Children who spend too much time in front of a screen can develop many serious health issues, yet students in schools across America spend three times the recommended amount in front of a computer.
Photo courtesy of http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-20019246-247.html.
Spending too much time in front of televisions or computers can increase the risk of obesity, increase levels of anxiety and depression, and make it more difficult to fall asleep. However, there’s a murky distinction between educational and simply mindless screen time. How much is too much and how do people decide which is educational and which isn’t?
For a lot of adults, parents especially, any more than two hours of screen time is too much time for their children to be spending watching movies and shows, playing video games or texting. Before there are any protests, people have to remember that parents decide this amount after learning that most students spend several hours a day in front of a computer at school, learning.
Medical professionals and researchers distinguish screen time by “recreational” and “educational”. What’s the difference though? There hasn’t been enough research completed to decide, conclusively, which is which and what activities, screen-wise, can act exclusively as educational in these modern times.
Distinguishing educational versus otherwise isn’t the whole problem either. It’s also been proven that a sedentary lifestyle, combined with hours of screen time, can lead to problems with the brain as well as the body. This kind of lifestyle has been associated lower levels of self-esteem and social behavior and it doesn’t distinguish between types of screen time.
Here at York Suburban, there is a large amount of time dedicated to learning in front of a computer screen. How do we decide if it’s truly educational? How do we decide if it’s too much time spent in front of a screen?