You know I think, I think as a parent you have to be present in your kid’s lives in terms of media. So I think what’s a problem is when your kid goes in their room and closes the door and disappears for two hours, you’re not really monitoring how they’re, what ideas are passing through their head and how they’re processing that. So it’s not, for me it’s not so much the time but what’s on the screen.
And I’m not talking about predator behavior, I’m just talking about mindless behavior. And also about peer pressure which I think is really a problem, I think cyber bullying is a tragic thing that’s happened as a result of social media that none of us anticipated. So I think as a parent you have to really be interactive, not so much perspective, not you can only have an hour of screen time a day.
I think that’s the go to behavior for parents you know, you just limit the time. But it’s more what are you doing on the screen, what are you watching, is there some quality to it? Is it kind, does it have a kindness in nature because I think there’s a lot of…particularly when kids get to middle school and high school I think there’s a lot of screen time that’s used for not very humane pursuits you know.
So I think that, that being present and being a collaborator in their use of social media is more important than limiting, than putting a physical limit on what they’re doing.
A really tough time to be a parent because what that requires, what it requires is of a parent is to also keep abreast so if you learn about Snapchat two years after, it doesn’t do you any good. So, and of course all of us who are, who are not digital natives it’s a scramble to keep up you know. Each new skill that you have to learn with your smartphone or with your computer is exhausting.
So, but you do, I think it’s imperative to keep up with the content and with the trends in what kids are, and how they’re using media.
