Are Arizona Children Spending Too Much Time On Screens?

In 2007, Steve Jobs stood on a stage in front of the world, and changed it for good. He introduced the first iPhone, which in turn began the smartphone revolution.

This was a choice that both made us more connected as a species, and simultaneously tore us apart, and we're beginning to see the negative effects of that on our youth.

Attempting a Study

Kids these days are spending more time in front of screens than any generation in history. This has had both positive and negative impacts on their development, and the University of Arizona wanted to test just how prevalent screen time was in children's lives.

They realized that children's screen time was drastically changed around parents, so the team decided to measure screen time based on time spent with grandparents (who are not primary caregivers). Those selected for the study were on average around 55 years old, and took care of kids from ages two to ten.

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What They Found

The grandparents selected were told to monitor the screen time of the children they were looking after, as well as report on how they dealt with them, either being supervisory, instructive, restrictive or co-using. The results shocked even me.

According top the research, children in Arizona spent FOURTY NINE percent of the time they were observed in front of screens. While the university accepts that technology like this can be beneficial, they see this number as a rising concern. As this percentage rises, the connection we feel as a species will dissipate until screen time hits 100%, and genuine human interaction hits 0.

[University of Arizona][KJZZ]