I’m a firm believer in a strong no-screen policy for kids.
No TV. No iPhone. No iPad. No laptop.
No screens of any kind, especially before the age of 2.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents “place a reasonable limit on entertainment media” and not allow any screen time for children under 2. Despite these recommendations, however, according to a 2010 study by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, kids between the ages of 8 and 18 spend around 7½ hours using entertainment media per day:
A national survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that with technology allowing nearly 24-hour media access as children and teens go about their daily lives, the amount of time young people spend with entertainment media has risen dramatically, especially among minority youth. Today, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week). And because they spend so much of that time ‘media multitasking’ (using more than one medium at a time), they actually manage to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes (10:45) worth of media content into those 7.
That is a lot of time being spent in front of a screen. And for this reason, I know that, in the current day and age, my no-screen stance may perhaps seem very odd. But I’m good with that. (Partially because, alhamdulillah, as a kid I myself grew up without TV.)
You may be asking yourself right about now:
Well, what exactly is so bad about screens?
So, let’s explore exactly that.
1. Decreased Attention Span
Screens provide fast-paced flashing images, which is correlated with shorter attention spans. Continuous exposure to such flashing images continuously erodes the attention span of children.
And then we see rising rates of ADHD diagnoses.
2. Less Reading
Screens end up becoming the primary source of entertainment, such that the more sedate forms like reading, drawing, writing, puzzles, etc., become boring in comparison.
TV presents an exciting extravaganza of lights and sounds. Books just remain still.
Why bother reading a book when it requires the child to use their imagination and expend their the mental energy in order to conjure up images in their minds of the story being read? Instead, the child can just sit back and watch as images that have been created for them parade themselves across a screen?
Reading thus becomes arduous and taxing in comparison.
TV is so much easier. Being active is now like a chore.
3. Wasted Time
Screens waste a lot of time.
There are so many better, more fruitful, productive and beneficial ways for a child to spend the precious years of their childhood in, instead of simply plopping down in front of a screen—even if it’s just one or two hours a day.
That time is far better spent exploring, piecing things together, adventuring, talking to or playing with parents or siblings, reading or looking at pictures in a book (if the child is too young to read) and being outdoors.
4. Less Outdoor Play
Screens have largely replaced the time spent outdoors. This is a big one.
We have slowly, over the past several decades, become a country of lazier, more sedentary people. We spend more time indoors than we do outdoors; and with each new generation, we spend much less time outdoors than our predecessors did. Before this modern, screen-riddled era that we now find ourselves in, people used to spend a substantial amount of time outdoors and in nature, which is proven to improve mood and overall physical and mental health (higher Vitamin D levels, lower rates of depression, etc).
Now, however, we spend a great deal of our time indoors, seated on couches, looking at screens. This shift from outdoors to indoors has impacted our collective health. We are now sicker, less healthy, with weaker immune systems and more vulnerable bodies than people before us. For kids especially, being outside is absolutely critical for their healthy development.
5. Obesity
It is constantly being announced that we are witnessing a national obesity epidemic in the United States; and that childhood obesity specifically is something that is at an all-time high.
Of course, the kinds of food we eat has a lot to do with this phenomenon but so does the amount of time we spend sitting down. The more active a person is, the better. Screens force us to sit down and be sedentary, which then slowly forms a habit of—and a preference for—sitting for long periods of time instead of actively moving about.
6. Addiction
Kids (and adults too) can actually become addicted to electronic devices, such as an iPad, a smartphone, a TV, etc.
They become dependent on these devices and use them as their exclusive form of entertainment. Without them, some kids have major meltdowns and the only way to appease them and get them to calm down is to give in and hand them the device. Tragically, this even happens with children as young as 2 years old.
7. Communication Breakdown
In our digital age, many people are replacing face-to-face communication with text messages and social media. Instead of having a real-life connections in person, with eye contact and physical touch (which humans need developmentally), kids are getting used to communicating on a more superficial level, purely through written texts and messages.
This stunts emotional growth and interpersonal skills.
8. Filthy Content
This one is a no-brainer.
The more exposure a child has to screens, the more they consume the cultural programming of modern Western society, which is, of course, hypersexualized and riddled with sexual content, violence and foul language.
As Muslims, whether adults or kids, this is the complete opposite of what we want to be seeing. And it’s significantly worse for kids.
9. Less Obedience to Parents
There are 2 reasons for this harm.
The first is that in kids’ shows, including cartoons, parents are portrayed as bumbling buffoons who don’t know anything and who are constantly being outsmarted and outwitted by their own kids. In so many cartoons and kids’ shows, the kids act flippant and disrespectful toward their idiotic parents.
The second element to this is that when a kid is watching TV and you try to call them over to you (to eat dinner; to help you with something; to go do homework; and so on), the kid is much slower to respond to your call. They’re too engrossed in whatever it is flashing before their eyes, across the screen, to heed you insignificantly calling out their name a few times. You, as the parent, are forced to compete with the TV for your child’s attention.
10. Consumerism
TV—and now even YouTube—relies heavily on commercials.
Every few minutes, the show is paused to make way for a commercial break, and your kids will attentively watch the commercials just as they watch the actual show. Companies rely on this captive audience to imbue within them an artificial desire to consume their products, inevitably creating revenue for their businesses.
Avoiding screens allows you to keep your kids away from this endless parading of products, and it saves them from getting too deep into the consumerist mentality that surrounds us from all directions.