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Development Delays Linked to Babies With Excessive Screen Time, Study Finds

https://gizmodo.com/development-delays-in-babies-linked-to-screen-time-1850759268

A new study found out of 7,000 babies surveyed, those with access to four or more hours of screen time a day didn't adequately develop social and motor skills.

Development Delays Linked to Babies With Excessive Screen Time, Study Finds::A new study found out of 7,000 babies surveyed, those with access to four or more hours of screen time a day didn't adequately develop social and motor skills.

15 comments

alienanimals

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The development delays are not because babies have excessive screen time, but rather because parents can't afford to spend time with their children. Articles and studies like this try to blame technology, when corporate interests are to blame. The US is one of the few countries worldwide that does not guarantee paid family leave.

The family iPad isn't the issue. It's your boss and the fact that all he cares about is maximizing profit.

turkalino

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The family iPad isn’t the issue

idk, i think you're too quick to dismiss this as a real issue. i don't disagree that overworked parents are a major factor, but going to restaurants, airports, and other places where parents are motivated to placate their children, you can't help but notice the amount of ipad parenting going on. sure, an hour here and there is harmless, but parents and kids both get addicted to the effectiveness and it easily becomes more than that

GyozaPower

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Yeah, I read the title and was like: if the babies are with the iPads, it's because their parents are not spending time with the babies.

Now the reason behind it, that's another story, but I agree that it's most likely having to work like a slave.

ZeroHora

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In other word the problem is cap...

Edgelord_Of_Tomorrow

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This is clearly an issue but they are compounding issues, not mutually exclusive ones.

If the parents are working the kids will be at childcare or school. The iPad use is when the parents have the children at home or out, it's a choice of the parents not to engage with their kids.

I'm a parent and I have zero issue doing washing, dishes, cooking, cleaning or any of my other housework while my kids "help" or are otherwise engaged, talking, singing etc. It is agonizing sometimes but that's the choice you make when you value your children.

Creamatine

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4 hours a day? That’s a crazy amount of time. Interact with your damn kids.

insaneinthemembrane

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"They noted that the babies exposed to more screen time were children of younger first-time mothers who had lower household incomes, lower maternal education levels, and suffered from postpartum depression."

It's not as simple as "interact with your kids".

afraid_of_zombies

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My kids got a lot of screen time when me and my mom got Covid.

joolez

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This is often a problem of getting just a baby because of the lifestyle attention. Here in Germany it's not uncommon that parents give their kid in daycare with the age of three because they can claim for a place. It's all about outsourcing responsibilities for "metime" and career. 4 hours screentime is just another symptom.

JoBo

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Oh look, a buried lede:

They noted that the babies exposed to more screen time were children of younger first-time mothers who had lower household incomes, lower maternal education levels, and suffered from postpartum depression.

There are plausible mechanisms of action proposed here but their >2 hours/day sub-samples were small, baseline risk of developmental delay very low (5%), and it is essentially impossible to control for all the factors which are associated with more screen time. The effects they're reporting here (of the order of 5% absolute difference) are not large compared to the influence of socioeconomic factors on these outcomes.

Full paper here with free pdf download for nicer format.

So, for all the parents out there who have little choice but to have a screen keep your kids occupied while you deal with everything else life is throwing at you, don't let this report load you up with more guilt. Get some quality time with them when you can and choose children's programming which uses and teaches proper language (Sesame Street, not the Teletubbies). But you're doing little to no harm however you choose to manage it.

Sirence

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db2

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Why would a baby need screen time? They're fascinated by jiggling keys ffs.

insaneinthemembrane

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It's not about the baby, plus they do move around as soon as they can and you cannot leave them for a minute.

afraid_of_zombies

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4 hours a day for a baby!? Mother of fuck

glockenspiel

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Others have pointed out that the article is jumping to conclusions by excluding the very and actually well documented economic factors at play here.

It is crunchy/granola technophobia. People need to keep in mind that popular (scientific, for the time) opinion used to be that excessive reading was had for children and adults. It is as old as our written records actually, going back to a handful of Greek historians warning about it even.

If people wanted the best for babies then we’d be raising them in collectives, with multigenerational households being the norm and free food, healthcare, and childcare widely available with few string attached. Some places already are close to all of those things.

But it is so much easier to clutch pearls and blame the iPad. It isn’t like brains shut off. They also used to argue that video games causes inadequate social and motor skill development and now fucking surgeons play games to build motor skills.

I’m sure we’ll hear that screentime proclaims “hail Satan” just as soon as they find a way to play the iPad in reverse.

dartos

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“In collectives” gives me big brave new world vibes.

alienanimals

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