From removing the TV viewing card from the set-top box to blocking apps on our smartphones, from baking cakes and cookies to planting flowers in our garden, we do all we can to keep our two children, aged eight and five years old, off the glowing screens.
It’s for this very reason that we don’t have a laptop, a video game console or a ‘smart’ TV or any of those types of devices that can lead to our children spending more time in front of screens — even if that means compromising on some of our needs and desires and sacrificing some comfort at the weekends.
Why in the face of this technology-driven era are we so scared of glowing screens?
Well, it’s not because we hate technology. As young parents we understand that television, video games, apps and Internet platforms, if allowed in a controlled manner and properly monitored, can help children learn and develop new skills. In fact, these things in themselves are not an issue. The real, core issue is the behavioral and health consequences associated with their use, which, as many studies suggest, tend to worsen as children grow older.
This is how joyful, well-behaved, lively and active children turn into depressed, unruly, lazy and dull teenagers or adults. And it all starts with whether you take timely action to limit your children’s screen time or not.
To give you an example, one of my cousins has three children — two daughters and a son — whom she raised dutifully as a full-time mother. During the initial years of her children’s upbringing she maintained the perfect balance of screen time for her children, which reflected well in their academic and extra-curricular accomplishments. But during their pre-teen years, as her financial condition improved and her family moved into a bigger house, the number of screens at her place increased. This resulted in her children getting a lot more screen time than they had until that point.
In a short span of time, her children started showing a lack of interest in outdoor activities as well as signs of de-socialisation, irritation and fatigue in day-to-day life. This, in turn, began to affect their studies, their personalities, their health and even their way of living.
As they became technology-addicted and their cravings for the screen grew, their studies receded into the background and their lives started to revolve less around family activities and more around the digitised world – to the point that even something as simple as sitting down together for a meal became a rarity in their home.
Cut to today, and my cousin finds herself in a spot of bother as it has become impossible for her to keep her teenage children away from the screens. Her elder child has in fact dropped out of school and spends at least half her day posting videos on a popular video-sharing app, which was recently in the news for inappropriate and offensive content. Meanwhile, her other two children, whose current academic performance is below average, have become hardcore PUBG fans. With the situation only worsening with time, she has decided to seek professional help from a counselor and is keeping her fingers crossed wondering whether that will help her children get rid of their screen addiction.
That’s why when it comes to children, parents, especially those with young ones, should know that technology-addiction is one of those things for which prevention is better than cure. Recently the World Health Organization (WHO) in its first-ever guidelines on “screen time and children” recommended that infants under the age of one shouldn’t be allowed any screen time at all, while for those under five years of age, two hours of physical activity, plenty of sleep and no more than one hour of screen time (a day) is recommended.
In a world where tablet-based narration and cartoons are replacing books and bedtime stories, it’s important for parents to take such guidelines seriously and inculcate among our young generations healthy screen habits from a very early stage. This can be achieved by making changes at home as a first step. Even simple steps such as keeping screens out of bedroom, banning devices at meal-times, spending quality family time together and engaging children with bedtime storytelling, or playing games such as hide-and-seek, dump charades, musical chairs and so on, can help parents reduce children’s screen-time considerably.
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