Electronics are a part of our daily lives, and this means kids will grow up with tablets and smart devices. It is common for parents to allow a certain amount of screen time each day for their children, but is there such thing as too much time on electronics? Below are some items to consider when determining how much time you should let your kids be on an electronic device.
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Don’t Worry About The Excessive Screen Time
When you are in your survival mode, you are primarily busy worrying about keeping adequate food and daily necessities, retaining your job, and keeping yourself and your family healthy. Do you even have the time to think about the increasing screen time of your kids?
During this survival mode, the screens stealthily get into the lives of your children. But they can be termed appropriate if they are attending their schools and other knowledgeable sessions online. They have to do their schoolwork and homework to reach their daily requirements. But allowing them to binge-watch web series and movies for six hours straight is not at all acceptable. Screen times have to be judged and decided according to work.
Focus On Quality, Not On Quantity
Screens are not drugs that can drastically affect the mental health and behavior of humans. And, the evidence of the believed widespread damage done by the screen is almost insubstantial. Time is a vital asset in everyone’s life. So the activities and the results achieved in a certain period are significant. Quality is more important than quantity. So, what they are doing with the time spent online matters more than the amount of time spent. If the kids increase their social connections and activities while online, it’ll surely benefit them.
Parents should allow their children to indulge in activities like video conferencing with friends or playing some online group games and so on. Worrying about screen time wouldn’t help. But if you focus more on their activities, it would be helpful. If they engage in activities that would help them be the better version of themselves, allow them to do so.
An MIT researcher even proposed that encouraging kids to utilize digital tools to make different things such as websites, Instagram Reels, TikTok videos, and so on enhances their creativity to a great extent.
The “Harmful” And The “Ideal”
Whenever you see your children spending their time using certain games or TikTok, you think they are wasting their time. According to you, they should do something productive and better with their time. It is every parent’s thoughts, and being concerned is never wrong.
When you worry about the dangers of screen time, you are trying to say that you can use the time wasted for TikTok and Fortnite for doing something productive, educational, and illuminating. It is the rational approach which is the opportunity cost way of thinking. It is the measurement of loss in the form of potential gain from other ventures that the child could gain instead of doing something on the screen. Here lies the problem. Parents want their children to live an ideal life that has no flaws and wasting of time.
Practicing playing some musical instrument would surely be helpful for them. But this doesn’t mean that all those hours of watching television and doing TikTok are a waste or are harmful. It’ll never make them unsuccessful or less happy in the future.
Depending on the age of your children, it is always important to monitor the sites they are on to ensure safety. Many online scammers target young teenagers or children with access to sites with open chat rooms. Many apps block unreliable sites or sites unsafe for children, and they are available for tablets, desktops, and smartphones.
The Bottom Line
In the middle of a pandemic, you have other priorities to focus on rather than your kids’ screen time. But that never means that there shouldn’t be any limit to their screen time. Keep a proper check on them. They should get adequate sleep, some exercise, and also complete their academic work. Also, blend in some craftwork or card games in their daily routine. After completing all these, allow the kids to have some screen time of their own.
