I’ve been seeing these posts about humans and their screen time, and I’m wondering what all the fuss is about?! I mean, I realize that kids these days are on screens a majority of the time at school and at home, as well as their parents. I myself am often guilty of this. I get home from work, and in my attempt to unwind definitely turn to the screen. Whether it’s my phone, my tablet or my laptop. My kids as well come home and go directly to their screens to unwind from school(I give them a good 30 minute screen time before doing homework). I understand the subject of the screens causing the children to have ADD, however I have to disagree.
Due to the fact that I have two humans that I am raising, I realize that children(mine especially) are night and day. Both have been raised under the same roof with the same rules and the same freedoms of the screen. My oldest lived on the road with us for about 6 years and was watching movies at 9 months old. I was ecstatic when I discovered screen time, and that it gave me the luxury of having a little break. That child is totally self motivated, pays attention in class, doesn’t disrupt, super obedient and over all a great kid. The youngest one basically had all the same upbringing, only a few years of traveling, but still raised without the help of family and with the assistance of the screen every once in a while. This one is all the opposites of the oldest. In other words, my challenging child but still great. Always getting held after class for disrupting, has a hard time staying on task(at home and at school), has a small fibbing problem, still intelligent but definitely drives me and the teachers a little cray cray!
Do I blame this on the screen? Absolutely not, I blame genetics. My mother recently went through all of my old report cards and called to tell me that I had all the same comments on them as my youngest. I can tell you that my parents didn’t necessarily have the option of letting me have a whole lot of screen time since all we had was a TV and a Nintendo, but regardless made me play in my room and outside a lot more. I send the kids outside and to their rooms to play quite a bit, and they really do enjoy it but the screen is where they'd rather be.
I know the studies show what they show, but ADD has been a prominent thing over the last 20 years. I don’t think it’s the screen that’s to blame, my opinion is that everything is speeding up on this planet. Maybe it’s because I’m entering the time of being old-er where time is just passing by at the blink of an eye, but I’m pretty sure it’s not just me. We have more and more instant options. Some of these options are poisonous, and some are just evolution. For example, processed food(aka GMO) that we pop into the microwave(don’t get me started on this) is pretty much poison, as well as fast food(or the Devil as I refer to it) but so convenient. Traveling by plane, speed train and possibly soon by teleportation, I believe is intelligence and evolving. Everyone wants everything instantly these days, which translates to no patients and lack of attention span. Thus, everyone on the planet will probably eventually start to suffer from ADD. It would be nice to have something to blame for our imperfections, but it's about time we take responsibility for ourselves.
At the end of the day have a drink & lighten up, it's not the end of the world.....yet.
Good Talk!
