Kids are surprisingly intuitive and form connections super quickly. It probably took a few tries, and maybe the parent even showed them how to do it: button appeared in the corner > press it > see fun content. If something works they commit it to memory like you wouldn't imagine.

Re: Two-thirds of babies watch screens – some for eight hours a day

#24

Post by schnitzelstoat »

mothballed wrote: post #17
x187463 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dude, go grocery shopping with a 2-year-old and see if you want them walking around. They'll be peeling a sticker off the floor for two minutes, then grabbing everything off the shelf. It's perfectly normal to cart the kid around so you can actually make progress through the aisles. They can reasonably follow you around between 3-4.

They just leave them outside in the stroller in someplace like Sweden. It's hilarious how on HN the nordic countries are idolized and leaving strollers outside while the kid stares at the street man smoking fentanyl out of a piece of aluminum foil indicates you are a glorious liberated member of intelligentsia but by god if you put a tablet on to get a moment of peace while you take a shower then you are a hideous su…

Sweden doesn't have as big a problem with drug addicts, homeless people etc. on the streets. Although it's changed a lot in recent years.

Re: Two-thirds of babies watch screens – some for eight hours a day

#25

Post by lotsofpulp »

x187463 wrote: post #13
schnitzelstoat wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A 2-year old should be able to walk unless they are pretty severely developmentally delayed.

My dude, go grocery shopping with a 2-year-old and see if you want them walking around. They'll be peeling a sticker off the floor for two minutes, then grabbing everything off the shelf. It's perfectly normal to cart the kid around so you can actually make progress through the aisles. They can reasonably follow you around between 3-4.

My dude, that is not what

>how can a child that can't even walk yet

means.

Also, my 2 year olds walked around the store all the time, as well as sat in the cart when I didn't have time to supervise. It is good exercise, and helps them practice following instructions.

Re: Two-thirds of babies watch screens – some for eight hours a day

#26

Post by zthrowaway »

I have two boys. 2 and 5. We’ve never done screens, instead we do books and focused attention from each parent and we are looked at like crazy people when we tell people that. But our kids are miles ahead of their cohorts in attention span, respectfulness, behavior, socializing, etc. It’s actually alarming. I really worry about them being outcasts just by being raised like we all were.

Re: Two-thirds of babies watch screens – some for eight hours a day

#27

Post by hgoel »

bcjdjsndon wrote: post #3

TBF content is generally better than it was 15 years ago even for babies. I don't blame em...

It's better at holding their attention, but is it actually better?

My impression was that a lot of the content was effectively "attention slop", bright colors and noises, often with very little sense to them, or just variations of the same rhymes a 90's baby would've been raised on.

A lot of it seemed to cross over from just being stimulating to being overstimulating.

Re: Two-thirds of babies watch screens – some for eight hours a day

#28

Post by toasty228 »

donatj wrote: post #9

My wife stays home with our kids. My daughter ends up watching a fair bit of television while my wife does chores and the like. We're entirely curating what she's watching and I'm just not that concerned. If anything, she's learning things that I would not thought to teach her at her age. About 6 months ago she had an assessment through the school district for early education and at 2 years of age was able to identif…

> I watched game shows, Hogans Heroes, Night Court. She's watching Ms. Rachel, Meekah, and Sesame Street.

At 2 years old?

There are babies under a year who watch youtube brainrot shat out by obscure indian animation farms multiple hours a day, I'm not sure it has the same impact as watching Stargate when you're eight. My niece is 9 months, she never watched anything on a phone yet as soon as someone in her line of sight gets a phone out she's mesmerized, it's scary to witness

Re: Two-thirds of babies watch screens – some for eight hours a day

#29

Post by lotsofpulp »

toasty228 wrote: post #28
donatj wrote: post #9

My wife stays home with our kids. My daughter ends up watching a fair bit of television while my wife does chores and the like. We're entirely curating what she's watching and I'm just not that concerned. If anything, she's learning things that I would not thought to teach her at her age. About 6 months ago she had an assessment through the school district for early education and at 2 years of age was able to identif…

> I watched game shows, Hogans Heroes, Night Court. She's watching Ms. Rachel, Meekah, and Sesame Street. At 2 years old? There are babies under a year who watch youtube brainrot shat out by obscure indian animation farms multiple hours a day, I'm not sure it has the same impact as watching Stargate when you're eight. My niece is 9 months, she never watched anything on a phone yet as soon as someone in her line of si…

I would expect everyone to be mesmerized by amazing technology they have not gotten used to yet.

Re: Two-thirds of babies watch screens – some for eight hours a day

#30

Post by bombcar »

toasty228 wrote: post #28
donatj wrote: post #9

My wife stays home with our kids. My daughter ends up watching a fair bit of television while my wife does chores and the like. We're entirely curating what she's watching and I'm just not that concerned. If anything, she's learning things that I would not thought to teach her at her age. About 6 months ago she had an assessment through the school district for early education and at 2 years of age was able to identif…

> I watched game shows, Hogans Heroes, Night Court. She's watching Ms. Rachel, Meekah, and Sesame Street. At 2 years old? There are babies under a year who watch youtube brainrot shat out by obscure indian animation farms multiple hours a day, I'm not sure it has the same impact as watching Stargate when you're eight. My niece is 9 months, she never watched anything on a phone yet as soon as someone in her line of si…

Babies are designed to pay attention to what you pay attention to, and want to do the same.

It may be more 'harmful' for babies to see parents paying attention to screens than it is for them to watch the screen themselves.

(They also become very good at telling if you're really "looking" at the phone or just pretending to look at something.)

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