The right kind of screen time — how much is too much?
In 2018, the World Health Organisation announced its recognition of ‘gaming disorder’ in the 11 edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICDII).
Whilst most parents are concerned about what children are exposed to online at an early age, such as inappropriate content or behaviour, there is also growing apprehension about the impact of screen time on children and young people. So how much is too much?
As parents, we’re bombarded daily with all sorts of advice about the right kind of diet, the right amount of sleep, the right amount of time spent sitting down, and, of course, the right amount of screen time.
It’s a divisive topic. The ubiquity of digital media and technology has coincided with concerns about child mental health and well-being and with it, displacement time for physical activity and social engagement.
When pi-top asked a group of parents ‘What are your biggest frustrations with the technology your children use?’ The results made interesting reading, see if these look familiar…
He’s largely interested in following directions rather than creating new things on his own.
I’m frustrated by the fact that the products he uses are just repositories of content, he is mostly a consumer rather than a maker.
Mixed messages
The sedentary and passive nature of screen-based activity has alarmed many health professionals who have called for parents to review how long their children spend using screens.
But there are lots of mixed messages out there too. Some scientists have argued that messages saying screens are unhelpful are not supported by solid evidence or fact. There are concerns too that arguments about the amount of screen time are meaningless because the issue really is about what screen time is used for.
The most positive attributes of screen time for young people and adults (we’re guilty of too much screen time too) is when there are opportunities to learn a new skill or work with others. Children can use screen-based activity to learn to code, write a musical composition, make an animation as well as work with others and build connections.
Research by experimental psychologists Andrew Przybyliski and Netta Weinstein suggest that moderate use of digital technology can be important for social integration by adolescents in modern societies. So perhaps the question should be, what are we using screen technology for?
Apple founder Steve Jobs famously remarked on what he saw as the purpose and function of computers:
‘What a computer is to me is it’s the most remarkable tool that we’ve ever come up with, and it’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.’ ~ Steve Jobs
He believed that technology was the means by which we achieve our goal. From this perspective, the computer screen is simply the pen and notebook combined, a creative tool that helps us work through our ideas and plans. In his early vision for the iMac, Jobs saw the personal computer as a hub for all your other digital devices, like digital cameras, musical keyboards, and music players. Later this eco-system compressed down to the iPhone. But something got lost along the way, and instead of being a tool for creating, it became a tool for consuming.
The concern here then is about the quality of the creative tools used, the thoughtfulness of the software and the intuitive design of the technology so that making something is not only enhanced but supported and encouraged. Furthermore, how do we create a positive designing or making experiences that begin at a screen and continues out into the field or vice versa?
The right kind of screen?
So what might that experience actually look like? Well, take digital photography, where you looking at the screen on the camera, but then might also use another screen back indoors to edit your images. There’s lots of technology and screens being used here — but crucially, it’s for creative purposes, and no one would accuse someone taking landscape pictures of being sedentary.
So one answer could be more experiences and scenarios like this, where screens and technology are less of a portable content delivery system and more a creative tool to make and do real things.
The rise of cheap, easy to use, programmable hardware such as Raspberry Pi, as well as products like pi-top [4], have been specifically designed to meet these challenges and help young people switch from passive consumers to active creators.
The act of making something physical using technology, means you have to interact with your environment in some way. Crucially, you don’t just get the small number of young people who might be into computing, you get the much larger group of people who are into creating.
Pick a problem and design a solution
Creating or inventing something starts with a problem, like an itch you’ve just got to scratch. That problem might be ‘I want to get all these thoughts out of my head and into a piece of music, or ‘I want to find something out’ or I just want to make something beautiful’.
If we position technology and computing as one of many ways of solving these problems, by engaging children’s wonder and curiosity, we can help shift the focus from consuming to creating.
And so instead of asking ‘how much is too much?’, we should be asking ‘what are you doing with it?’ It’s less about screen time and more about what screen time can help us achieve. The use of technology and digital media, like most activities, is about weighing up the pros and cons to achieve balance.
You can get a pi-top [4] from pi-top’s online shop.
Dr Catherine Speight
Learning Research Lead, pi-top
Catherine worked in the museums’ sector for over sixteen years and brings expertise in learning research theory and practice. Her PhD was funded by the Arts Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and examined the complex nature of disciplinary and professional learning for higher education (HE) ceramic students at the V&A.
