Trinitonian 19

PARENTING ADVICE
SCREEN BUSTERS
It’s easy to allow kids to stay on a screen all day because you are
busy, because they are bored, and because it’s just less stressful
that way, but here’s what should make you pause.
By Margot Bertelsmann
“Screen time” gets a terrible rap.
You’re supposed to hate it, and
pretend your child has very little
of it, even as you return from
your own eight-hours-at-thecomputer-screen
job, hoping
to spend the evening catching
an episode of your latest Netflix
addiction, order Uber eats for
dinner and FaceTime your sister
in Australia.
So let’s not start another piece
of parenting advice with a litany
of woes. Actually, the internet is
an amazing receptacle of all
the knowledge human beings
have ever gathered, a minor
miracle, which you can access
via a screen small enough to fit
in your pocket. Most of us use
screens in our work, definitely for
entertainment, and as much as
26 | The Trinitonian
social media can be dangerous
or nasty, it can also provide a
space of safety, connection and
belonging to those who feel
on the margins in some way -
including our children. What’s
more, many of us only survived
the pandemic because we were
able to work and be schooled
from home. Lastly, living a
screen-free, internet-less life is
just unrealistic in a world that is
moving online at a pace that will
still transform our daily lives even
in our (middle- aged) lifetimes.
However.
There are undoubtedly dangers
to be aware of as we migrate,
via augmented reality, towards
a metaverse in which our
screenagers’ online existence is
as “real” as the physical world
around us.
Broadly, there are physical
and psychological hazards to
screens. Because they are more
easily quantifiable, let’s start with
the physical dangers.
PHYSICAL EFFECTS OF SCREEN
TIME
Focusing for a long time on
a small screen can damage
your eyes, and ways to mitigate
against that includes getting
your eyes tested, coating
spectacles with anti-reflective
coating, and adjusting your
computer’s settings to reduce
blue light, contrast, font
smoothing and flicker. You can
download blue light filter and eye
protection software, for instance
from https://iristech.co/.