Screen Time?

 

“I want your phone!”  The little girl wailed to her mother.  “I want your phone!”

I wondered if the girl needed to call a “lifeline” for a quiz answer or if she simply wanted to check up on the latest war news from the Middle East.  Maybe she had some stocks she needed to sell before the price dropped any more.  Since she looked like she was around three years old, I guessed that neither one of these speculations was accurate.

As the girl continued to make noise, her mother seemed to get increasingly uncomfortable.  “Alright, Josie,” she said at last.  “Here you go.”

Josie took the phone and expertly navigated the password screen and launched You Tube.  It was clear that this wasn’t her first rodeo – probably not her second or third either.

As usual, I began to analyze the scene in front of me.  The younger generation has a significantly different relationship with technology than I have.  My first computer was an Apple II Plus computer that came from a yard sale.  It had 48 kilobytes of memory and line graphics.  It was anything but addictive and playing Oregon Trail and text adventures on it was more frustrating than inspiring.  It certainly wasn't something I carried with me in the car or on my travels.

For kids, though, it is all fun and games, it entertains them when they are sitting in boring waiting rooms and seems to have no downside (other than running down the battery on their mom’s phone).

At the same time, excessive screen time isn’t healthy for kids.  I have recently read the book, “The Coddling of the American Mind” and while it isn’t the focus of the book, the authors make the point that too much screen time is unhealthy for kids.  In point of fact, the Academy of Pediatrics recommends zero screen time for children under two years of age, under one hour per day for children two to twelve years old, and less than two hours a day for teenagers and adults (yes, adults should not spend more than two hours a day starting at screens).

I wonder if the reason that adults have so much difficulty controlling their kids’ screen time is because they are uncontrolled themselves.  Adults should be limiting their time looking at screens to two hours a day or less and yet, the average adult in the United States spends slightly more than seven hours a day looking at screens.  That time is divided up between a number of different things, but 80 percent is spent watching movies, television, and online videos.  18 Average Screen Time Statistics [2023]: How Much Screen Time Is Too Much? - Zippia

The Apostle Paul told the Colossian church, “Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.” (Col. 3:21)  I can think of little more discouraging than for parents to expect children to do things that parents are unwilling to do themselves.

In many ways I feel like an old man yelling at clouds.  Time has moved on.  Technology is here to stay.  We drive horseless carriages around at breakneck speed and have wrist communicators.  We have more computing power in our pocket than the NASA had in its whole operation when it launched the first Apollo spacecraft.

This doesn’t stop this technology from being dangerous, both to us and our children.  More than that, history is clear that what we do in moderation our children will do to excess and what we do to excess, our children will max out.  Screens are addictive and omnipresent.  They need to be controlled or they will rule both in our lives and those of our children – even if they are only three years old.