Screen Time – The New Normal
All life forms adapt themselves according to their circumstances and human beings are the quickest creatures to do so. Our lives have taken an unexpected turn in the last few months. To begin with, we were not allowed to go out of our safe havens but gradually even as the curbs are eased, we don’t step out of the house unless it’s necessary. Never have I witnessed such discipline and restraint being observed by my countrymen. Fear of survival forces you to behave in a particular fashion. Thus as the eateries are closed, we cook mouth-watering dishes at home with equal elan.
Cinema halls are shut, so we shift to OTTs and streaming services to fulfill our entertainment appetite. The gyms and parks are out of bounds, we make use of mobile apps to work out in the confines of our homes. The schools and colleges cannot be opened, we start classes online and teach the children through the virtual world. Thus every student must have his or her smartphone, iPad, or laptop. Gone are the days when we used to chide them for spending so much time watching the screen. Screen time is the amount of time spent watching a device with a screen. There have been innumerable studies as to how much time could be spent watching screens without causing harm.
The recommendation for maximum time on a digital device is 1-2 hours for children. A faulty posture may cause chronic backache, and neck pain, and prolonged viewing results in various ocular ailments and lack of physical activity leads to childhood obesity, a matter of great concern. All those theories have gone for a toss. The new normal requires the children to acquire knowledge through e –classroom. There isn’t any interaction with the teacher or the peers. Even adults are required to WFH (work from home). So the scenario in a given household is both the parents are working from home or having a video conference in two separate rooms and the child in the third room trying to gain knowledge.
What if he dozes off? What if he is exposed to forbidden content? The Internet exposes you to everything under the Sun and beyond, so how can we monitor what pops up on his screen? The televisions are equipped with a safety feature called child lock but children are so smart that they can very easily remove it. So the risk of premature exposure to unwanted things is always there. Television, once upon a time, was described as an “idiot box” because people remained glued to it unmindful of the time spent. I believe the habit of reading books among children has disappeared only because of the screen. While reading, you have to imagine the story that you are reading but with the screen, it is readily available and thus it’s a powerful medium for impressionable young minds.
Exposure to screens has greatly increased for adults too. Those who are not required to work through screens, the older generation, spend time watching daily soaps, news channels, and social media. So the very people who should disallow children to watch screens are doing it themselves so often. In my school days, we were made to write an essay on- “Science-a boon or bane”. After discussing all the pros and cons, we used to prove that if used judiciously Science is a boon but if we forget its rational use, it can spell doom. The age-old theory still holds for screen time as well.
Dr. Manisha Shembekar
MD, DA
Joint Managing Director
Omega Hospital, Nagpur