How Much Technology is Too Much?

In today's world, children are spending an increased amount of time with technology, ranging from watching television, using the computer, and playing on iPhones and iPads. Well, you might be asking in your head exactly how many hours is this "increased amount of time". According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the average amount of time each day that children spend on entertainment media is seven hours. There is only twenty four hours in a day which means that about a third of their day is going towards spending time with entertainment media. Some of you may be in disbelief, but others may think that seven hours is not too bad (just think about the hour spent on Facebook, the two hours spent watching Youtube clips, the three hours on other social media sites, and the four plus hours streaming Netflix in the background). Not to mention, playing games on the iPhone or iPad has become increasingly popular, not only among teens but also children as young as the age of 3. There is a non-profit organization based in San Francisco called Common Sense Media that educates parents about how children are using media today. According to a New York Times article, “Technology Is Changing How Students Learn”, one of their researchers from Common Sense Media, Vicky Rideout, has shown that media use among children and teenagers have increased drastically. The average findings showed that those who are ages 8 to 18 spend twice as much time with screens each year as they spend in school. To me, school already fills up a large amount of time each day. Can you even imagine spending one year in school that would equal two years of time with a screen?

Let's just travel back for a second to when we were elementary school kids. The majority of elementary schools would normally end around 3:00 pm each day. If you add that average of seven hours spent with entertainment media that we found earlier, it would already be 10:00 pm. Where do they place the reading time, eating time, or the outdoor play time? Of course this is a very generalized scenario, but even so, you must be wondering about the things that these kids are missing out on. I remember playing basketball and jump rope in my living room when I was in elementary school, but it seems that as time goes by, those activities are forgotten. Maybe the interactive video games that kids play are replacing the real activities. For example, kids who play Wii sports (basketball, tennis, bowling, biking) on the game console rather than going outdoors to do these activities. Even though the video games can be quite realistic, I do not believe that it could ever replace the real deal. Now, you may be wondering exactly how does this technology usage affects young children. Stay tuned to find out in my later posts!