Feeling bad when hearing about kids and screens

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Saw something on TV about how "screens" in particular the ubiquitous Apple iPad are destroying young children's capacity for healthy play with their peers. Having never been good at playing with my peers as a child, I don't know how to feel about all this. Not sure if this makes any sense, but there it is.

Yeah! We should DO something about this!

Right after I retweet the latest Trump gaffe, post in another dozen or so WP threads, and win the final boss battle in Super Mario...

I could see it being detrimental if they are spending way too much time on screens, but not sure reasonable usage would cause problems.

Pretty sure the screens aren't the problem; it's the adults who don't limit the use of those screens enough.

If only screens weren't such so effective at keeping kids quite and occupied.

Parenting one or more small children given today's supposedly "robust" economy (speaking of the US) is very demanding. It's easy to criticize parents for giving their kids over to the iPad if doing "better" isn't your personal challenge.

That's true too. In some situations it's really handy, but there are also those who give the kid a phone or something just because it's the easiest and fastest way to quiet down the kid even though they would have time and resources for other ways, too. That's what I call a problem.

Let the kid watch a cartoon from a tablet during a 3 hour car ride for an episode or two, with one episode being around 20 minutes? Perfectly fine. Let the kid watch the cartoon the whole time? Not the best idea, especially if you have these car rides often.

Better yet, avoid taking a young child on a three-hour-long car ride. Sitting for all that time interferes with the kid's playing, socializing, getting exercise even more than screen-time interferes because the child is physically confined to the vehicle.

I agree. It is simple enough to text them to say their time is up.......

Also a good idea; it's bad for health too, for adults as well. However, sometimes it's necessary if you want the child to know their relatives for examble. Or if you live in a really remote area and have to take them to a hospital. And it's good to learn to tolerate long travel times at young age rather than when one is older. Having to sit still like that teaches patience, too.

It would be hypocritical of me if I forced restrictive screen limits on my children when I do most of my work, hobbies, communication and entertainment via my laptop.
I strongly believe hypocrisy is much more toxic than screen time.

The world is changing and we might as well accept it. I think it's beneficial to us aspies. Schools here require kids to bring their own tablet or laptop, as they're mostly paperless now. I think even NT kids use screens just as much. We didn't give our kids their first phones until they reached 16, though.

I'm not too worried. At most people lose their social skills and fail to reproduce. That might be good for the environment, right?

I do have a chuckle when I hear parents complain about kids spending too much time on their screens: I was waiting in line at McDonalds and there was a large group of tweens there (I estimate 10-12 year olds). Every one of them had a phone better than mine and many had the latest iPhone that costs over $1000!! !

Considering the high cost and the fact that you need to be an adult to sign a contract, where do these idiots think kids are getting them from? I guess on the positive side, as an Aspie that means that if I were 10-12 years old it would have greatly lowered the playing field and I would not have stood out.

^ well, to be fair there's a diff between having and over using.


It seems to me that just about "everyone" I see above the age of daycare are constantly on their screens. Even when walking, driving or cycling.

Really? Not sure how bad it is here as I'm way above school age, but boy, am I glad I'm through with all that crap. Computers started becoming part of some education last I was in school, but thankfully we stil mostly used pen and paper and books.
Good for the environment and good for wildlife! Fingers crossed!
when did hypocrisy ever get in the way of parenting?

True again, though I think the limits should only be applied to free time use of screens and the time used for work/school work not to be counted. As in, if a parent only allows themselves an hour of free time screen time a day, then it's perfectly fine to put a rule like that on kids as well. And it'd be important to make the rules clear, like if it's okay or not to check and answer a text you hear coming if the screen time is up.

Thinking of all the screen time that today's kids engage in makes me nostalgic of my childhood days when I spent most of my time outdoors playing with the neighbourhood kids.