Too much screen time can make it hard to sleep, generate difficulty in focus and attention, produce anxiety and depression problems, raise the risk of obesity, and create difficulty recognizing other’s emotions. These are few reasons why our school should participate in Shut Down Your Screen Week: to temporarily free ourselves from the effects of our computers, iPhones, TVs, tablets, and screens in general. As a matter of fact, the National Institute of Health, recommends taking a week off from screens (essentially Shut Your Screen Week), and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends not allowing TVs in children’s bedrooms: as well as not having more than 2 hours of entertainment screen time per day. And screen time should be avoided altogether …show more content…
A study by Kaiser Medical showed that children ages 8-18 spend around 7.5 hours on entertainment media a day, compared to just 25 min. of reading. Just like candy, if you have enough screen time, you will find yourself craving more and more of it. And the more you have, the more likely you are to experience the following negative effects.
Staring at a screen rapidly degrades eyesight. Try looking at the sun. Your eyes should hurt, and you should feel the urge to avert it. Well, a screen is just like that, just weaker. Gary Heiting quoted “No one knows for sure if prolonged use of digital devices actually causes permanent damage to the eyes, but it’s well established that it causes eye strain and discomfort.”
A study from the University of Bristol's School for Exercise, Nutrition and Health Sciences surveyed 1000 children from ages 10-11. The results concluded that more screen time is linked to lower psychological ability. A Scottish 2003 study showed that more screen time means less physical activity as well as more distress and less teamwork. Finally, another study of an outdoor school with no technology versus a regular one with technology showed that the students in the outdoor school were more successful at reading nonverbal emotions, such as facial expressions, and thus may be less likely to anger people trying to convey
“Get off your phone.” “I’m taking that laptop away.” Many children have dealt with their parents barging into their rooms and telling them to get off their electronics. Parents believe it is not healthy and therefore should be restricted. The two articles, “Blame Society, Not the Screen Time” by Dana Boyd and “Don’t Limit Your Teen’s Screen Time” by Chris Bergman, both talk about how parents should not limit their kid’s screen time.
Due to this argument, parents and children now heavily rely on technology for a main source of play, limiting the challenges of all creativity and imagination (Rowan 3). Although technology can provide some games and tools that can help children learn, it does not provide the same benefits as actual play and actually causes more harm than good. One of the main problems with play through technology is the fact that children are seeing a “symbolic representation of the real world” and are not receiving a direct experience of the real world with real people and materials (Rice 3). The more time children spend looking at a screen, the more they are isolating themselves and not spending time with other children and adults (Rice 3). This is not only damaging to the learning development of a child, but also the healthy development of forming relationships and social skills (Rice 3). According to a 2010 Kaiser Foundation study, children who are in elementary school use on average 7.5 hours per day of entertainment technology and spending this much “screen time” is damaging to the development of children because their “sensory, motor, and attachment systems have biologically not evolved to accommodate this
Maggie Jackson’s other blog, “Does Self-Control come in an App?” Digital Natives don’t know any difference by going to Facebook or playing games on technology, but it could have a serious impact on them if they get addicted. Kaiser Family Foundation said, the average 8-18-year-old spends more than seven hours and 38 minutes on entertainment media on a typical day. Half of those people use media when doing homework. To help address this problem, we need to teach children to respect the integrity and set up rules for their media use.
According to Sheri Hosale from the website, Roogirl.com, in the article, 25 Negative Effects of Technology, she says “The more we isolate ourselves with technology the fewer bonds we will form.” This statement from Sheri Hosale’s article demonstrates my claim that schools should participate in “Shut Down Your Screen Week.” This can be seen when children spend too much time in the internet, that they never make any bonds with other people. This can cause children to spend the rest of their life alone with no one to talk to face to face. This piece of evidence supports my claim of participating in “Shut Down Your Screen Week” because in the future being able to have relationships with others will be very
“Many Teens Spend 30 Hours a Week on ‘Screen Time’ during High School.” Science Daily. N.p., 14 Mar. 2008. Web. 3 Mar. 2011. .
Firstly, excessive exposure to screens and electrical devices is shown to drastically effect a growing child's social skills. These skills are invaluable and without them children are incapable of making and keeping loyal friends; more likely to suffer from behavioural issues and more likely to be uncomfortable speaking to people: especially their elders and people unbeknown to them. A long term research team, The Millennium Cohort Study Group, has conducted a study consisting of nineteen thousand children born in 2000 and 2001. In following this group of children, the study group has discovered that children who are prone to watching or interacting with electrical devices for more than three hours a day are more likely to suffer from behavioural and relationship-orientated problems by the time they were seven than those who spent less time on their devices. This study demonstrates the damaging effect these devices have...
