‘Screen Time’ is Real Time: Where’s The Balance?

Schools are closed and children are home, they are either glued to their tablets and phones, or to their TVs. Interesting because growing up, holidays meant an hour of TV time and twenty-three hours of doing house chores or studying. There was always something that needed to be done, and as soon as you finished doing what you had been assigned, a new chore came up. I grew up in an African home with an African mom, she’d eat and call you to take her plate to the sink, then follow you to wash her hands by the same sink. However, things have changed now. There are big differences in the ways that I (we) were brought up and the way I (we) are bringing up our kids.

I remember first seeing a computer in high school, then I went on to do basic computer packages after high school. My 4-year-old knows how to power a laptop, a phone, and a tablet. He knows how to maneuver games and especially YouTube; he knows how to change TV channels until he finds his favorite cartoon. I have watched him enough times and if left unsupervised, he’d stay on that phone, laptop, tablet, or TV the whole day or late into the night, and this begs the question, how much screen time is enough for the kids?

A lot of parents in this generation believe that technology and gadgets are essential for a child’s development, but can you go too far? How much time should a child spend in front of a screen is a question being asked not just by worried parents but by psychologists, health organizations, and even governments. Forget about kids for a second, who has never been at a dinner with others, including 30-40-year-olds, who were focused on their phones, social media, etc. It is pretty much an epidemic, that diminishes relationships with others and wastes a lot of time.  There is a reason for worry.

1. How Much Screen Time is Okay for Kids?

The percentage of children using social media went up during the covid-19 era. According to the Bosco study on post-covid-19 analysis, social media was the best isolation tool for families that had suffered from covid-19. WhatsApp made communication between families easier and more effective while keeping in touch with each other. More kids were introduced to smartphones, tablets, and a lot of TV during the worldwide lockdown that lasted for months, it was a coping mechanism. Life has since gone back to near normal but the number of children on social media remains at an all-time high.  The US Department of Health and Human Services estimates that American children spend a whopping seven hours a day in front of electronic media.

• Face Time vs Screen Time.

While it is okay to want our children to be tech-savvy, and sometimes use electronic gadgets to keep them busy and occupied while we go on about our activities, we must admit that electronics are eating into more than half of the time that the children should be playing outside. Kids are spending too much time on screen and the impacts and risks associated are way too many.

Dr. Aric Sigman says, ‘’ TV has been an easy “babysitter” for years now, aided even further with DVDs, Netflix and so on. But the computer, tablet, and mobile screens engender more worry, in what has been put down as merely the latest generational complaint—” fresh expressions of horrible and timeless anxieties … a tried and true form of advanced-age self-care”.

The more time the children spend on screen, the less they are likely to excel in their studies. This also includes the children not being able to develop the very much-needed people skills.

I found it to be a great reminder that ‘screen time is real-time. Since time is the currency of life, I’m choosing not to pay too much to the screen and invest more in face-to-face encounters.

• Laying Ground Rules.

To avert a looming crisis, we must put rules and regulations into play. We must create and establish rules that will govern our children when it comes to screen time. The most effective way is to have a working timetable that includes allocated time for playing outside with other kids and studying. It is the same principle of moderation and self-control for a new age, kids need technology for entertainment, socialization, or whatever else they use it for but to what end?

Parenting has no manual or guide and so we say, all the best to parents, the world is banking on you to raise socially acceptable and decent people.