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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

#31

Post by donatj »

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…

> At 2

Yes, I absolutely did.

I was home with my dad, gated into the living room while he did things around the house. There is only so much to do.

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

#32

Post by SirFatty »

bombcar wrote: post #30
toasty228 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.)

"Babies are designed..."

sure they are.

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

#33

Post by bombcar »

schnitzelstoat wrote: post #19
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…

Yeah, I use Ms Rachel with my son when I need to cut his nails or if I am alone with him and I need to take a shower or something. He goes to swimming classes and he learned to clap in the "If You're Happy and you know it" song even though the song is different in his classes, I was confused as to how he learned that you usually clap in the song but I presume he learned it from Ms Rachel. It's useful English language…

It's amusing to watch kids pick up Australian slang from Bluey.

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

#34

Post by teensydata »

zthrowaway wrote: post #26

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.

Same with us. Our 24 month can count to 20 and knows all the letters without watching TV.

When he is at a party and a tv is on in the distance he stares like a zombie at it. It's depressing at how TV changes him and I have to transfer his focus away.

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

#35

Post by mothballed »

bombcar wrote: post #30
toasty228 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.)

Maybe the plus side is if screens become their encoded reality from a young age, staring at a screen for work because that's the only thing you can do that pays well enough to support a family won't be nearly as depressing and just feel normal.

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

#37

Post by u_fucking_dork »

zthrowaway wrote: post #26

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.

> I really worry about them being outcasts just by being raised like we all were.

Seeing all the kids my kids play with, the ones who seem to turn out the most well rounded aren’t the ones without screen time but the ones without helicopter parents.

You’d be surprised how many of these kids have never been outside of their parents line of sight, even at middle school age.

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

#38

Post by II2II »

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…

> We're entirely curating what she's watching and I'm just not that concerned.

That is likely the key element, along with being the reason why the guidance suggests no screen time before the age of 2.

Some parents know what their child needs, some parents don't know how to navigate the mess of children's content, some parents would use it to justify using the screen as a babysitter. It is nearly impossible to offer generic advice, so it tends to be on the safe-side.

It is also worth noting that you are using one metric here, assessments based upon academic achievement. There are other things to consider, such as social and physical development. Perhaps your family is also taking that into account, but again they have to consider how everyone would interpret generic guidance.

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

#39

Post by 9dev »

zthrowaway wrote: post #26

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.

I'm so happy I don't have children (yet?) for that reason. Like, are you doing your child a disservice in the long run by doing what I'd call the right thing? I wouldn't dare answer that…

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

#40

Post by sarchertech »

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…

My 2.5 year old and my 4 year old both get their fair share of TV.

But there’s a reason the AAP recommends no screen time before 2.

There’s a lot of data that show that babies and toddlers don’t learn language skills from TV for some reason. And it inhibits learning because instead of doing what they’d normally do which is watch and listen to adults and older kids speaking they are glued to the screen.

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