Mothering and screen time

Excessive screen time in children has been linked to several adverse consequences, including:

Obesity

Excess weight is primarily due to the sedentary activity of screen time.

Sleep deprivation

Lack of sleep impacts physical health in many ways. It is also linked to moodiness, poor performance at school, and a lack of emotional regulation.

Loss of cognitive ability

This includes a decline in things like perception, learning, memory, understanding, awareness, reasoning, judgment, intuition, and language. This has been proven in several well-planned studies.

Impaired socialization skills

Interactions with friends on the internet are very different from interactions with real, live friends.

Weakened emotional attachments and awareness

This is a critical problem. Children and teenagers need to interact in person with their families, schoolmates, friends, and community. This helps develop emotional maturity. It helps them get grounded in the importance of caring for others, while learning all the ins and outs of forming strong relationships, This is critical for future engagement with the world.

Delayed learning especially in young children

Interactive speech results in a much more robust development of language. Talking to your young children helps with this development much more than using electronics.

Many parents have told me about all the electronic programming they expose their young children to. Some programs might seem like a good idea because they’ve been “vetted by experts”. It is actually detrimental. It blunts your child’s imagination. Young children have very active imaginations, and you want their brains to frolic between ideas grounded in their physical environment and also in stories they hear.

Look at it this way. If a child watches the movie Alice in Wonderland, all the characters and actions are there for them to see. If you READ them the story, their imagination goes wild! This is very important for brain development.

Susceptibility to chronic illness

This is a serious concern. Obesity with all its attendant co-morbidities or coexisting conditions.

• Weak muscles and joints from non-use.
• Depression because of isolation.
• Dysfunctional immune system due to a lack of sun exposure and low levels of vitamin D.

What you can do for younger children

Limit your child’s screen time based on age. Start in their younger years. Trust me, you will NOT regret the transient “fight” if you have not put your foot down before about screen time. It’s so important to set this limit early.

Be a good example yourself. You will not be able to parent in a useful way in this area if you yourself cannot control your screen time.

What you can do for teenagers

Around age 16, you will need to be more liberal about screen time. Work with your teenager on how to govern themselves in this area. It is an important transition with a far-reaching impact. If not mastered, it can lead to dysfunctional use of gaming in adulthood. I know too many young people who have flunked out of college or lost jobs because of their pathological gaming.

Most of all, engage your young people. Expect more from them than what you hear about the “terrible teens”. Build trust. Actively talk to them. Express your pride in them for their achievements. Most of all, encourage them in their unique path to adulthood.