As a neurodivergent person myself with several people on the autism spectrum in my family, I'm pretty skeptical that screen time is "good" for neurodivergent kids, or somehow better than it is for neurotypical kids. I'm sure there are some small benefits, but almost all of the research points towards the risks outweighing the benefits. I think screen time is probably very soothing for those of us on the spectrum, easier, and very VERY addicting, but that doesn't mean it's "better" for us than being off of the screen. I love a computer or a phone as a tool, but I quickly start acting like an addict with my iPhone (checking it constantly, looking up every little thing, losing hours of my day on it), so I'm thinking about switching to a dumb phone. (also the ethics of Apple and the Sudan are hard to stomach financially supporting).
I hope someday our kids looks at our cell phone use the way we look at cigarettes. ("EW, What were you guys THINKING?!") but I'm worried we're too owned by the corporations making money off of our screen use at this point.
We're lucky that our kids are at a Waldorf school right now. Phones aren't allowed on campus at all until high school, and then the kids have to check them in the morning and they get it back at the end of the day. It's wild to be on a high school campus where everyone is making eye contact with each other and talking all day. I think if everyone saw how the kids behaved without the screens it might help them change their mind.
I hate that expensive hippie-dippy private schools are the only way to do this. I wish as a society we could all agree that kids don't need phones/screens all the time, especially not at school. Maybe as more and more research comes out showing the harm and the rates of anxiety and depression that are linked, we will get there.
All of this said- I know this is a really sensitive complicated topic, and we are all mostly doing our best. We allow our kids to watch a couple of shows on the weekends. We have friends who don't allow anything at all, and friends who allow a show a day. I'm on my phone in front of my kids more than I would like to be (I'm working on this, but I'm worried I'll need to switch to an old Nokia cold turkey because I think I'm pretty addicted).
This is new technology that has completely changed how we interact with the world, and we're all trying to catch up.
Good report on such a sensitive topic. Thank you!
As a neurodivergent person myself with several people on the autism spectrum in my family, I'm pretty skeptical that screen time is "good" for neurodivergent kids, or somehow better than it is for neurotypical kids. I'm sure there are some small benefits, but almost all of the research points towards the risks outweighing the benefits. I think screen time is probably very soothing for those of us on the spectrum, easier, and very VERY addicting, but that doesn't mean it's "better" for us than being off of the screen. I love a computer or a phone as a tool, but I quickly start acting like an addict with my iPhone (checking it constantly, looking up every little thing, losing hours of my day on it), so I'm thinking about switching to a dumb phone. (also the ethics of Apple and the Sudan are hard to stomach financially supporting).
I hope someday our kids looks at our cell phone use the way we look at cigarettes. ("EW, What were you guys THINKING?!") but I'm worried we're too owned by the corporations making money off of our screen use at this point.
We're lucky that our kids are at a Waldorf school right now. Phones aren't allowed on campus at all until high school, and then the kids have to check them in the morning and they get it back at the end of the day. It's wild to be on a high school campus where everyone is making eye contact with each other and talking all day. I think if everyone saw how the kids behaved without the screens it might help them change their mind.
I hate that expensive hippie-dippy private schools are the only way to do this. I wish as a society we could all agree that kids don't need phones/screens all the time, especially not at school. Maybe as more and more research comes out showing the harm and the rates of anxiety and depression that are linked, we will get there.
All of this said- I know this is a really sensitive complicated topic, and we are all mostly doing our best. We allow our kids to watch a couple of shows on the weekends. We have friends who don't allow anything at all, and friends who allow a show a day. I'm on my phone in front of my kids more than I would like to be (I'm working on this, but I'm worried I'll need to switch to an old Nokia cold turkey because I think I'm pretty addicted).
This is new technology that has completely changed how we interact with the world, and we're all trying to catch up.