Kids’ Screen Time has Increased 500% During the Pandemic

Today we are talking about the world’s children because they’re screentime thanks to the pandemic, has increased by five hundred percent. So with that, let’s discuss the concerns and the implications of all of this. And for that, we’re going to turn to an article by James Lang of Next Gov. And I thought this was really fascinating. And so here we are. A recent survey of more than 3000 parents found that screen time for their kids has increased.

Now, interestingly enough, the World Health Organization, or WHO, actually released a guideline for screen times for kids in April of 2019 over a year ago, entitled Guidelines on Physical Activity, Sedentary Behavior and Sleep for Children under Five Years of Age.

And obviously, this guide seems more relevant than ever. Given that a lot of the planet is on lockdown now. In the late 1990s or so, when we really started getting the computer revolution, if you will, with screens and monitors and all of that children between the ages of three and five years old, we’re averaging two and a half hours per day with their various screens. This number has gone up over the years, obviously, depending on the age group, because we have adopted more a more mobile use, rather, of technology.

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And so by virtue of that, phones and tablets are essentially ruling the day, not to mention the play stations and X boxes and intend those of the world. So now what screentime rules basically that families had put in place by virtue of just, you know, enforcing screen time for their kids essentially has been put on hold, according to this survey, since about mid-March of 2020, when pretty much we all went on lockdown.

Now, this research was focused on families in the United States. But I think this is pretty much true worldwide because, again, we have mobile technology and X boxes all over the planet. Now, the problem occurs when excessive attention to screen basically crowds out other learning and behavior. So, for example, a child watching YouTube, for example, on his or her phone when they’re supposed to be, you know, in a classroom studying or something like that, they’re really not focusing in on honing other skills, like writing, for example, or mastering new vocabulary. So by virtue of that, you know, the study urges that teachers. And obviously, as we are going back to school, it becomes relevant. Teachers should consider how to cultivate better attention to those behaviors rather than trying to eliminate all of the distractions.

We are naturally distracted by things. But the goal is to have a temporary distraction, come back, focus and hone, whereas a screen tends to draw that distraction out. And that’s a very serious problem in parents. You’re not off the hook here, too, because parents should not view screen time necessarily as the enemy of their children, which I found interesting.

Parents do need to be wary of the impact of express excessive screen time on things like eye health and how much sleep their kids are getting. And so by virtue of that, here is a breakdown of what our kids should be limited to and what is actually happening in real life. Now, this is coming from that WHL study. And so if if your child is, let’s say, zero to 18 months, you shouldn’t have any screen time whatsoever for that child. But realistically, in real life, these kids are averaging 42 minutes a day from 18 to 24 months.

They’re supposed to have very limited exposure to this. A parent is actually joining in and interacting with them while they’re holding and playing on a tablet or whatever. They are also experiencing about 42 minutes per day. You know, realistically, kids, two out of five should have no more than an hour daily.

They are right now in real life looking at two hours and thirty nine minutes per day of screen time. And then if you go from six to six years old to 18 years old. Basically, the guideline is that there is no specific limit on screen time that you need to be putting there. You know, providing that that screen time is is not interfering with physical activity or sleep or obviously education and all of that. However, if you break down what’s happening in real life from six to eight years older, kids are getting two hours and 56 minutes a day.

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The teenagers in our lives are getting seven hours and 22 minutes of screen time per day. Understand the fact that these numbers have increased by virtue of the pandemic and studies are showing five hundred percent increases because, quite frankly, a lot of parents have to work. And if we’re working remote and the kids are home and all of that, the Nintendo becomes the babysitter or YouTube or whatever that is. So I think that’s something that we need to consider. Now, the question becomes, and should parents worry if their children are spending more time? Basically online. There you go. I mean, here’s the problem and here’s the thing, the answer is no, we really shouldn’t be worried as long as we don’t allow these screentime. This massive increases, five percent increase in screentime dühring the pandemic. We don’t allow those habits to morph into a permanent screentime habit when we are all mess just done with this mess.

