Welcome to a new series I’m starting - this is the full text of the posts I’ve been crafting on instagram because I know some people would rather read the things. As a disclaimer, I have a political science degree but am by no means an expert on the things that I’m breaking down. What I do have is a passion for explaining complicated things in simple ways. Now, more than ever, I think it’s really important. If you have something you specifically want me to cover, please message me on instagram (linked at the bottom).

One of the questions I got last week in my stories in Instagram (ps if you have things you’re wondering about or things you want simplified, please head over to my stories and ask! Everything I talk about here right now is by request) was around the actual science with kids and screens (the exact wording was “why can’t we just give our kids screen time all the time?” and if you haven’t had that thought over the last two years then I can tell you don’t have kids haha).

I loved it because I think it’s really easy to get caught in the headlines and guilt ourselves to death – but what does the science actually say? Let’s dig in.

First, almost all of the science – I want to finger quote it but a lot of it is legitimate science, inasmuch as it can be within the limitations – shows associate or correlation at best, not causation. Many also rely exclusively on caregivers’ iffy recollections of how much time children spent in front of a screen (we really want to believe our memories are super reliable but honestly science shows us again and again that it really is not). We see so much of the same ethical limits with science and kids generally – is it ethical to put a kiddo in front of a screen for 8 hours a day for 10 years to really track – having them live in a lab so to control for different schools, nutrition, parenting styles, socioeconomic status, etc? Right, hence so much of the limitations. Here’s what we do know:

Let me be clear – there is no concrete evidence that supports the common view that technology use is inherently harmful.

We do have strong research that shows the impact of food or housing security on kids ability to learn and develop well – but the structural answers that those require are a lot more complex than the pearl-clutching that seem to show up with moral panics.

The US and Canadian paediatric associations, as well as the WHO all recommend very little to no screens for kids under 2, and less than an hour a day for kids 2 to 5. This is based on the best correlation science we currently have – it seems from most studies that kids under three learn better from people than screens. We also know that everything at this spongy age is learning, so unlike at older ages where we can start to separate out learning and leisure, this correlation tells us that this caution is likely ok. There is also a strong correlation in multiple studies that more than two hours a day for kids under 12 months can lead to some language delays – again, correlation is not causation, but I also had a baby once and there was no way she was interested in even 15 minutes on a screen – she wanted to put small pieces of garbage in and out of a plastic bag instead, so. Many of these arguments oversimplify what parents are actually asking about kids and technology.

These same correlations simply don’t exist as kids age – and in fact, just googling “the sesame street effect” pulls up the long-term landmark study that shows correlation between watching Sesame Street and the same positive outcomes as preschool. That’s right – at preschool age, watching this landmark show (specific because of the way that show explicitly focus on educational content using a research-based curriculum) has shows the same academic correlations as ‘formal education’.

For me, this highlights the crux of what traditional fears have put first – all screen time is created equally. But here’s the thing – do we need a study to tell us that an hour of playing grand theft auto is different for the brain than talking to Nana on ipad? The biggest thing that strikes me as I sift through studies is not just the huge gaps in causation but the fact that quality is never the question – just quantity.

How much more important this distinction becomes when kids age is almost never the subject of what we research around kids, screen time, and brains. Yes, growing brains need a variety of stimulations, yes blue-light late into the night can disrupt sleep cycles (ahem, are we still talking about kids? I know almost no adults that aren’t looking at some kind of screen right through when they go to bed), and yes kids need to let their minds wander (some call it “be bored”) to foster creativity. BUT! Can we achieve these things and still have heavy screen time use? Does this really justify the latest moral panic we’ve whipped ourselves in to?

We love to work ourselves into a frenzy over new technology – especially around kids (the ground of most moral panics include “protecting the children”). In ancient Greece, philosophers claimed that the act of writing would make young people more rebellious. Socrates in particular warned against the dangers of writing for fear that it would nurture “forgetfulness in the learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories.” In the 18th century we worried kids would get “addicted to reading” and in the 1920’s and 40’s we were worried about jazz music and the radio, respectively. Looking back on this these fears almost seem laughable (writing? Jazz music?), but even fire can both cook food and burn us.

Can we as caregivers put our own hang-ups and fears around screens and technology aside when we talk about this, and view screens as “neutral”? It’s hard – I speak from my own firsthand experience. I was chatting with a good friend earlier this week and she said something that I’ve heard again and again from other friends “they get squirrely if they get the ipad too long, I have to be careful”. I believe that deep down, we know our kids best – if you find that there is a change in attitude or demeanor after extended screen use, it’s absolutely worth looking at and working with.

But here’s something else that I have noticed, especially over the last two weeks of thinking about it a lot (and also it’s spring break so you know. Lots of free time, lol). My kiddo loves to read. She can easily get lost in a book and spend two or three hours reading – just like she could easily watch Polly Pocket for three hours (no judgement please). But I notice that stickiness that I sometimes see after taking away the ipad is the same as when I take away the book – she’s cranky, she’s short tempered, she can be mean and spends the next hour complaining that she’s bored. Is that a function of having something fun taken away? Of having spent two hours without human interaction? Of having to shift gears? How many times have you as an adult felt prickly after binging something, watching two movies on a rainy day, scrolling social media for an hour? I don’t know – and neither does science.

What logic can tell us is that, just like fire, how we use it matters. Screens can introduce kids to problem solving, ideas, current events, health education. They can connect kids to people who may be geographically far away, and allow them extra resources when working on school assignments. There is absolutely an important distinction between leisure screen time and work or school screen time, and just like with reading – screens aren’t going anywhere.

Something else both research and common sense seem to point to is breaks between screen time. Getting up and stretching or doing something else after an hour is generally good practice for all ages – especially for kids if we’re concerned about their ability to continue to use their imagination (I know I always work better when I take a break between sessions sitting at the computer – it feels better, ideas come back to me, I can breathe a little deeper when I sit down again).

The best I think we can do is teach our kids how to navigate it well, ensure they are getting stimulus from lots of different interactions, and be mindful of screens to close to bedtime.

But we should probably be doing that as adults too… yeah?