Why Do Kids Get Too Much Screen Time

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It seems like as the generations go on kids and young teens become introduced to technology at younger ages. Take a look around at your local grocery store or at a shopping mall and they always seem to have some type of smartphone, tablet, or electronic playing game in their hands. Technology has advanced so rapidly, that families have barely noticed the drastic impact and changes to their family structure and lifestyles. A Kaiser Foundation study from 2010 showed that elementary aged children use on average 7.5 hours per day of entertainment technology, 75 percent of these children have TV’s in their bedrooms, and 50 percent of North American homes have the TV on all day. The Kaiser Foundation is a non-profit organization focusing on national …show more content…

A 2010 report indicates children spend on average 7:38 hours a day on media (Kaiser Foundation). If you put this into another perspective kids should be getting around 8-11 hours of sleep nightly and if you think about how much screen time 7 hours is you realize 7 into the 8-11 hours of sleep would only leave about 4 hours which is not a lot. Technology’s influence is affecting kids thinking and causing their brains to wire differently than past generations. Technology is affecting kids negatively in more ways than one and parents need to be aware of the specific consequences that follow with the increase use of technology their children are using. Many advertisements on the internet or on the TV are not appropriate for young children, and yet parents don’t provide much supervision when allowing their children to use …show more content…

They start to mimic what they see on TV because it seems like the right thing to do. They are disconnecting from the real world and creating their own space and environment revolving around technology. With this claim the other side would argue that technology weighs out more positive effects to children's behavior than negative. The Baltimore Sun a large daily newspaper states that,
Kids learning and using technology at younger age is beneficial due to our society plummeting into a huge world full of technology driven products. First-graders use tablets daily during math and reading instruction and use apps like Kaymbu, a tool that allows students to take photos of their work to save to a personal portfolio shared with families on a weekly basis. Many classrooms are using technology as learning tools to help children. It’s easier to learn things at a younger age than as an adult trying to basically learn a new skill.
Again the other side isn’t seeing the real consequences that come along with technology being introduced to young people at too young of ages. Children should not be allowed to have too much free access due to too much screen time exposure, or left online unattended for too long due to the negative things children could see

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