Let’s put it that way. And so they urge you to stick to the to the WHL guidelines, especially for younger children that are still forming their minds, more so than, let’s say, an 18 year old. So I think it’s very important. I wouldn’t be afraid per the guidelines and the studies that have been done of this is excessive screen time. Just make sure you’re not making it a habit and just make sure that the other activities, physical education, whatever that is, and especially sleep, are prioritized over screen time, know letting Junior stay up till one a.m., you know, when Junior is supposed to be getting, let’s say, eight to 10 hours a night. And I think that’s that’s pretty good.

But in the meantime, if your kids are watching a ton of this, especially, let’s say if they’re older, let’s say six years old and up. That is actually going to be okay. Just make sure it’s not interfering with those other things. And don’t make it a habit when this lockdown and this pandemic hopefully is over sooner than later. And I thought that was really interesting. And so heads up, parents out there. This is what’s going on. This is what’s happening to your kids.

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ICYMI: Your TWL Weekend News Roundup

White House’s Misguided Campaign Against Fauci

• The White House’s effort to discredit infectious disease expert and White House Coronavirus Task Force member Dr. Anthony Fauci ramped up this week. The White House issued a statement saying that several administration officials were “concerned about the number of times Dr. Fauci has been wrong on things.”
• The White House tried to downplay the statement, saying it was simply an answer to a “direct question.”
• But outside Trump economic adviser Stephen Moore is reportedly working on his own anti-Fauci memo titled “Dr. Wrong.”
• A number of Republican Trump allies publicly backed Fauci this week, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told reporters in Kentucky that he has “total” confidence in Fauci.
• Still, the White House’s misguided effort continued with trade adviser Peter Navarro penning a scathing op-ed against Fauci in USA Today.
• Fauci, for his part, told the Atlantic that efforts to discredit him are a “major mistake” that ultimately hurts President Trump.

Just Wear A Dang Mask!

• Wearing a mask in public is one of the easiest ways we can prevent the spread of the coronavirus. And a number of governors and businesses have come around to the idea this week.
• Walmart became the largest retailer in the U.S. to require masks in its stores.
• Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) instituted a mask mandate in her state as cases there surge. Colorado and Arkansas followed suit.
• There were, however, a couple notable exceptions. After testing positive for coronavirus, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said he wasn’t considering a mask mandate at all. And Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp took things a step further, explicitly banning mask mandates in his state and filing a lawsuit against the city of Atlanta over its mask requirement.

Trump To The Rescue For Gun-Toting St. Louis Couple?

• St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner slammed President Trump and Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) on Tuesday for attempting to meddle in a case involving a couple who waved their guns at a crowd of peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters.
• “Today, both the Governor and Donald Trump came after me for doing my job and investigating a case,” Gardner said in a statement.
• On Thursday, a lawyer representing the couple said that he had been in contact with the White House amid Gardner’s investigation.
• “I’ve been in direct contact with the (White House) chief of staff,” Watkins said when asked if he had heard from the White House regarding the investigation.

Walmart Moves To Require Customers to Wear Masks At All of its Stores

The company said the policy will go into effect on Monday to allow time to inform stores and customers.

Walmart is now requiring customers to wear masks at all of its stores, as well as its Sam’s Club locations, making it the largest retailer to introduce a policy, that has seen as difficult to enforce without federal and state mandates.

Walmart has said the policy will go into effect Monday, allowing time for them to inform stores and customers. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company said that currently about 65% its more than 5,000 stores and clubs are located in areas where there is already some form of government mandate on face coverings.

The retailer also said it will create the role of health ambassador at its Walmart stores and will station them near the entrance to remind customers without masks of its new requirements. These workers, who will be wearing black polo shirts, will receive special training to “help make the process as smooth as possible for customers.”

The moves come as new COVID-19 cases are spiking in many states, particularly Arizona, California, Florida and Texas. Retailers have been challenged with striking a balance between keeping shoppers safe while making them feel comfortable.

