4 Ways to Regulate the Time Spent by Families Using Electronic Devices
Many families spend much time watching TV or using social media during the pandemic, but it's time to collaborate with your children to adopt healthier habits when using the media.
According to a survey conducted in the United States in March 2020, more than 80% of parents were unable to take care of their children as a result of the consequences of the pandemic of the closure of schools and childcare centers, while a third of them continued to work during the pandemic.
At the same time, a recent study indicated that the pressure of childcare was accompanied by a significant increase in the tendency of children to spend more time following the media due to the lack of sufficient support for the care of their children, as many of them were suffering under the pressure of stress and low level of mental healthl.
Ectronic devices were a last resort for them, but under these circumstances, educating parents about the risks and disadvantages of their children's use of electronic devices will not lead to more than their sense of guilt, according to the study's author and professor of psychology at Boston College, Joshua K. Joshua K. Hartshorne and colleagues.
Another recent study of parents in Central Valley, California, pointed to the parents' struggle with their children spending too much time in front of TV or smartphones during the pandemic. One mother says: "It harms all parents in the Central Valley area," while another explained: "I don't really like my children spending so much time using electronic devices, but then I say: "What else can they do? "
Parents are indeed aware of the potential benefits of electronic devices, which are reflected in helping their children communicate with their friends and learn how to use technology. Still, they expressed concern about the long time spent by their children in front of the TV screen or the use of social media, and find it a form of addiction, in addition to reducing their children's physical activity.
Spending a lot of time using electronic devices during the pandemic was not limited to children, but it extended to adulxts as well. With limited options, adults resorted to electronic devices, especially after the imposition of curfews, and there was a sharp increase in the time they spent watching TV and using social media. Still, it was found that people who changed their habits in light of the COVID-19 pandemic by watching more TV shows and movies, and spending more time using social media, such as Facebook and Instagram tend to be less happy.
However, as curfews and lockdowns wind down and schools return to welcome students in the fall, it may come to your mind whether it's time to help your family reduce the time they spend behind the screen, but acquiring new habits can be hard work.
Strategies for Regulate the Time Spent by Families Using Electronic Devices
1. Parents staying away from the use of electronic devices
Parents who spend a lot of time watching TV or using social media tend to do the same. If you really intend to help your children, ask yourself: “What is your position on using electronic devices?”
Even before the pandemic, research indicated that parents used to spend a lot of time using their smartphones for various reasons, especially when they were stressed. Most parents say they use smartphones as a mental and emotional escape from dealing with the obstacles they face in raising their children.
For example, someone says: "My son was screaming and crying, so I went to my room and closed the door on myself, and I started using my smartphone to distract myself from the situation I was in."
Parents who resort to the virtual world to escape reality tend to feel more pressure and try to distract their minds using their smartphones, which leads to a sense of more guilt from doing so, and face massive difficulty in exercising their duties as parents.
However, parents also use their phones to get the social support they need, such as asking someone else to help them with how to behave with their children in a particular situation. Parents who use their phones to get support tend to be more responsible when caring for their children and feel less guilty when using their mobile phones.
When parents need immediate advice, some use a mobile phone to research topics, such as how to communicate with their baby, or what activities they can do with their children.
Parents sometimes use their phones to calm themselves so as not to cause any harm. "My son was going through a terrible tantrum, and I was trying to calm myself down so I wouldn't yell at him,” one mother explains, as well as checking their phones while their children were busy watching TV or using social media, such as checking their email while their children were watching cartoons on YouTube.
These results suggest that the time we spend using electronic devices is certainly not bad overall, so it would be good to start by understanding the patterns of your habits and deciding what to change from them.
2. Attempting Self-Compassion
It is difficult to reach perfection when it comes to raising and caring for children, but it puts parents under devastating pressure, especially during the pandemic. If your criticism of yourself revolves around the long time your children spend behind the screen, do not be harsh with yourself then, but sympathize with it.
Self-compassion can be a healthy way to overcome stress in general and the problems related to your children spending a lot of time in front of the TV or behind the screen of the mobile phone in particular.
Instead of scolding yourself when you feel tired, try to treat yourself gently as a close friend would have treated you, then remember that you are not the only one who faces obstacles in raising his children, as most parents in fact had been subjected to tremendous pressure last year.
