Rather than shout about too much screen time for our children, I’m going to share the effect screen time has on my own concentration and thinking processes, and give room for each of us to decide what that experience might indicate for our children…
My viewing
I have a busy day. Rarely do I turn on the television or radio (unless I’m driving and then it’s usually Classic FM for me). But I do watch video clips — the selection mostly comprised of news headlines and news reports.
In the evening, I love to relax in front of the tele, but mostly what I watch is news from a centre to right wing perspective, because that’s what jives with my own bias.
My experience
I find that when I watch from my laptop, I don’t comfort eat. However, in front of the television, whether it is daytime or nighttime, a film or the news, I do tend to munch.
That aside…
When I watch the world at large on the news, I tend to find myself drawn in. That’s in part the design of the news programmes I watch, as the producers like to “hook us in” to keep us watching. But when I switch off, I do notice a difference in my mindset.
If I watch a lot of news, my concentration wains, and it can take significant time — hours in fact — or a good book or music or silence-and-stillness to get my concentration back to a level that is acceptable to me, and useful for my own “deep thinking”.
What does this indicate?
I think what this says to any who experience the same thing — and I reckon that’s most of us whether we’re self-aware or not — that our minds are easily influenced, easily caught up with what we watch. We are influenced by it. And if we don’t allow ourselves to decompress, we will walk in a permanent sort of stupor of shallow thinking and distractedness.
The Fallout
If we monitor, we might be alright. If we don’t monitor, we definitely won’t be. As a human race, we are uniquely capable of free and deep thought, reflecting on our memories, prioritising what we value most, and contemplating such matters as: the meaning of life, who or what is God, what makes art or poetry or the human face beautiful… as well as all sorts of esoteric things that make us unique in on the earth.
That’s my thinking about screen time.
What’s yours? And does it matter for our children?