All Screen Time is Not Created Equal

I was having dinner with colleagues a couple weeks ago when the topic of screen time came to the table. We began to discuss the ever-present debate of the pros and cons of technology use when I heard this come out of my mouth:

All screen time is not created equal. 

Our society tends to classify technology in one camp or the other: good or bad. However, I propose that this issue is not black or white - it depends on what you are doing with that screen time. Yes, there are certain things we do on devices that aren't productive and there are people who let devices overtake their lives. We are inundated with stories about cyberbullying, teenagers who have no social skills, and tragedies that result form texting and driving. However, I continue to see amazing things happen as a result of technology. There are just as many stories (if not more) of two year olds learning their ABC's with an iPad app, non-verbal people finally being able to communicate via their smartphone, students getting to tour art museums that they will probably never be able to see in person, and classrooms collaborating with classrooms across the nation (and world). And in the case of my Kindergartner niece, learning how to write the lower-case letter "a" via an iPad app that has visual and auditory prompts after repeated attempts by me to teach her on paper (and lost patience by both parties!). Unfortunately, these positive stories tend to be lost in our negative-heavy mainstream media.

Here is a great example of positive screen time. A few weeks ago I was watching my nieces who are two and six. We were staying in a hotel, nearing bed time, and quickly running out of activities. The oldest asked if we could play on my "tabwet." I pulled out my iPad and asked what they wanted to do. They both exclaimed "puppets!" Knowing exactly what that meant I quickly opened the Sock Puppets app. With a kid on each side we proceeded to make a variety of Sock Puppet videos which were all prompted by what they wanted to tell a story about. Here is one example of our Sock Puppet creations:



Although this 30 second video may not seem like much, the girls learned a lot through this experience. They learned the basic concept of storytelling. They learned how to take turns. They learned how to touch their puppet when it was their turn to talk. And all three of us spent quality time winding down before bed.

If someone would have walked into the room and saw all three of us huddled around the iPad they may have made a quick negative judgement. I probably would have been labeled as a millennial who doesn't know how to spend quality time with kids. We should be making forts and playing outside instead of wasting time on those useless devices! That quick judgement would have been wrong though. Therefore, I urge you to not dismiss all screen time; instead, evaluate that screen time for value in both the classroom and home. Don't judge parents for allowing their kids occasional, valuable screen time. Instead, let's find a balance with everything in our lives, including technology.

Note: I begin this post a couple weeks ago, and it sat in drafts. Today, I came across this article Technology and Balance in an All or Nothing World by Dr. Karen Richardson. The article makes many of the same points as this blog post and prompted me to finish my drafted post. Make sure to also read this article for additional points regarding balanced screen time.