Last week, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, which represents Walmart, Best Buy and other major chains, publicized a letter it sent to state governors to mandate store customers to wear face coverings. It said the hodgepodge of rules around the country have created confusion for shoppers and that has led to conflict between customers and workers trying to enforce store rules.

Trump administration officials seek to discredit Dr. Fauci

It has become apparent that the White House has been seeking to discredit Dr. Fauci. Dr. Fauci has made many different statements throughout the course of the Pandemic, trying to keep in line with the current course of the virus, at one point in time, the White House is reminding people that he said that the Coronavirus is “not a major threat” and that people do not need to be walking with masks. Fauci recently said that “We’re going in the wrong direction”. Trump appears to be irked by this matter, stating that the United States is “doing great”.

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In his original testimony, Fauci stated that we were (at the time) seeing 40,000 cases per day. Fauci stated that those number of cases could rise to 100,000 cases per day if we were not careful. As was stated previously, just because Fauci was wrong on those aspects previously, doesn’t mean that his stance on the virus was incorrect at the time that he was saying those things, the surgeon general, and the CDC also recommended against people wearing masks, at the time, because they simply didn’t think that they were necessary and that people didn’t know how to wear them.

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Adm. Brett Giroir, the nation’s top testing official, stated that Dr. Fauci is not 100% right, in light of Fauci’s recent comments that states should pause reopening where coronavirus cases are spiking. ​

“I respect Dr. Fauci a lot, but Dr. Fauci is not 100 percent right, and he also doesn’t necessarily, he admits that, have the whole national interest in mind.”

USA Today points out that the increase in Coronavirus cases has not come from either protests or simply put more people being outside, but, acknowledges that lack of a mask-mandate might be one of the causes for the recent surge of cases. Arizona for instance did not have one until recently. ​

“As things opened up, a lot of folks may not have fully understood all the practices we should continue,” stated Dr. Joshua LaBaer, the Director of the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University. “When I go out on the weekend, I see lots of people walking around without masks. Not long ago, I passed a soccer game with clusters of parents chatting without masks as if there’s no pandemic going on.”

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Matt Wynn and Jayme Fraser states we might not know until a couple of weeks at the time of writing whether the protests were contributing to the surge, and, that if you start to have bunches of people gathering in crowds, then, you might have another outbreak on your hands. It seems to be that while Dr. Fauci might be taking one point of view, that reopening by the states is causing the surge, there might be other factors that might impact how successful or unsuccessful the states are terms of reopening– such as the policies that they have in place at that point in time.

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COVID-19 UPDATE: A Second Shutdown Coming Very Soon

While many have been paying attention to the news and other major stories. The emphasis is returning to the fact that the government including President Trump bungled the epidemic from the start and may be forced to endure a second shutdown.

If this happens it will mean that we wasted the months and trillion dollars of spending for nothing.

Along those lines I’m looking now at a press release for a Meet the Press interview this morning with Admiral Brett Giroir, a key Trump administration pandemic official. Asked about calls for another shutdown Giroir says: “I don’t think we need to shut down, at least in most places around the country.”

This is obviously meant to push back on the idea. But it is quite revealing that one of the few Trump administration officials the White House still allows to go on TV is himself conceding that it may be necessary in significant portions of the country.

We’re learning more and more about what really drives COVID spread. The problem is that once you have exponential growth in a region you often need to take short-term, drastic action to get the situation under control. Then you can do what he says and be okay: Tight limits on in-door congregation, universal masking, social distancing, much tighter filtration in in-door air ventilation, hand hygiene. The problem is that what can keep spread in check can’t necessarily get it under control when it’s in growing exponentially – or at least not nearly quick enough.

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This is the tragedy of our catastrophically bungled national response. We were supposed to use the lockdown, achieved at such immense sacrifice, to make all this possible. We didn’t. Not in most of the country.

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