Tuesday, Oct 25

After yesterday's article about more animals dying and being slaughtered (even with bans prohibiting that and what not) I was relieved to see no articles about animals today - whether good or bad. I did, however, come across an article about children spending too much time in front of screens (TV screens, iPad screens, video game screens, etc). I found the following quote to be pretty interesting... "Despite the American Academy of Pediatrics’ longstanding recommendations to the contrary, children under 8 are spending more time than ever in front of screens..." Personally, I've seen so many children under the age of ten or so given "iPad time" for the more affluent or "TV time" for the less affluent (according to the article that is how the break up between screens is made) whether it be when I'm babysitting or teaching tennis lessons. I taught lessons to a family from NYC this summer and the mother always came and watched the lessons on Saturdays and Sundays. She usually brought her daughter along to the tennis courts and if she behaved, she was rewarded with five or ten minutes on the iPad. I just remember always being outside and doing things when I was younger and rarely remember being rewarded with TV or computer time even though I know it was common even then. I'm interested to see how the "app gap" as researchers are calling this age group of children with so much technology will diff from other generations. Who knows!