Don’t Be Mean About Screens

Technology is here and here to stay. There are voices every where all the time telling us about the latest app or game that is detrimental to our young people’s health and development. There is guidelines and advice from every which direction about how to limit and monitor our children’s online use. Just this week I had an invitation in my inbox to a session about addressing the things that are accessible to our teens online and how to steer them clear of it all.

Tools of A Generation

There are a great many things that we could panic about when it comes to screens and screen time. It’s a moral panic as old as time itself (I don’t know that for sure but I do have a few documented examples from times that we have records for)

Did you know that Socrates (470 – 399 BC) was recorded as saying that writing would “create forgetfulness…because we will not use our memories?”

According to Malesherbes (18^th Century) Newspapers “Socially isolates its readers.”

The wireless (1936) “distracts children from reading and diminished performance in education.”

And email “hursts IQ more than pot.”

And I cannot help but feel that with every new generation to come and every new generation that preceded there was/ will be a new thing that raises concerns. The new tools of each generation is usually approached with caution and concern from the generation before.

When we are unschooling and following our children’s interests we cannot ignore that screens are a huge part of their lives. Using technology to discover more about the world, discover the answer to any given question, interact with friends, develop a skill or learn something new, is a dominant feature in our educational approach.

Investing in Our Children’s Joy

The concept of ‘screen time’ becomes unhelpful as we embrace the notion that learning is everywhere and everything is learning. That there is no hierarchy of educational value between any chosen activity, and that when our children are engaged in an activity, no matter what that activity is, they are engaged in learning.

George (aged 7) is a big technology user. His primary activity of choice is always via his tablet. He plays games, he learns Minecraft parodies, he watches YouTube videos, he manages his various accounts, and fixes small technology-based problems. He watches DVDs, Netflix, and CBBC. We google places and people and questions together. We plan visits and buy tickets and put items on his wish list. He plays Minecraft with his friends. He spends time videoing Lego dramas which he creates, Minecraft games and stop frame animation which he then edits and loads onto YouTube. It would be wrong to say that everything that he does in life involves technology but even the interests that he follows (like investigating growing mould and creating a “Total Wipeout” course in the back garden) are ideas that were generated by watching something.

Sarah (age 11) uses technology to connect with friends. They play Roblox together or watch shows together. They sit and chat as they draw, paint, trampoline, tumble, craft and even brush their teeth together. They share memes and video themselves practicing their Cheerleading routines and ask for feed back from the rest of the team. She uses it to look up hairstyles and make up tips and she has recently asked for a drawing tablet.

Phillipa (age 14) loves gaming. They regularly download new games and spend concentrated amounts of time mastering the game play or completing the tasks. They invest their money in equipment and items that improve their skill. They review games and invite their friends to join them on the ones that they recommend. They organise their time around which game they are playing with who and when.

The number of activities and reasons that we use technology are expanding constantly. It is not a case of ‘screens’ being bad across the board. Once we truly lean into what our children are using those screens for then we can begin to separate the device from the activity and the learning that is taking place. And one of the ways that we can do that is to be involved in your child’s activities. Hopefully in the same way that you are when you read stories together, play cars, climb trees, and paint pictures.

Embracing Technology and Supporting Our Children’s Interests

The only way that I can write about what the above children are using technology for is because I am involved in their day to day. We do life together.

Being involved in our children’s lives means:

• Being curious about what they are doing;
• Downloading the games that they are playing for yourself and giving it a go;
• Reading the daily challenges for them and then follow up to find out how they did;
• Listening when they tell me about what they are doing (even if I don’t understand it;) Accepting their invitation to play or witness their playing.

Once we take steps away from being fearful about this new thing and working with our children to explore the possibilities then our children can engage with it on neutral terms, like collecting sticks, or playing with friends at the park, reading a book, or playing dollies. Once we adopt a tech positive attitude and remove tension and shame around screen use then our children can interact with ease and joy. This style of engagement, in a relaxed environment, with a supportive and involved adult effects the quality of their learning and they explore and use the tools of their generation to further their skills, knowledge and understanding of the world in which they are growing up in.