Screen Time Quotes

“People sitting all day for hours looking at a glowing light are bound to get ran over like a deer in headlights.”
― Richie Norton

“Our resistance to digital play is just like Socrates's resistance to writing. It is futile. Your kids need your help. And it's easy to provide. Parents, children, and families just need to start playing in the digital world together.”
― Jordan Shapiro, The New Childhood: Raising Kids to Thrive in a Connected World

“Twenge finds that there are just two activities that are significantly correlated with depression and other suicide-related outcomes (such as considering suicide, making a plan, or making an actual attempt): electronic device use (such as smartphone, tablet, or computer) and watching TV. On the other hand, there are five activities that have inverse relationships with depression (meaning that kids who spend more hours per week on these activities show lower rates of depression): sports and other forms of exercise, attending religious services, reading books and other print media, in-person social interactions, and doing homework.

Notice anything about the difference between the two lists? Screen versus nonscreen. When kids use screens for two hours of their leisure time per day or less, there is no elevate risk of depression. But above two hours per day, the risks grow larger with each additional hour of screen time. Conversely, kids who spend more time off screens, especially if they are engaged in nonscreen social activities, are at lower risk for depression and suicidal thinking.”
― Greg Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt

“Latency is all about socialisation, making friends, and developing independence; if children are glued to screens, they are at risk of becoming socially isolated.”
― BJ Beatty, Unplugged Parenting: How to Reconnect with Your Teen and Break Screen Addiction Without Power Struggles, Punishment, or Losing Your Mind

“Most parents wouldn’t dream of handing a biscuit tin to their child every day and letting them help themselves to as many biscuits as they want. But many parents don’t think twice about giving their child unregulated access to a digital device”
― BJ Beatty, Unplugged Parenting: How to Reconnect with Your Teen and Break Screen Addiction Without Power Struggles, Punishment, or Losing Your Mind

“The numbing effects of scrolling down an endless newsfeed are both the problem and its own relief. Over time, this works to delirious effect. Periodically, after long projects or particularly lengthy binges, I feel saturated and dissociate. No longer able to process information, I let my unread messages pile up in my inbox and notifications from friends accumulate whilst I lie for hours on my sofa during the weekends, unable to do anything, but unable to do nothing either.”
― Olivia Yallop, Break the Internet: The Truth About Influencers

“He was gazing down at his phone, his shoulders tense, his spine curling toward it.

She had the urge to call out to him, startle him with her voice: What’s in your phone that isn’t right here in front of you?

There is a naked person in your bed. There is a breeze in the yard.

Yet she knew there was plenty in his phone that wasn’t right here in front of him. The entire universe.”
― Helen Phillips, Hum