Sometimes when there is a big weekend of sports on TV, I
find myself watching for far too long. Not infrequently, this leads to a
headache and general grumpiness. The same thing happens when I spend too much
time on-line, whether I am just reading the news or watching something mindless.
I do not think I am alone in this and there is plenty of evidence that TV and
other screen time has deleterious effects on other people as well, including
children.
Television watching in young children has been linked to an
increased risk of ADHD and watching TV is associated with obesity and sleep
problems in children as well. Think about what children are not doing while
watching TV. Children need to be interacting with others, playing outside,
solving problems while building forts with things they find, playing games, etc.
Play is how children learn about the world and learn to interact with others.
Some of my best childhood memories are of building dams in a pasture stream,
exploring the woods, and baseball games in the back yard that lasted for hours. Debating a close call at first base and coming to a conclusion together is practicing for real life.
TV also exposes children to scenes of violence,
advertisements for unhealthy foods, lots of advertisements for alcohol
(especially if you like to watch sports), and sex without consequences. The
amount of sex that is implied on TV comes with remarkably low incidences of
sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies. In real life, people
actually do get pregnant and pick up diseases. I remember once while watching
TV with one of my children I was asked during a beer commercial “Why is she out
in the snow in her bathing suit?” A reasonable question for which I had no
reasonable answer.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen time
for children younger than two and a maximum of 1-2 hours per day for children
older than that. With the ubiquity of TVs, computers, tablets, smart phones,
etc., it is easy to exceed that without even noticing.
So turn off the electronics and get kids outside playing or
building a house in the living room with chairs and a blanket or just exploring
the world around them. I know for myself, getting away from the TV or computer
and going for a run, walking the ½ mile to get the mail from our mailbox,
shooting baskets in the driveway, or even just sitting on the porch and watching and
listening to birds and lizards can really improve the way I feel both mentally
and physically. And it probably makes me more pleasant to be around as well.
