
By Gavin Boyle
Ginny Eurich, M.Ed., a homeschooling mom of five, combats rising screen time by creating a schedule that gets her children to spend at least 1,000 hours outside every year.
“At some point in our society, screen time was limited automatically. The screens turned off, the cartoons were over at noon on a Saturday, and so it’s tricky because now the parent has to be the one that is in charge of that,” Eurich told Fox News Digital. “The teacher has to be the one in charge of that, but it really is worthwhile.”
“Do what you can to do as much hands-on living as you can during the day,” the mom and podcaster added, explaining how to fill up the day without screens. “Have friends over, bake food, have these long play dates that extend for all the meals. Go out in your neighborhood, go on a hike, get out all the water toys, get out the hose, and you do all these things that kids love. And then what happens is, when the day closes, you’ve run out of time for screens.”
While not every family will be able to reach the 1,000 hour mark depending on a variety of factors, generally, the less screen time for kids, the better. At this point, an overwhelming amount of research proves that across the board, high screen time correlates to numerous negative outcomes when it comes to brain development, including worse impulse control, slower cognitive development, difficulties sleeping and more.
Related: Are Child Screen Time and Mental Health Issues Correlated? It’s Complicated…
“Studies have found that people with high levels of short-form video addiction are less sensitive to loss and more impulsive with their decision making,” Qiang Wang, the author of a recent study into the impact of short-form conten,t told PsyPost. “This suggests that they may underestimate the long-term costs of swip[ing] short videos (e.g. time waste, sleep problems), and focus more on immediate pleasure.”
Meanwhile, lawmakers have started to take action to protect children from the dangers of screens and social media in particular. In response to then Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s call for a Surgeon General’s warning to be placed on social media in June of 2024, numerous states have since passed legislation banning cellphones in school.
Whether it be through the work of parents like Eurich or lawmakers, our country is slowly clawing back the hold technology has on our lives and saving our kids from the detrimental effects too much screen time can have.
Read Next: Is Everyone in Favor of School Cell Phone Bans?
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