How About a Media Diet?

09/17/2013

Thought flows in terms of stories - stories about events, stories about people, and stories about intentions and achievements. The best teachers are the best storytellers. We learn in the form of stories.
Frank Smith

The dangers of too much screen time for young children are well documented by the American Academy of Pediatrics:

Watching too much television makes kids more likely to be overweight.
It interferes with executive function and increases the risk of attentional problems.
If children watch programming that contains sex, it can make them have sex earlier.
It can make them more aggressive.
And ... a study from New Zealand states that the more television you watch as a child, the more likely you are to have a criminal conviction, a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder, or more aggressive personality traits as an adult.

However, with all the messaging about cutting down children's screen time, not much is changing. So now some pediatricians, such as Dr Dimitri Christakis at Seattle Children's Hospital, are urging parents to develop "media diets" with their children — guiding them to avoid violent and sexual content and focus more on prosocial programming.

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