Computer Use vs Television Viewing in Toddlers

I'm a parent now, and even before I had kids I was always lecturing everyone around on how horrible television was for kids--especially babies, toddlers and preschoolers. The eye-rolls and clearing of the throats did not stop me, I kept on talking about statistics like:

Number of minutes per week that parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children: 3.5

Number of minutes per week that the average child watches television: 1,680

Number of murders seen on TV by the time an average child finishes elementary school: 8,000

Number of violent acts seen on TV by age 18: 200,000

Number of 30-second TV commercials seen in a year by an average child: 20,000

(Stats from Calif. State Univ: http://www.csun.edu/science/health/docs/tv&health.html)

Now that I have a bouncing baby boy, I still have yet to change my mind. I do have friends whose babies are watching crap like Yo Gabba Gabba (I know, I'm inviting a storm of protests here). I read the chapter in Nurture Shock that explains that so-called Educational Programming actually teaches bullying in a more subtle and hurtful kind of way! Go sell crazy somewhere else, I tell them. We don't watch television at all and will not do so, even for a little, until he is two years old. And then, I'm still not sure. However, that doesn't mean that I eschew all technology. In fact, my 10 month old is already becoming adept at using my iPhone. We have several apps on there just for him. Things like Koi Pond, Peekaboo Barn and Doodle Kids. He will have an iPad for his 1 year birthday present.

So, how do I justify allowing "screen time" of that nature? Well, I think it's about interactivity. He is not the passive viewer in this case. He is active, controls what he sees and for how long. He is not subject to advertisements or violence or sex. I think touch-screen "screen time" is a whole different world than Web 1.0 one-way passivity. There isn't a whole lot of research that differentiates for this new medium, but I am really looking forward to seeing it. I predict it will show very different results.  

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/12738795@N00/5216468922/sizes/m/in/photostream/ 

Roku: Commercial Free Entertainment Parntered with Netflix

This might be a tiny bit off topic, but I have to post about it anyway: The Roku is...words fail me...legendary. This tiny bit of machinery delivers, at the one-time cost of $100, Netflix's on-demand videos and television shows to your television. Most of you know about Netflix. It's the service that will send you movies/tvshows, etc in the mail. You enter them into your cue and you pay a monthly fee to have two at a time out, or three at a time, etc. My husband and I have been big fans for a long time because you don't have to leave the house and you don't have to stand in front of a gigantic wall of videos and choose one. I can't tell you how stressful it was for me to go to Blockbuster. Cruising around the thousands of videos gave me vertigo...too many choices. Now, a video from our cue comes, we watch it, it goes back with no late fees ever. But this isn't about Netflix.

Recently Netflix started offering online streaming content FREE that you watch instantly, using your computer. We tried a couple of times to watch things in our office, but our office chairs are just not comfortable enough for that, so we stopped using the service. Then, we learned about the Roku. This little device uses the wireless network in your house to connect to the internet and plugs directly into your television. It's kind of like a TiVo, but you don't pay a monthly fee, and you only see things that you have entered into your "instant viewing cue" on Netflix's web site.

Warning: It can be a vortex. We watched four solid hours of the first season of 30Rock...commercial free, and already paid for by our Netflix membership. We're in love. Why do I write about it here? Imagine how many fewer commercials your child/student would see if they only watched items that you approved, in your cue, for your family to watch?! They have plenty of kids' content and the parent is in control of what is viewed. The only thing questionable about it is how the heck you pronounce it: rock-you? row-coo?