Lately, I have read a lot about the harms of “screen addiction” for children, and the problems that can arise from too much time spent on smartphones, tablets, video games, and other screen-based media. However, my teenagers, who are both good students, tell me they still need to use computers every day for their schoolwork, to write papers, and do research. How can I balance their need for that kind of “screen time” against its negative impacts?
For certain, parents and children alike are living in an increasingly screen-driven world, and you are very right to note it is having negative effects on childhood development. We know for sure that the brain is highly sensitive to stimuli from computer or smartphone screens, and screen addiction is already associated with increased risk of type-2 diabetes, particularly when an electronic device becomes a substitute for physical activity. Constant electronic device usage may also stunt a child’s social development and increase her chances of conduct problems and emotional issues.
But you’ve also touched upon a note that often goes unaddressed — namely, that not all screens are created equal. It may not be necessary for a child to send 50 text messages a day or to watch movies on an iPad, but desktop computers themselves are mandatory for many day-to-day academic tasks, particularly for high school-age students. College essays and applications are now completed digitally — and, for better or worse, the internet is often the first place a student will look to do academic research.
The developing brain was not designed to stare into a computer screen, and yet, for many tasks, there is no practical way around it. And yet, teenagers also rightly need at least nine hours of sleep per night, which comes at mathematical odds with time that must be devoted after school activities and 3.5 hours of homework that high schools students are assigned, on average, every day. It seems that there are no easy solutions — yet.
The good news is that there are straightforward steps you can take to minimize the effects of any schoolwork “screen time.” As a very first step: if your child is using an online source for academic research, encourage her to just print it out and read it, and simply recycle the paper after it is no longer needed. Avoid researching “on-screen.” In addition to the harmful effects that constant light exposure can lead to, studies have suggested that the way articles are navigated on screen as opposed to in text on pages also impairs comprehension. And touching on academics — one of the reasons that children use their computers to do research is, simply, because it is fastest to do everything on screen, even if it unintentionally reduces the accuracy and verifiability of schoolwork. It might sound “old school,” but published books have clear citations and have been verified for accuracy. And paper does not emit light! Hitting the old-fashioned books can thus improve the quality of a student’s sleep and, as a side-benefit, the quality of her work, too.
It’s important to note that, screen or no screen, a healthy wind-down time after homework and before bed (at the minimum 30–60 minutes) is still a necessity, and ignoring this necessity is like ignoring the necessity to exercise — might work for a while, but is bound to catch up with you sooner or later. To make that happen, maintaining a realistic schedule is key.
It’s good that you have recognized that this is a complex issue, and that some screens are easier to turn off than others. But these steps are a good start to making sure that the combination of “computer time” and “study time” has the least impact on your child’s development through her school years.