Finally, practice being vigilant by observing what is going on in your mind from thoughts, feelings, and emotions, and accept yourself instead of criticizing them.
Self-compassion training not only reduces feelings of guilt and shame caused by the stress of caring for children, it also increases parents' flexibility in dealing with their children and enhances their hopes, especially under challenging circumstances.
3. Looking at things in a balanced way
According to researchers at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Rebekah Willett and Nathan Wheeler, people use language to express themselves and the world around them.
In a recent study, they interviewed parents and analyzed how they talked about their children's use of electronic devices during their daily lives.
Willett and Wheeler showed that all parents participating in their study find the effects of media use negative, which worries them and leads them to censor their children's use of them, as well as contradictions in their opinions about the impact of media on their children.
In their latest book, Parenting for a Digital Future: How Hopes and Fears about Technology Shape Children's Life, researchers Sonia Livingstone and Alicia Blum-Ross warned against amplifying the problems associated with using electronic devices, which would make you hostile to your children and exaggerate the censorship of the time they spend behind TV screens and smartphones.
Instead, Livingstone and Bloom Ross suggest a more comprehensive way to accommodate children's use of electronic devices through three dimensions: the content of what they watch on TV screens, smartphones, or other electronic devices, where they use electronic devices, when they do it, how they do it, and how it affects their social relationships. In other words, they wanted to know if the electronic devices develop or undermine social relationships.
As part of Livingston and Bloom Ross's recommendations for parents, they asked a series of questions that enable you to determine whether your child's use of electronic devices is really a problem:
- Is my child in good physical health and getting enough sleep?
- Does my child socialize with friends and family in any form?
- Is my child doing well at school?
- Does my child pursue interests and hobbies of any kind or form?
- Does my child learn and have fun while using media?
If the answer to most of the questions above is “yes”, then it is possible for parents to reconsider their concerns about their children's use of media and whether they are justified or not.
However, if the answer to most of the questions is “no”, then parents should establish household rules to solve the problem of their children's misuse of electronic devices.
4. Cooperating with children to set goals that will rationalize the use of electronic devices
Researchers Meghan Owenz and Blaine Fowers recently developed a practical framework to enable families to improve their use of electronic devices by setting goals that promote wellness and self-development.
Start by setting goals that will help you focus on the positive results you seek to reach, instead of refraining from doing what is harmful to you.
For example, instead of setting a goal to reduce spending a long time using electronic devices, you can allocate time to play outside and enjoy the outdoors. This would replace the time you would have spent in front of the TV or browsing social networking sites, which leads to the development of positive thoughts and feelings, in addition to the ease of its implementation and commitment to it and its role in promoting wellness.
Some areas that parents may want to set goals related to are social activities, play, outdoor activities, independent work, and teaching their children to read and write.
Then, instead of pursuing your goals alone, work with your family members to achieve them. Parents often tend to limit their children's use of electronic devices by imposing strict rules without involving them in decision-making.
One of the problems associated with individual goals is that they lead to conflicts between parents and children.
In contrast, setting a common goal leads to your family members working together to perform homework or engage in recreational activities. Shared goals will strengthen the relationship between parents and children because they urge them to work as a team.
Finally, try to reach the goals that the process of achieving in itself is helpful to you. Imposing strict rules to oblige your children to reduce the time they spend in front of television screens or the use of smartphones will only teach them to adhere to the rules.
Therefore, try to choose the goals that the journey to reach will build your child's skills and help them to know their potential. For example, you can motivate your children to read by allocating time to read stories, which is a common activity between parents and children. Alternatively, you can make them listen to audiobooks as an independent activity.
Reading together as a family, and discussing what you have read together is not just a way to reduce the time of using electronic devices, but it enhances the passion for reading, and improves the child's ability to understand the thoughts and feelings of others.
As we try to change our daily habits, parents can take a balanced approach with themselves and their children to achieve this.
Brenda Hassingerdas, professor of psychology at Pace University, and her colleagues expalins in recent in-depth research on children and electronic devices that recommendations on how children can ideally use electronic devices are actually not appropriate for all families, as they are difficult to follow by parents and teachers all the time.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to solve the problem of children spending long periods watching TV or browsing social networking sites, as it requires a lot of creativity and patience, and the family works to achieve it as a team.