Pre-pandemic, we had very strict boundaries on my teenage son’s screen time. He was allotted a certain time amount on school nights, with slightly more allowed on weekends. When remote learning and lockdown arrived however, those limits went straight out the window. We tried to keep the original system but found it was entirely unpractical. Aside from the hours spent in online school, there was almost nothing else for him to do other than play games and hang out with his friends virtually (especially in the winter!). In the beginning, my son was in digital heaven. But, it got to a point, after several months of endless screen time, that even he grew bored of most of these activities.
With in-person school on the near horizon, we’re not the only parents struggling to rein in our child’s screen time again. It’s not just parents who are worried about how much time young people have spent online. The experts are weighing in, and the opinions are mixed.
- After pandemic free-for-all, parents struggle to reinstate screen-time rules [The Seattle Times] “While some parents just want their kids to be social or active again, many have noticed personality and behavioral changes in their children. They’re irritable, argumentative and have poor focus. Some have become anxious or depressed, or throw more tantrums and fly into rages.”
- Nearsightedness is on the rise in kids, screen time may be to blame [WPXI.com] “For some children, screen time rose more than 60 percent during the pandemic. And with that so did cases of myopia, also known as nearsightedness.”
- The messy truth about kids’ screen time [NY Times] ““We have to stop looking at this as a black-and-white issue,” Dr. Russo Johnson told me. “You don’t want your kids always glued to screens. That is common sense,” she said. “But these things are not evil. There is a lot of variety, and everything is not created equal.”
- I’m a neuroscientist. I’m not worried about how screens will affect kids’ brains — here’s why [Business Insider] “It’s not clear what all the social and political consequences of the internet will be, but from a neuroscience perspective it is poised to unlock a much richer level of education.”
From the Ohio Web Library:
- Our kids are in front of screens for a long time. But one expert says it doesn`t have to be a bad thing (AL ROKER. (n.d.). Our kids are in front of screens for a long time. But one expert says it doesn`t have to be a bad thing. Today Show (NBC).)
- KIDS’ SOARING SCREEN TIME (WORLEY, B., & ROBERTS, R. (2021). Kids’ Soaring Screen Time. Good Morning America (ABC), 1.)
- Healthy screen time is one challenge of distance learning (Healthy screen time is one challenge of distance learning. (2020). Science News for Students, N.PAG.)
