Recently my granddaughter visited with me for a few days with her iPad. Because this was her vacation time, we had planned some fun activities while she was here, e.g. the San Diego Zoo, play dates with family and so on. What I discovered once she arrived was that she was binge watching a series of shows on Minecraft and she didn’t want to engage in anything until her series was over. I also noticed she didn’t want to put the iPad down to socialize face-to-face with others, or to go to sleep at night - she seemed to be in her own world and on a marathon. My granddaughter is 8 years old, and I was concerned enough to look up some articles on screen time for 8 year olds. What I learned was that pediatricians recommend no more than 2 hours of screen time a day for her age group. Screen time is defined here ‘as time spent on devices for entertainment purposes’ and this includes TV watching. This two hour a day rule has been criticized by others who argue that parental limits can and should be more flexible and that there isn’t a one size fits all approach when dealing with individual kids.
This is a topic that is important to parents and teachers, and because I work at Bonita Vista Middle School and issue iPads to students, I am wondering how much time students actually devote to the ‘screen’ each day. While the iPad is a tool that we use in the classroom, and teens today need to learn technology skills for future jobs, there are other factors to consider when deciding how much time to spend on our devices. One thing we can all do (adults included) is make a daily schedule for ourselves that includes healthy habits, such as 8 to 9 hours sleep, sports and after school activities, time with family and friends, meals, and so on. Ask yourself, am I developing a healthy lifestyle, and am I including different kinds of fun in my day, or is most of my time spent on a device of some kind?
For more about this topic: I’ve listed some current articles for parents, teachers and students:
http://kidshealth.org/en/parents/screentime-teens.html
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2014/08/28/343735856/kids-and-screen-time-what-does-the-research-say
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/screen-time/how-much-screen-time-is-ok-for-my-kids
To conclude: I am interested in knowing more about middle school students here on campus and their screen time habits. I am currently gathering data to examine this issue more closely. So, Crusaders, if you are interested in taking part in a survey (5 questions), go to: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc6eBUcu_oShgi7RFA6mh44E-QqAz1yaybcJZUiLUaH7jhGMw/viewform
Thank you for your participation!
Terry Funk
Teacher Librarian
