What counts as screen time?

[Anonymous]

Maybe a silly question, but what do you consider "screen time" to include for elementary aged kids? Obviously watching shows or playing video games counts, but what about typing on a computer? Reading an e-book on a tablet? Playing scrabble on their parents' phone? Drawing (eg, with MS paint) on a computer?

[Anonymous]

Hate the term "screen time". I make sure my kid spends enough time playing outside, with toys, doing homework, reading, and the "screen time" comes in between.

[Anonymous]

all of those.

[Anonymous]

Something done on a screen.

The one exception could be an e-reader backlit so that it doesn't have the brightness of a usual screen - I suppose there are studies out there which have differentiated the visual stimuli and subsequent consequences on children between those screens and normal screens.

[Anonymous]

I count everything other than reading appropriate level books on the kindle. This includes FaceTime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe a silly question, but what do you consider "screen time" to include for elementary aged kids? Obviously watching shows or playing video games counts, but what about typing on a computer? Reading an e-book on a tablet? Playing scrabble on their parents' phone? Drawing (eg, with MS paint) on a computer?

Of course all of that is screen time. It's on a screen. You can read a physical book, play scrabble on a board, and draw on paper...so, all that you listed is screen time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe a silly question, but what do you consider "screen time" to include for elementary aged kids? Obviously watching shows or playing video games counts, but what about typing on a computer? Reading an e-book on a tablet? Playing scrabble on their parents' phone? Drawing (eg, with MS paint) on a computer?

Of course all of that is screen time. It's on a screen. You can read a physical book, play scrabble on a board, and draw on paper...so, all that you listed is screen time.

Agree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe a silly question, but what do you consider "screen time" to include for elementary aged kids? Obviously watching shows or playing video games counts, but what about typing on a computer? Reading an e-book on a tablet? Playing scrabble on their parents' phone? Drawing (eg, with MS paint) on a computer?

Of course all of that is screen time. It's on a screen. You can read a physical book, play scrabble on a board, and draw on paper...so, all that you listed is screen time.

Agree.

Yup.

[Anonymous]

I have two categories for screen time:
1) pure entertainment, whether passive (movie) or "active" (video game/minecraft)
2) activities you can do in the physical world, and gain different skills from if you do them that way (drawing, puzzles, "writing")

Pure reading or reviewing math facts or foreign language words are in a grey area for me. If we are at home, I expect those to be done with "physical" books whenever possible, but I wouldn't count time on that against screen time limits. If we are away from home, we do a lot of kindle books.

[Anonymous]

Vomit. You let your kid play on electronics too much if you have to ask the definition of screen time. All of. The. Above!!!

[Anonymous]

Oh lord. Really, who cares. Are you tracking every minute?

[Anonymous]

This one of two main reasons I don't bother placing limits on screen time: so that I don't have to define such a nebulous term and treat as a negative many things I consider to offer at least as much value as non-electronic pastimes.

For the purposes of setting limits, I would assume that all count since all involve looking at a screen. But if they're doing something that's interesting and has creative or educational value, I'm not sure that makes sense to treat the exact same way as video games.

And, frankly, as long as the kid has a variety of activities that they regularly enjoy, including some that are physically active and some that are not involving electronics, and as long as other obligations such as chores and schoolwork are satisfactorily completed, I'm not sure why "screen time" is specifically objectionable

[Anonymous]

Don't forget to include time on devices at school

[Anonymous]

I shared this on another thread here about kids and emails, txts etc. There's also a connection between too much screen-time for our kids (I have 5) and their lack of outdoor play. I work with a vision health group in DC-area and this recent blog post from their site talks about the correlation between to many screens, too little outdoor play and resulting eye health issues. Google Treehouse Eyes and check our blog.
thx
Thom