Less Screen Time

I’m sure by now a lot of you have heard about the new recommendations from the World Health Organization (WHO) with regard to new screen time limits for young kids. When I first heard about the recommendations I thought it was about how much time kids stared at screens, but it has more to do with spending more time doing pretty much anything else. The WHO advisor said the sedentary screen time has a lot to do with childhood obesity and physical activity. I think the amount of screen time kids have has taken away from not only physical activity but social interaction as well.

It was noted that science hasn’t caught up with the worry that parents, families and people in general have about kid’s screen time. WHO also noted that not all screen time is bad; sitting or lying down and watching TV is not good, but dancing along with the TV is.

I have to admit that my own screen time is way too much when I figure in TV, computer, tablet and cell phone. I always thought I wouldn’t be the person who drags out their phone when out to dinner, or – because I’m on a computer all day – wouldn’t check emails, message, etc. when I got home from work. Yeah right. I got sucked into spending more time looking at a screen now more than ever.

It does make you ask yourself why. I know we all need these devices in connection with helping us do our jobs at work, but playing games, watching YouTube videos or scrolling through social media doesn’t help.

I guess that even as adults we need to check how much time we spend staring at a screen, and monitor how it has affected our own physical activity and social engagements.

We should be a good example to the kids.