Calpa t1_jcsrtxu wrote on March 19, 2023 at 7:48 AM

I'm less concerned about social skills being affected by the screentime of my children, and more their attention span and ability to amuse themselves with a book or puzzle.

feverlast t1_jctanac wrote on March 19, 2023 at 12:06 PM

We are seeing impacts to both, but you are right: especially to attention and self-entertainment skills. I work in elementary, but colleagues say it’s especially bleak in the secondary grades with students that require constant stimulation and who struggle to stay attentive and engaged long enough to manage complex tasks. I have also heard that one of the side-effects of this constant need for stimulation and stimulation-to-cope is affecting kids ability to self-regulate. We ARE seeing a dramatic increase in violent/anti-social behavior in elementary schools.

We really need to get our arms around this problem because iPad parenting isn’t going away, nor should the use of technology in our lives be shunned. The future is going to be won through the development and application of new and beneficial technologies. Parents should be taught the risks and pitfalls so that we can shift the ways we raise children in our culture.

FlyingCockAndBalls t1_jcw0ljb wrote on March 20, 2023 at 12:05 AM

unfortunately there's way too many people that really only had kids cause it was expected of em and that's why they "parent" with iPads, they don't care. Just like how school is becoming less of a place for learning and more of a babysitter for the parent. Even if they know the risks they won't change cause they don't give a shit about their kids in the first place.

skunkcitycannabis2 t1_jctv7id wrote on March 19, 2023 at 3:04 PM

This is the problem I have with my kid who is 7. When he has to stop playing games or watching shows he tells me everything is boring and doesn't know what to do. He recently got in trouble at school and we took away screen time for a bit. Now he entertains himself and is playing with toys that have collected dust. We are working on a plan to reintroduce game/screen time but want to balance it with other play time.

I notice his attitude is generally worse if we had a day with a lot of screen time and much better with no screen time. We don't want to completely remove video games from him but he doesn't make it easy. Best of luck with figuring it out with your kids.