Saturday, April 7, 2018

Are Digital Screens Actually Bad For Kids?

This is one of the most controversial questions bouncing around between adults these days. During my teenage years, I was guilty of spending too much time on the computer, though my phone didn't serve as much more to me than a music player and a tool to contact other people with.

It was an old iPhone 3-ish that lasted up until a couple months before I went to college when its ringtone silencer switch would buzz constantly as if I were switching it on and off constantly. I bugged my mom so much that she gave me her phone (she couldn't understand it since she went from an iPhone to a Samsung Galaxy Note 4, so she was going to be switching back to an iPhone again).

Are digital screens bad for kids? has been a question that has been bouncing around since I became old enough to really start contemplating what it would be like to have kids. What rules would I set? How strict will I be? Will I be as strict as my parents?

The last thing I want to be a mirror-copy of my parents in terms of raising a child. Don't get me wrong, my parents did a fantastic job despite the circumstances, but there are some things I'm going to do differently.

Like, I'm not going to let my kids be on a screen differently – in terms of today. My kind of screen growing up was the old box-like televisions and the New Super Nintendo, Gamecube, and Nintendo 64. (I can hardly believe that I was 6 when the Gamecube came out). At one point, the only time I was allowed to play video games was on Saturday, so I didn't spend much time behind a screen (especially when we moved to Powell River. They only had one internet provider so only a certain amount of people could be on the internet at the same time).

Side note: I still can't believe that I once lived at a time where you couldn't be on the internet and the telephone at the same time...

Anyway, times have changed drastically in the last 15–20 years, and now one of the most pressing questions is 'are screens bad for kids'????

I thought this video made some good points.


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