Too much screen time?

Whether you are speaking to the parents of a 5 year old, 15 year old or 25 year old, one thing remains constant. These parents all harbour some concern for the amount of time their kids spend attached to screens.

For products like the TV this isn’t a new problem, however the changing technology landscape has lead to new challenges. Looking at the simple TV, we no longer have to follow a TV guide of “prime time” viewing. Once lunch time programs consisted of 20 year old movies and infomercials. With TV on demand we can now view “quality” content indefinitely.

The other consideration with TV is that it couldn’t leave the lounge room. Laptops, smart phones and tablets have broken this rule. Not only can we now watch TV on these devices but we have a wonderful new world of social media and various other aspects of the internet. 

What are the facts? Data shows that our young children are spending about 15 hours per week in front of a screen. Teenagers knock this up a notch to over 20 hours. But where are they learning all of this? Well us “adults” are spending about 10 hours per day looking at some form of screen. It is no wonder our kids who want to be just like us are getting their training from somewhere.

To be fair, most adults sit in front of some form of technology for their work roles these days. This doesn’t make it less of a problem, however if we consider this “unavoidable” screen time, it does help us to know where to cut our hours - which is at home.

The solution is not forthcoming or easy to execute. However it is clear that many people don’t realise that this is a problem or the extent. Health affects aside, imagine you are that 15 year old and you put that 20 hours a week into learning a language, sports, study or music. What would you prefer to have done with your time when you reach adulthood.