The Great Screen Time Debate

I recently watched a documentary about A.I. where one of the uses was as a customized tutor that would adapt to each persons learning style. For kids this appears as a program on a tablet that the users spend a lot of time on. As someone who had trouble with the cookie cutter learning style of school I found this very intriguing. It left me thinking that with the use of this technology, job wise adults of today won't have a chance against the kids of tomorrow. It would increase screen time quite a bit as this can be used at home and in school.

If this new technology and increased screen time is a detriment or advantage I have no idea. I do think as society in general increases our overall screen time it changes what the norm of social interactions are. Personally I find it annoying when a large group of people, in a meeting or otherwise are all staring at their phones instead of interacting. That unfortunately for me seems to becoming more the norm. This is one of the reasons I stick with my flip phone but at the same time I know I am excluding myself from what may well be the new social norm, like it or not.

When HP got out of the market of making pads, they were blowing them out at ridicules prices...

Like kids,... when the novelty wears off, they're off chasing another ball of string.

I agree that knowing the child and their personality is paramount. Both my kids have tablets, and each one treats their tech differently.

My daughter plays hers for a few minutes, then stops and plays with Barbie dolls, sometimes for hours at a time.

My five-year-old son would play his tablet all day if we let him, but he naturally gravitates toward tech in general. His tablet use consists of downloading new apps that he rarely uses, programming locations into his weather apps and looking up information using his digital assistant. I'm OK with this -- he learns a lot about computing in the process...enough to advise his thirtysomething dad about iPhone features.

I agree that this can be done well and yes, it is the parents' responsibility to ensure the screen time is not detrimental to their children.

I get concerned when parents rely on these devices to pacify their children. I also get concerned when children become socially oblivious because they cannot get their noses out of these devices.

<There are an unsettling number of adults who seem to be socially oblivious too. >

Hannes makes a very good point: different kids will have different levels of interest in these devices and their capabilities.

Until very recently -- when I got new eyeglasses -- I never thought about the effect of blue light on young eyes. My optician recommended a blue light filter for my glasses and I'm very happy with it. The optometrist's receptionist told me that both her young sons (both under 10) have the same filter on their glasses. Something to ask about if your children wear glasses. Or even if they do not.

The American Academy of Ophthalmology does not recommend any special eyewear for computer use, and I have not found convincing evidence that blue filters protect sight. Consistent viewing of tablet and phone screens by children predisposes to short-sightedness, but the same has always been true, alas, of reading books.

Were I to be a parent again, I would insist on removing tablets and phones from children an hour before bedtime, as there is evidence that they can interfere with getting off to sleep.

Habits (good or bad), once formed are hard to break. Habits should never replace a conscious reason for those habits. Kids grow up to be adults. It's good to do a reality/habit check once in a while. Food is required to survive. But too much desire for it, can become an addictive drug. Technology is no different. Drugs are a powerful distraction from the "necessary work/evils" in life. As long as a designated-someone/driver is still watching the "store", things can be managed. But, once that designated-someone/driver succumbs to the drug too, trust is lost, all bets are off, and it's everyone for themselves.

"If you’re lucky enough to have a child who self-regulates, then they’ve already done the hard part for you."

A kid who is obsessed could end up being a tech wizard and parental interference could detract them from their natural learning curve.

I'm guessing that Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs were on their devices all their waking hours from a very young age.

A sees of history here. When Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs were children the devices we are discussing did not exist.

yes, and that was the time when we were kids, we'd played with a rock and a stick and a powerful imagination.

"I'm guessing that Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs were on their devices all their waking hours from a very young age."

Where did I say they were on today's devices?

You want to restrict my point by staying within your petty interpretation of what I actually said?

Sorry, it's just that we are in the Great Screen Debate. In those days domestic Great Screens were attached only to Great TV Sets.

As a teen at Lakeside Prep School, Gates wrote his first computer program on a General Electric computer. It was a version of tic-tac-toe where you could play against the machine.

I am very afraid we (humans in technologically developed countries) are losing the ability to make the leaps of imagination Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak and others made precisely because our younger generation is spending too much time with their devices.

The minds that came up with the core technology we have today developed when play (and work and education) required more imagination and effort for the same reward a child today can get in a few minutes with a video game or smart phone.

My answer to the original question posed is definitely find and enforce a balance with young children, otherwise they will NOT develop the self regulation skill they need to succeed long term.