The art of screen time How your family can balance digital media and real life

Anya Kamenetz, 1980-

Book - 2018

"Today's babies often make their debut on social media with the very first sonogram. They begin interacting with screens at around four months old. But is this good news or bad news? A wonderful opportunity to connect around the world? Or the first step in creating a generation of addled screen zombies? Many have been quick to declare this the dawn of a neurological and emotional crisis, but solid science on the subject is surprisingly hard to come by. In The Art of Screen Time, Anya Kamenetz--an expert on education and technology, as well as a mother of two young children--takes a refreshingly practical look at the subject. Surveying hundreds of fellow parents on their practices and ideas, and cutting through a thicket of inconcl...usive studies and overblown claims, she hones a simple message, a riff on Michael Pollan's well-known "food rules": Enjoy Screens. Not too much. Mostly with others. This brief but powerful dictum forms the backbone of a philosophy that will help parents moderate technology in their children's lives, curb their own anxiety, and create room for a happy, healthy family life with and without screens." -- Amazon.com.

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Subjects
Published
New York : PublicAffairs 2018
Language
English
Main Author
Anya Kamenetz, 1980- (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
ix, 266 pages ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-252) and index.
ISBN
9781610396721
  • Part I: Kids and screens
  • Digital parenting in the real world
  • The (sometimes) scary science of screens
  • Emerging evidence
  • You have the power: positive parenting with media
  • An hour at a time: how real families navigate screens
  • Screens at school
  • Part II: Our own devices: parents and screens
  • The mom with her phone at the playground
  • Modern families: parents and screens
  • The future of digital parenting
  • TL;DR: the art of screen time in five minutes.
Review by New York Times Review

THERE'S ONE INevery neighborhood: a parent who allows unlimited screen time. They exist to make the rest of us feel better. Our own offspring might spend hours texting or watching cartoons. But at least we have rules. Our kids can sustain a conversation, cope with fleeting moments of boredom and last a birthday party without demanding a video game. When we pass these other families in the supermarket, their dazed toddlers staring into iPads, we think - smug but terrified - we're not that bad. Or are we? Two new books about kids and screens - Anya Kamenetz's "The Art of Screen Time" and Naomi Schaefer Riley's "Be the Parent, Please" - examine the evidence and offer advice for anxious parents. How much screen time is too much? Is "digital media" like food: O.K. if you consume good-quality ingredients, in moderation? Or is it more like cigarettes or even heroin, possibly unsafe at any dose? And might screens be just another way to guilt parents - and mothers, in particular - into thinking that we're not doing enough? Alas, the evidence is incomplete. Researchers aren't allowed to overstimulate a random sample of babies to see what happens to their brains. (Though as Kamenetz says, you can do this to mice, and they go a little nuts.) Scientists even have trouble running studies in which some participants watch less; one said he could get families to reduce their screen times only by 20 minutes. And the iPad has only just celebrated its eighth birthday. But there are worrying correlations. Kids who watch more than two hours of TV per day have double the risk of childhood obesity. Those who watch screens before bed sleep less, making it harder to concentrate and learn. And simulated violence can desensitize children to real-life suffering, and is linked to increased anxiety and fear. Kamenetz, lead digital education correspondent for National Public Radio, is the more soothing voice. She points out that not every child-or even every heavy user - will suffer ill effects. As with food allergies, "for lots of kids, a peanut is just a peanut." She advocates an approach inspired by Michael Pollan's well-known dictate on food: "Enjoy screens. Not too much. Mostly with others." (Her most upsetting conclusion, echoed by Riley and the American Academy of Pediatrics, is that parents should watch alongside toddlers.) Riley, a former New York Post columnist who is a visiting fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, sees an insidious cultural problem and a moral failure by parents. She compares screens to alcohol and gambling: Not every child will get hooked, but it's better to be safe. And by handing our kids screens, we are choosing "not to parent." Riley advocates radically scaling back children's screen time, and intensively surveilling online behavior. "Many kids will be fine even without these restrictions, and some kids will fall into trouble even with them. But as parents, it's time for us to stop playing the odds." I might bristle at Riley's scolding tone, but I recognize her description of a friend who's in a "constant low-level battle" over screens with her three sons. "It was like watching her swat flies. As soon as she sent one child outside or got one to read a book, another would sneak on to a computer." Even if digital media isn't diabolical, it has opportunity costs. The hours kids spend on devices is time they could have spent reading, studying, interacting with other humans or frolicking outdoors (there's a bit of nature worship in Riley's book). Of course, many parents can't go an hour without consulting screens themselves. In a 2014 study, researchers in a fast-food restaurant observed caregivers on smartphones, ignoring children's bids for attention. The caregivers finally scold the children or issue "robotic" instructions, sometimes without even looking up. But is this proof that screens make us terrible parents? If we're using them while driving, then definitely. Car crashes are a leading cause of death in school-age children, and cellphones are a factor in a quarter of fatal crashes. But in the rest of life, the net impact is less clear. Modern parents spend far more time with their children than parents did in the 1960s. Yes, a mother reading work emails at the playground has briefly stopped interacting with her child. But Kamenetz - a mother of two - says if she couldn't do that, she'd need to be at the office. We know it's crucial to stimulate and speak to young children, and our generation of parents complies to a possibly unprecedented - and exhausting - degree. Kamenetz notes that we need occasional breaks from this. She bemoans "an ideological stance that judges mothers for not being fully available to their children at all times and that scapegoats working-class families in particular." Class issues buzz around conversations about screen time. We've all read about the Silicon Valley executives who won't let their children go online. Mothers who used to boast that their babies drank only breast milk now claim their preschoolers have never touched an iPad. (These same children will later be dispatched to pricey, screen-free summer camps.) Low-income families - and especially single parents - can't afford to police their children's screen use as assiduously. Kamenetz writes that this requires more social supports, like guaranteed paid parental leave. I'd argue that universal health care and a higher minimum wage would help, too. Of course, screens are an issue even in countries with great social services. In 2016, the city of Helsinki ran a campaign warning Finnish parents that they were neglecting children by spending too much time online. In France, where I live, parents are struggling to get their heads around the dangers. The government recently announced that, from September, it will ban phones in primary and secondary schools, for reasons of "public health." There are permissive parents to scoff at here too, but they generally advocate setting firm limits. Meal times are typically sacrosanct, screen-free zones. Most French parents already believe in a conclusion that Kamenetz and Riley endorse: If you don't constantly entertain kids, they'll learn to entertain themselves. And the French are suspicious of too much of anything. The biggest reason I hear for why kids don't spend more time on devices isn't that screens are terrible; it's that they don't have time. That's basically Kamenetz's message too. Her best advice might be to prioritize other activities, and allow screens only afterward. "You will be more effective as a parent, and have more fun as a family, if you drop the guilt and embrace the good that screens have to offer, while balancing media with other priorities." Sleep is paramount: She recommends no screens before bedtime, and none in bedrooms, ever. And she advocates communication over surveillance, making questions like "what did you see online today?" part of dinnertime conversations. I liked Kamenetz's unpanicky, thoughtful critique. Both writers digest lots of material. (Kamenetz helpfully includes a fourpage summary.) While it wasn't thrilling to consume even well-written books on kids and screens, it was worth reflecting on the evidence, and reckoning with my family's relationship to these consuming devices. Then I could return to checking my email. Is 'digital media' like food: O.K. in moderation? Or is it like cigarettes or heroin, unsafe at any dose? PAMELA DRUCKERMAN, a contributing opinion writer for The Times, is the author of "Bringing Up Bébé" and the forthcoming "There Are No Grown-ups: A Midlife Coming-of-Age Story."

Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [June 30, 2019]
Review by Booklist Review

Award-winning education and technology journalist Kamenetz (DIY U, 2010; Generation Debt, 2006) has researched screen time for years. But once she became a parent of two young children, the question of how to balance digital media and real life hit home. Her fourth book is a thoughtful, evidence-based guide to technology that reads like having a conversation with a good friend who also happens to be incredibly smart, honest, and witty. Kamenetz shares anecdotes from her own parenting experience and draws from today's top experts, sifting through exorbitant amounts of research to highlight the most useful information. She covers everything from toddlers' television habits to teenagers' addictions to video games to future generations using VR and AI technologies. Refreshingly, Kamenetz is a realist and does not condemn technology in the home. Instead, she advises managing it with a spin on a familiar adage, enjoy screens; not too much; mostly together. Kamenetz sheds a critical, yet supportive light on our relationship with technology, and her book is a must-read for any parent.--Norstedt, Melissa Copyright 2017 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Advice for parents on how to deal with the intrusion of digital media into family life.What does it mean that children today spend more of their waking hours on electronic media than on any other activity, including school? NPR lead digital education correspondent Kamenetz (The Test: Why Our Schools Are Obsessed with Standardized TestingBut You Don't Have to Be, 2015, etc.) has done her homework, examining the research on this issue and weighing the evidence pro and con. Unfortunately, the experts have little conclusive data to provide when they look at the possible effects of digital media on aggression, depression, ADHD, and poor performance in school and on standardized tests. Obesity and sleep disorders are the two major problems generally associated with screen time. After reporting on what various experts have discovered (or not), the author turns to parents who have dealt directly with this issue, discussing their rules regarding their children's use of technology. Again, the answers vary in usefulness, but parents reading these stories may find some approaches to adopt as their own. Many readers may choose to skim all but the final chapter, in which the authorwho admits "no judgment" if "you don't have any time to read the rest of this book"gives a 10-point summary of what a parent needs to know. A major point is that sleep and screen time don't mix, which leads to the rule to allow no devices up to an hour before bedtime. Parents will also find advice about engaging with their children on digital media by talking to them about what they are seeing, who they are connecting with on social networks, or even learning to play a video game with them. Ultimately, Kamenetz adapts Michael Pollan's advice about food to screen time: "Enjoy screens; not too much; mostly together."Enough material for a solid magazine piece, stretched out to fill a book. Skip to the last chapter. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.