There is enough general concern about the (general consensus - bad) effects of screentime on children.
First off, there is the effect on eyes. It is generally accepted in the ophthalmological fraternity that continuous exposure to luminous screens is harmful, & screentime should be as limited as possible, for adults & more so for children.
Then, there is the concern that it "dulls down" children. Well, not necessarily. In fact, some research shows that using gadgets indeed helps academic development. There is the matter of exposure to inappropriate material. That, frankly, is everywhere, & is basically a parental/guardianal duty to prevent. Granted, electronic media is more difficult to "parental monitor" than the physical world.
Screentime also promotes Bad posture with a capital b, eats into family time, free-play time, & face-to-face social interactions.
However, the most dangerous effect of thrusting a screen in every hand is that children are growing used to CONSTANT ENTERTAINMENT. They consider this as the normal. Even 10 years ago, "waiting" was a concept. When you took a child to the dentist, to the bank (because there was nowhere to leave him/her, even then), to any place which involved waiting for one's turn, one had to wait. Adult & child. It did not make us nervous & fidgety to the point of snapping. Sure, it made the child restless & whiny.
We, & the child, did two things. First, invent a way to entertain ourselves/ each other. Though my mother always carried enough magazines in train journeys, even she wasn't enlightened enough to carry entertainment for the dentist's appointment. We struck up a conversation with other people in the queue (& we called it "line", remember?)
The kids started playing impromptu tag or hide & seek with other kids, if the administration allowed. One could spin the glass paper weight (another extinct little tool) TILL the administration caught one with her piercing eye, one could leaf the pages of a calendar, one could ask scientific & philosophical questions of one's parents, one could hop down the steps to the clinic, count if the steps were many, slide down if there was a slope for a scooter (with MY kind of parents cursing the day I was born, of course!) one could be a smartass with the administration.
In train, not all parents remembered magazines or playing cards. Antaakshari was played, often with strangers (In my generation, we were already NOT EATING anything strangers offered. That doesn't mean we couldn't sing with them!!). Clapping games, chit games like Raja wazeer (in which, absurdly, the wazeer has to discern the chor & sipahi!!!), book cricket on the pages of a railway time-table, trying to catch the names of the minor stations whizzed past ... Parents actually talked to their own children. & the children of those parents who were simply too adult for their own children ... ran about, hung from the ladders for climbing their upper berths, jumped down, cut & bled from their lips, basically made life hell for the rest of the passengers.
The second thing we did in the pre-pocket electronics days, was, wonder of wonders, sit & wait!!!! We accepted waiting as a part of life, we considered it good manners to sit in a place & not trouble others, our parents tried to inculcate it in us. Waiting was not a 'waste'. It was part of the process. Boredom was an irritation, not a misery. & we had inner worlds, & inner processes. We THOUGHT. To ourselves. We did not need a computer program to engage us.
(We did have walkmans, but music, I think, should be considered separately from screentime. Indeed, I've read in some "reduce screentime advice" to actually use voice commands more)
Both these skills - tolerating boredom - without sulking - & entertaining oneself, are rapidly getting lost.
Now consider, long term life is not so different today as it was 10 or even 50 years earlier. Life makes one wait. Life makes one miss legitimate turns, & wait more. Life brings periods of self-doubt & lulls, unemployment & adversity, & sometimes such standstill in one's career or personal life, that It is truly painful.
How will our children cope? They have never learnt to withstand boredom, how will they deal with stalled progress in job or business? They have never had a still moment, forever been filled with false activity, illusion of movement, how will they heal from the emptiness of a broken affair?
Please. Let your children get bored. & DEAL with it. Trust me, they'd survive it, & so will you, & they will fare better for it in life.
First off, there is the effect on eyes. It is generally accepted in the ophthalmological fraternity that continuous exposure to luminous screens is harmful, & screentime should be as limited as possible, for adults & more so for children.
Then, there is the concern that it "dulls down" children. Well, not necessarily. In fact, some research shows that using gadgets indeed helps academic development. There is the matter of exposure to inappropriate material. That, frankly, is everywhere, & is basically a parental/guardianal duty to prevent. Granted, electronic media is more difficult to "parental monitor" than the physical world.
Screentime also promotes Bad posture with a capital b, eats into family time, free-play time, & face-to-face social interactions.
However, the most dangerous effect of thrusting a screen in every hand is that children are growing used to CONSTANT ENTERTAINMENT. They consider this as the normal. Even 10 years ago, "waiting" was a concept. When you took a child to the dentist, to the bank (because there was nowhere to leave him/her, even then), to any place which involved waiting for one's turn, one had to wait. Adult & child. It did not make us nervous & fidgety to the point of snapping. Sure, it made the child restless & whiny.
We, & the child, did two things. First, invent a way to entertain ourselves/ each other. Though my mother always carried enough magazines in train journeys, even she wasn't enlightened enough to carry entertainment for the dentist's appointment. We struck up a conversation with other people in the queue (& we called it "line", remember?)
The kids started playing impromptu tag or hide & seek with other kids, if the administration allowed. One could spin the glass paper weight (another extinct little tool) TILL the administration caught one with her piercing eye, one could leaf the pages of a calendar, one could ask scientific & philosophical questions of one's parents, one could hop down the steps to the clinic, count if the steps were many, slide down if there was a slope for a scooter (with MY kind of parents cursing the day I was born, of course!) one could be a smartass with the administration.
In train, not all parents remembered magazines or playing cards. Antaakshari was played, often with strangers (In my generation, we were already NOT EATING anything strangers offered. That doesn't mean we couldn't sing with them!!). Clapping games, chit games like Raja wazeer (in which, absurdly, the wazeer has to discern the chor & sipahi!!!), book cricket on the pages of a railway time-table, trying to catch the names of the minor stations whizzed past ... Parents actually talked to their own children. & the children of those parents who were simply too adult for their own children ... ran about, hung from the ladders for climbing their upper berths, jumped down, cut & bled from their lips, basically made life hell for the rest of the passengers.
The second thing we did in the pre-pocket electronics days, was, wonder of wonders, sit & wait!!!! We accepted waiting as a part of life, we considered it good manners to sit in a place & not trouble others, our parents tried to inculcate it in us. Waiting was not a 'waste'. It was part of the process. Boredom was an irritation, not a misery. & we had inner worlds, & inner processes. We THOUGHT. To ourselves. We did not need a computer program to engage us.
(We did have walkmans, but music, I think, should be considered separately from screentime. Indeed, I've read in some "reduce screentime advice" to actually use voice commands more)
Both these skills - tolerating boredom - without sulking - & entertaining oneself, are rapidly getting lost.
Now consider, long term life is not so different today as it was 10 or even 50 years earlier. Life makes one wait. Life makes one miss legitimate turns, & wait more. Life brings periods of self-doubt & lulls, unemployment & adversity, & sometimes such standstill in one's career or personal life, that It is truly painful.
How will our children cope? They have never learnt to withstand boredom, how will they deal with stalled progress in job or business? They have never had a still moment, forever been filled with false activity, illusion of movement, how will they heal from the emptiness of a broken affair?
Please. Let your children get bored. & DEAL with it. Trust me, they'd survive it, & so will you, & they will fare better for it in life.
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