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If you had to guess how much time teenagers spend using screens outside of work each day, how many hours would you guess? Two? Four? How about nine? According to Common Sense Media, teens today are spending an average of nine hours a day online, while kids from ages eight to 12 are spending an average of six.
That’s a lot of time on screens. Even teens themselves are beginning to think they’re overdoing it: Recent Pew research shows that 54 percent of U.S. teens say they spend too much time on their cellphones, and two-thirds of parents express concern over their teen's screen time. Due to an array of negative effects on health and sleep, The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released a report recommending that children have two hours or less of sedentary screen time daily.
This excessive passive screen use may also be negatively affecting our children’s imaginations. One out of every three American teenagers has not read a book for pleasure in a year, and in the U.K., a new study reported that young children are spending twice as long looking at screens as they do playing outside.
This isn’t to say that all screen time is bad for our kids. However, there is a very fine line between passive screen time, defined as when a child passively consumes digital content with no thought, creativity or interaction required to progress, and active screen time, which involves cognitive thought and/or physical engagement. Many parents and teachers may be surprised to learn how many consequences there are when we let our kids spend too much time using screens passively—and why it’s so vital for us to change how kids are using their computers and phones.
