This undifferentiated trend of “screen time” as a catch-all can’t die soon enough. There’s a massive qualitative difference between letting your kid tap on whatever the YouTube algorithm recommends for hours unsupervised and other, beneficial use cases. My son’s major motivation for learning to read came from watching us play Breath of the Wild and getting tired of not knowing what was going on. Lately we’ve been playing the remake of The Oregon Trail and using it as a springboard to discuss the history of westward expansion in the US.
We are adamant that he not watch advertising or make heavy use of recommendation algorithms and have explained why and what they are and what the difference is, but he’s welcome to watch as many pre-downloaded Dr Binocs videos as he likes (for example).
All that said, his daily chores include getting the eggs from the chicken coop, weeding the garden and the heavy “screen time” season is winter when our days are very short and wet.
We are adamant that he not watch advertising or make heavy use of recommendation algorithms and have explained why and what they are and what the difference is, but he’s welcome to watch as many pre-downloaded Dr Binocs videos as he likes (for example).
All that said, his daily chores include getting the eggs from the chicken coop, weeding the garden and the heavy “screen time” season is winter when our days are very short and wet.