Unplugged
Remember your elementary school years? Dressing up as a princess or a pirate? Running around playing tag or make believe? There is a chance that today’s kids will not remember these activities because they are not participating in them. Studies have shown that more than 90% of kids are on a screens eight plus hours a day, this exceeds the two hour maximum that pediatricians recommend.
You may argue that an online coloring book or a game where kids virtually design their own house on a screen is just as creative as a physical task. Dr. Jackie Marsh has proven that drawing electronically does not give you the same outcome. Being creative improves motor skills, has cerebral benefits, improves your mental health and gives your child the pleasure of completing a masterpiece.
Kids are no longer using playgrounds. If you walk into a coffee shop or a restaurant you will often find children resembling zombies, staring endlessly at a screen watching a video or playing a game. Bad outcomes have resulted in this action. Recent studies have shown that toddlers and preteens obsessed with their screens damage parent/child relationships in the long run, create tension involving self-esteem, communication skills, induce failed deep personal relationships and reduce sleep.
When kids spend eight plus hours on their screens it tends to prevent sleep. Many ask why this happens. The answer? blue light. Blue light is the light emitted from your phone while it is in use. People associate darkness with sleep so when you bring blue light into the mix it disturbs your mental clock by simulating the sun with your screen. This causes young kids to get less sleep meaning they are more cranky and because they are young their brains and bodies do not develop as much.
We all know that even most high schoolers can not go the whole day without whipping out their phone to either check the time, social media or texts. The same is for younger kids, who are being affected now more than ever because they are growing up having instant access to their own personal screen their whole life.
Screen use starting at a young age is the root like mental illness and needing to have the perfect body image and obesity. It also causes kids to have anger issues and severe social anxiety.
Do you have a younger sister or brother, know a toddler or a preteen? The addiction to screens is real and it is not going away anytime soon. Help save your loved one from mental illnesses, social disconnection and sleep deprivation by unplugging these kids from the devices and bring them into the real world.
