<\/span><\/h2>\nOther research shows that the more restrictive and reactive parenting styles are around media use, the less children internalize and respect parents\u2019 reasons. A more effective strategy is one in which children feel that their wishes and interests are being understood, and they can share their parents\u2019 reasoning about the need for exercise, sleep, and education rather than be part of a strategy based on a groundless fear of digital media.<\/p>\n
In a study at the Interacting Minds Centre in Aarhus, Denmark, my colleague Stine Str\u00f8m Lundsg\u00e5rd and I found that the parents who were the most worried about digital media were those who placed the most value on different kinds of play. The parents who were most concerned that their children enjoy a traditional upbringing \u2013 for example, playing outside with other children \u2013 tended to be the ones most worried about screen time. These parents had a strong sense of what constitutes a good childhood and they feared that screen time was displacing it.<\/p>\n
This is a very reasonable concern. It makes sense to worry about preserving lifestyles that we know are good for children \u2013 playing, spending time with friends, being outside. Parents are right to focus of the importance of these aspects of childhood; they should concentrate on the merits of such childhoods and encourage those shared values in their children. But they would be unwise to confuse this desire with unjustified and unevidenced arguments about the dangers that digital media pose to children\u2019s brains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The myth is unfounded, but time on devices should not squeeze play, sleep, learning, and family meals out of childhood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":209,"featured_media":18297,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5780],"tags":[46,267,400,5820],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18291"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18291"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21545,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18291\/revisions\/21545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}