Sharing screen time with kids can be good parenting

The annual Brigham Young and Deseret News American Family Survey has revealed that over use of technology has been taken over by the other harmful social factors like drugs and bullying and this has become the biggest parental worry in recent times. Many might think what can be done about such a problem. Temple University professor, Jordan Shapiro who has a background of philosophy and psychology has prescription that might surprise many people.Shapiro in his new book The New Childhood has mentioned and argued that parents are not spending enough screen time with their kids.

The author said, “One of the things I suggest in the book is that kids should be starting on social media much younger”, and added that they must play more games with their kids. Shapiro parented two boys solo who are now 11 and 13 and were obsessed with games. He started to play the games with them just to connect with them. This helped the single parent discover the connections and the interactive story telling on the screen.

During his interaction between the kids and the games, he realized that his job as a parent was to help the children to make sense of their online experiences and teach them how to uphold the values in the new world that they are living in at present. Now he has become serious about the intersection of child development and digital media as a senior fellow for the Joan Ganz Cooney Centre at Sesame Workshop as well as the nonresident fellow in the centre for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution.

Shapiro has argued that the technology is indeed a part of our lives and it can be used in a positive way to bring a good change. For instance, family dinners are usually device-free and no one should be watching YouTube videos all the time. But there are also many times when our conversations necessitate pulling up of a YouTube video.

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