Comments on: Help—My Child is Addicted to Electronics!

By: Kathy Slattengren

Kathy Slattengren — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 16:01:55 +0000

In reply to breastfeedbub. Socially awkward kids tend to love screens because it takes the interpersonal piece out of the interaction. However, these are exactly the kids that need more practice with social skills. The more time he spends interacting with family and friends, the better his social skills will become.

By: breastfeedbub

breastfeedbub — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 09:46:28 +0000

Great post!!! One of my children is definitely addicted to “screen time.” But I don’t know which came first – he wasn’t allowed much when he was younger, but he has always been a socially awkward kid who likes to be alone or in small groups. Is he attracted to screen because of these tendencies, rather than the screen causing the anti-social behavior?

By: Milena

Milena — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 18:14:37 +0000

10 simple ways how to cheange kid’s attention for electronics http://livewithmilenaa.blogspot.com/2016/03/10-ways-for-to-tear-your-child-from.html

By: Kathy Slattengren

Kathy Slattengren — Fri, 22 Jan 2016 18:49:22 +0000

In reply to Becky.

You’re wise to be looking at the amount of time your kids are spending on screens. There are plenty of “A” students who get their homework done and also get addicted to screens (social media, video games, porn, …).

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends 1-2 hours/day of entertainment screen time for kids. Most kids are getting far more than these recommendations. Parents who set limits have kids who use less screen time.

By: Becky

Becky — Fri, 22 Jan 2016 18:14:49 +0000

I agree that there is a growing problem with screen time for young children. I see it with my children. Near the end of the article you suggest we strike a balance by differentiating between boundaries and advice. The example used is to give them an “unhealthy” amount of screen time in exchange for all homework done and good grades. Playing for three to 5 hours on friday or weekends contradicts in my mind what children are missing here. They aren’t reconnecting with family members or people and they aren’t finding healthy ways to not use screen time for medication themselves from their anxiety or problems. For example my elementary school children get all their homework done and are getting straight A’s. They do this without complaint and in a remarkable speedy way. They are also going to challenging academic schools that pride themselves in homework as an extension of the classroom so it isn’t just worksheets and busy work, it is a couple of hours or really studying. Yet they finish it and then get to use the computer. They don’t have anything else to do in their minds but those two tasks and then they just sit at a computer for hours. By letting them have that much time on the computer it is counter productive to getting them to not develop a habit that will lead or feed an addiction to Electronics. There has got to be a better compromise and a plan for constructive use on time that leads to more then just good grades. Like service, creative play time with friends, caring for animals or developing a talent, musical instruments. All of these things get pushed aside when 5 hours on a Saturday at a computer is all they have to do. I am guilty of this too but I would like to change my way of looking at it and reward system for homework completion and good grades.

By: JBR

JBR — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 15:38:20 +0000

This article talks about important issues, but makes too many assumptions about a child’s ability (and willingness!) to self-regulate… This part specifically makes me cringe:

“You might say, for example, ‘I think it would be wise to limit your use to an hour or so per day. That’s something you’ll have to decide.'” […and then saying it’s okay to spend 3-5 hours a day on the addiction.]

By God, why is this up to a child to decide? Aren’t you their parent? Have parents abdicated all their responsibilities these days? Is the kid 18 yet and paying their own way? Who is running the show here?

Imagine this article were about chainsaws instead of electronics. Chainsaws are actually cheaper than iPhones and not against the law for children to use. But read the post again and substitute ‘chainsaw’ instead of ‘electronics’ and then see what you think you your responsibilities are as a parent.

Things have gotten backwards and out of balance. The cart is before the horse. Don’t be an accessory or enabler.

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 20 Jun 2014 10:26:01 +0000

When we’ve faced with the problem of addiction to PC (I’m a father of a teenager boy), I’ve read dozen of articles and forums, so we’ve done 2 things: we’ve placed his PC to a living room and started to use parental control software (we’ve chosen Care4teen (http://www.care4teen.com/). We’ve installed it to PC and to Android smartphone of our son. As a result he just can’t use his devices as much, as he used to, now he pass much more time !!doing his homework, reading!! and playing outside.
I don’t know, may be it’s not the best decision, but I feel calm with these changes in his digital usage. For our family this is a good solution!

By: Georgie

Georgie — Sat, 31 May 2014 01:32:39 +0000

I like this article. When my son came back from his summer break at his dad’s, he was addicted to electronics. I tried limiting his use by allowing him to use them when homework and chores were done. He eventually started lying about finishing his homework and he was circumventing the chores to where I had to inspect. Then we took them away completely on weekdays, which worked for a while. Then he was sneaking on devices in the middle of the night, including my ipod. I changed the passwords to all computers. I started removing the roku box and hiding it. Then I had to hide the modem because he’d have a friend being his laptop over. He’d lie about everything and still does. When we go camping, hiking, to the lake or do anything outdoors, he’s a completely different person and its great. We don’t even allow electronics during meals and he’s good. He leaves for boy scout summer camp tomorrow, then he’s off to his dad’s for 6 weeks. We are moving this summer. I have to pack and move the whole house all by myself. The deal was he packs his room and he could take his tablet. Nope didn’t happen, so I’m sticking to my guns and this boy will ride from AZ to MT, then to TX, then fly back here several weeks later….with zero electronic devices. He gets motion sickness if he reads in a car, so he’s going to have a couple of more than one day road trips with just watching the trees whiz by. Part of me feels sorry for him, but his addiction is more than I can handle and it has forced me to resort to cold turkey enforcement. When it comes to kids, or at least my kid; I’m convinced that electronics poses more of a negative influence, than a positive one.

By: Phyllis Sladek

Phyllis Sladek — Sun, 06 Apr 2014 02:53:45 +0000

In reply to josephgrenny.

Hi – and thanks. Just a quick note to say – a while back, there was a major study – (I believe from Germany) – that showed significant negative impacts on many aspects of child development with increased “screen time.” This included hormonal effects, such as precocious puberty, etc. Right now I don’t have time to look for it – just mentioning this, in case you do.

In other words, a screen is very different than a book.

By: Zach

Zach — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 23:08:51 +0000

As a 25 year veteran of the software industry, 10 years as a hiring manager and team manager, I have to strongly disagree.

High-value technology jobs require more than anything the ability for sustained, complex problem solving and attention. The attentional, cognitive, social and critical evaluative skills required are only developed with extensive use of long-format materials. I.e. books, research articles, study materials, courses.

That is: materials that combine long format attention and low-intensity short term reward with longer term accomplishment and reward. Thats what gives kids the tools to succeed in any business.

Playing with low-threshold / hot reward systems (shooter games, texting, tweeting, Facebooking, reading Internet articles (universally < 2 pages), just using technology… these do NOT prepare you to engineer those systems or any systems. They dont prepare you to evaluate tricky business decisions, or to manage complex social requirements at a place of work.

Most of all they do not prepare you to be happy while sucking it up and do all the boring individual tasks that make up a project, a work day, an accomplishment, a business, a career.

No parent needs to worry for one second that their kids will not be familiar enough with technology to get on in today's workplace, unless they are living an Amish type lifestyle. Instead we have a lot to worry about giving kids the kind of uncontrolled mental sugar high we would never expect to build a strong body. Minds have to have complex tasks like bodies do or they grow poorly.