To continue, everyone can agree that children need a healthy environment to develop cognitive, social, emotional, physical and linguistic development. How much technology can improve or distract from these essential skills varies with age. The impact and implications of technology tools on young children has been studied and researched through the Let’s Move Childcare initiative and results concluded that little to no “screen time” is preferred for children under the age of two. For children two years or older, the recommended “screen time” is limited to thirty minutes per week in the classroom setting. (White House, 2011.)
As you are looking at a screen for hours at a time, you begin to stop “thinking” foresay and get lost in the world of television, the internet, or whatever else you are using with your piece of technology. Siegel refers to this lack of thinking as the mind’s “placeless place”. Due to this lack of thinking and brain stimulation, the intelligence of society is decreasing. On average, children from ages 8 to 18 partake in some sort of screen time for 7.5 hours a day, a record high. With the including of multitasking with other devices such as cell phones, they spend about 11 hours a day. That’s more than the amount of time a day that student aged children are in school on any given day. Consequently, the heaviest screen users report feelings of boredom and depression, as well as family, school, and social problems. Yet, somehow, we as a society accept this amount of technology usage despite all of the consequences that are brought about due to high usage. Instead of spending their time gaining knowledge and expanding themselves as individuals, children spend an extreme amount of time in their “placeless place” which may be highly detrimental to not only their social lives, but their grades. In fact, it is proven that children who spend an excessive amount of time st...
Many say, “I can stop whenever I want to,” or “I do not use that much; I have friends who use much more than that.” These speakers’ rationalizations do not reference drugs or alcohol use, but, surprisingly, Internet addiction. According to the article “Hooked on the Web: Help is on the Way” by Sarah Kershaw, “Specialists estimate that six to ten percent of the approximately 189 million Internet users in this country have a dependency that can be as destructive as alcoholism and drug addiction.” This global problem must be addressed and can be reduced if users will go to therapy for their Internet addiction.
WETHINGTON, HOLLY, LIPING PAN, and BETTYLOU SHERRY. "The Association Of Screen Time, Television In The Bedroom, And Obesity Among School-Aged Youth: 2007 National Survey Of Children's Health." Journal Of School Health 83.8 (2013): 573-581. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Nov. 2013.
According to experts, children who watch too much TV tend to be less interested in physical activity, often develop verbal skills more slowly and tend to be less confident in social situations.
Children between two and eleven years of age watch an average of 25 hours of television a week.(Children's Television) Which means that children spend more time watching television than in school. With that statistic it is no wonder why this is such a huge problem that this nation has to deal with.
There has been a long lasting debate in the resent years on whether or not technology has a positive or negative impact on today’s kids. As the years move on, the negative effects have begun to outnumber the positive. The generations previous spent their childhood making forts, fishing, and using their imaginations, contrary to today’s generations who spend their free time texting, playing video games, and watching videos. Damaging effects such as decreases in school performances, addiction to electronics, and lack of brain development have all been linked to the electronic media stimulation. In order to prevent the future generation from following in the current generations footsteps, one must full comprehend just how much technology impacts
Social media although a great tool can become an addiction ultimately affecting our lives and state of mind. That is why we need to limit the amount of time and information we share on social networks. Although the internet is a tool full of good and bad available to everyone, teenagers and young adults are more prone to falling into the traps of the internet. People also abuse social media and overuse it every day because they are concerned with what is happening every hour. Social media is a tool not a necessity and should never be abused or used as a diary because it could result in unwanted consequences that can hurt us in the future.
In United States, “Children watch 4 hours of television every day, 28 hours a week and, sometimes, 10 hours on Saturdays and Sundays. Before their 18th birthday, children may view 25,000 hours of television” (Ni Chang 85). Nowadays, technology has been developed and used in many different ways. Many children spend large amount of time on IPad, smart phone, and computer. Clearly, television has played an important role in most of the younger age group’s life. As a parent, one of the biggest concerns about the influence that television has on the children is that they tend to become aggressive while they watch a lot of violent program. Communicating and engaging with one and other is limited because television has destroyed communication among family and removed children from the social interaction. Moreover, watching a lot of TV also contributes child obesity. Overall, television is harmful for children in their early development because it is not only going to delay their brain development, but also increase their aggressive behavior, and cause child obesity in a long term period.