Mobile culture has inevitably influenced family dynamics in the home. Enforcing boundaries on mobile use, or instilling particular family values when it comes to using mobile devices is a reality for many families. In my observations, often when parents/guardians are making these decisions, they use word of mouth or the status quo of friends and family nearby. Through research, I discovered the below resources that may be helpful when deciding on how to start or continue these conversations in your home. One article provides research, one article provides strategies to create rules within your household, and the last website is a strategy to help support monitoring the rules and limits in your household you have created.
A) Screen Time and Children discusses the following: risks of screen time, effects of screen time, and guidelines for screen time.
B) This resource from ‘Screenagers Movie‘ provides ideas and examples of screen time contracts and how to initiate one for your own family.
C) Microsoft Family Safety advertises to “develop healthy digital habits”, and also has capabilities to sync over android devices and Xbox, and games.
What are some best practices for mobile screen time in your household? How will our idea of screen time change it be influenced in the coming years?
A Household Hot Topic – Screen Time
5 responses to “A Household Hot Topic – Screen Time”
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Hi Agnes, what a great post. Do you think our thoughts on screen time have changed since 2019? During the pandemic while I was trying to keep my children at home but still working full time at home, I know that we watched a lot of paw patrol. One of the big things a specialist in child development pointed out to me when I was worrying about my 2 and 3 year old at the time, is that it’s not how much of the screen time they are using, but how they are ‘playing’ with it later. Are the kids just mindlessly watching or are they creating games, and adventures when off-screen that work through what they saw? When my daughters were running through the lawn with capes (blankets) tied to their shoulders re-enacting one of the paw patrol scenes, they were processing what they learned on the screen and that, is what is important. So is it that there’s too much screen time, that we are using it as an escape or are we providing opportunity to process that information at a child appropriate level? As well, did the pandemic change how we view screen time (online schooling, educational programming, tv shows). Is there now ‘good’ screen time and ‘bad’ screen time?
Such an interesting topic. I see the stress it brings to some family members and friends who have children and my students’ parents as well. With every generation we’ll see changes that worry us as we don’t know the long-term effects it may have on our children. It’s hard to generalize because I feel like so many people have differing opinions. When I was a child, my parents had strict gameboy playing and tv watching rules. Tv was only during a very specific few hours in the week and gameboys were only for long car rides/flights. Ultimately, whatever my parents’ rules were, I had to figure out how to manage my own time spent on my phone/tablet as I grew up. I personally feel like I have an issue with Instagram as I don’t see the time pass while I peruse the reels. So, as an adult, I put in my own limits, delete the apps that I feel take up too much time, or try to set a timer, etc. Children need to learn these skills in order to monitor themselves or detect addictive behaviours. It’s a challenge to know exactly how to facilitate that learning though. Is it by letting them self-monitor or by having strict rules? What age do we start introducing these learning experiences? I think that, as mobile technologies are here to stay, children need to be up-to-date on how to use these technologies, but I also think that there are other very important developmental milestones that we shouldn’t forget to nurture. If technology is starting to eat away at the time spent on other beneficial activities, how much should we monitor it?
Thanks for sharing these resources, Agnes. This was actually one of the key topics I wanted to explore when deciding to pursue this MET program. I was particularly curious about screen time, but also other commonly used technologies as a whole (e.g. audio, wearables, keyboards) – when should children be exposed to these tools? To what extent should they be trained to use them efficiently and responsibly? I don’t have children of my own, but I suppose these questions can only be answered on a case by case basis since everyone’s different?
Although mobile culture has so many benefits, people are still struggling both at home and work to maintain boundaries with feeling connected. I saw this timely article: https://globalnews.ca/news/8888631/ontario-law-right-to-disconnect-work-employees/, which was posted today by Global News. It reiterates Bill 27, which comes into effect today, and advocates for workers’ right to disconnect from work communications i.e. phone calls, emails, and text messages at the end of their work day. For those in Ontario, in 2023, workplaces will need a written policy that identifies their commitment to this Bill 27. Controlling our involvement online when it comes to our working and leisure hours certainly is a boundary that people are trying to understand and navigate, and efforts like Bill 27 helps maintain and instill these boundaries.
Hi Agnes,
Thanks for providing these resources. I often see so many debates around screen time on various social media platforms and I often have seen people who shame other parents for allowing their children the use of screens, especially when they are young. I do not have any children so it is hard for me to think about what I would do and how much screen time I would allow a child but I think that the content of which children are exposed to is probably the most of interest to me as I often hear about young children (kindergarten age) playing extremely violent video games and that is something that worries me.