“Getting away from it all” used to mean going on a vacation: a self-imposed exile to some remote place, leaving the flurry of day-to-day life behind and spending time recharging and reconnecting with the family face to face. But the flurry of day-to-day life now includes many more hours spent in front of computers, video games, and the TV. It also includes texting and the ubiquitous cell phone, which connect us with those out of sight, but disconnects us from the people around us in real life.
At this point, for you and your kids, a vacation to “get away from it all” may not be enough to recharge and reconnect. Setting a time when everyone in the family has to shut off all their devices may be needed.
“It’s hard to turn off all of our devices but we know we probably should,” says Dr. Stephanie Smith, a clinical psychologist from Colorado. “When families come to me, I assess how much screen time they have per day and week. It’s something that needs to be looked at if there are family problems.”
While Dr. Smith sees disconnecting from electronics as part of a treatment strategy, she notes that many families already shut things off at regular times such as dinner and bedtime. She herself participated in a TV Turnoff Week event promoted by her daughter’s school. “As a parent with young kids, I was nervous about how we would fill up our time, especially before dinner: we all get kind of grumpy,” she says of the experience. “Any time we make a behaviour change, for example diet or smoking, the initial couple of days can be tough. It didn’t go perfectly, but once we got over the initial hurdle we found ways to entertain ourselves.””
Many reasons to hit the “off” button
In addition to the positives you will create in the house and between family members, shutting off electronic devices will help avoid many of the other negatives.
Screen time, that is the amount of time kids spend in front of TVs, computer and video games, has long been known as a source of ill health. Childhood obesity is linked to the number of hours kids spend in front of screens. Young children who watch TV just before bedtime are more likely to have poor sleeping habits, which can affect school performance. Teens with a computer or a TV in their bedrooms are more likely to have insomnia, and TV advertising is at least partly to blame for a junk-food-heavy diet.
The list of negative physical effects screen time has on kids is long. But so are the negative behavioural effects. Tweens and teens who watch lots of TV tend to overestimate their peers’ sexual experiences and are subsequently more apt to engage in sexual activity themselves. It has also been shown that early childhood development videos such as Baby Einstein may actually do more harm than good. It is not so much that educational videos and shows are bad, but that they prevent your kids from doing something else which would have been healthier for them, like talking, reading, or just about anything else.
When it comes to a child’s health, music players have similar track records: mobile electronic devices that use headphones or earbuds put kids at risk for hearing loss. They can also be a hazard to pedestrians: kids should be using their eyes and ears when they are on the streets.
Cell phones may be a threat, too. Several studies have linked cell phone usage to brain tumours. “Heavy use”, pegged at 30 minutes per day for ten years, increased the chance the user would develop a type of cancer called glioma.
The worst part is that screen time is on the rise. “I’ve been in practice 10 years and absolutely screen time has increased,” says Dr. Smith. “When I started, many people didn’t even really communicate by email so much. Now it’s all Facebook and iPhones. It’s been a huge change.”
Practical advice for shutting down
“You don’t have to do it cold turkey. Instead of a free-for-all, set some boundaries. Say, it’s family time from seven to eight p.m. or an hour or so per day,” suggest Dr. Smith. “And have a plan: puzzles, or games, or bikes, or whatever it is, have activities set up in advance. If screens have been your prime mode of entertainment, have something to do other than staring at each other.”
If your kids are still young, begin setting limits at an early age to avoid bigger battles later. No TV during school week, and limited computer time works well for kids 8 and under.
Screen time is an ideal topic for discussion in a family meeting, where you can lay out your concerns (such as ones above), and set parameters for when and how long screens can be used.
However you get there, shutting down is good for the whole family! So we’re signing off now!
This article was reprinted with permission from AboutKidsHealth.ca, a comprehensive health-related website for kids and families, supported by The Hospital for Sick Children.
