{"id":717,"date":"2016-03-04T15:45:51","date_gmt":"2016-03-04T20:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.benschersten.com\/blog\/?p=717"},"modified":"2016-03-04T15:45:51","modified_gmt":"2016-03-04T20:45:51","slug":"screen-time-were-asking-the-wrong-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.benschersten.com\/blog\/2016\/03\/screen-time-were-asking-the-wrong-question\/","title":{"rendered":"Screen Time: We’re Asking the Wrong Question"},"content":{"rendered":"

Screen Time:\u00a0A Quick History<\/h2>\n

Screen Time started to become a thing in the mid-90s and our awareness of it has taken of since then.\u00a0With the prevalence of portable screens on smart phones and tables, screen time has become an important issue.<\/p>\n

\"screentime\"<\/a>

Use of the phrase “screen time” as cataloged by Google Book’s ngram viewer<\/a>.<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0What Does<\/del> Did “Screen Time” Mean?<\/h2>\n

When the idea of screen time started to take off 20 years ago it’s important to remember what screens were like back then. Screens were mostly passive, and they\u00a0were a consumption activity. Screen time meant watching TV, watching a movie, or paying a video game. It was the early days of the internet when being online meant consuming someone else’s content. Screens were not a creative space.<\/p>\n

What Does “Screen Time” Mean Now?<\/h2>\n

\"babyscreen\"<\/a>Screens have changed though. First, screens are much smaller and more portable; we carry them with us everywhere. This makes the screen time conversation that much more important. But, there is a second way screens have changed, and this is important. Screens, and screen time, no longer just support consumption; screens now support creation.<\/p>\n

The Right Question Is: What Kind of Screen Time is it?<\/h2>\n

Screens do so much more today. Because of this, we can no longer lump all screen time into the same category. Passively watching cat videos on YouTube<\/a> and actively taking an idea from your head and turning it into a video game with Hopscotch<\/a> are very different things. When we talk about screen time we have to consider whether it’s a consumption or a creation activity.<\/p>\n

In September 2014\u00a0the Boston Globe posted this graphic.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Click to enlarge, or there’s a linear version of it here<\/a> (though this version doesn’t differentiate the passive, interactive, and creative sections).<\/p>\n

Clearly not all screen time is created equal.<\/p>\n

More Reading<\/h2>\n

The full Boston Globe article is here<\/a>. Edutopia<\/a> has a nice article<\/a> written by Beth Holland<\/a> as well. And eSchool News has a report on some recent research here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

photo credit: Mark Kenny<\/a> via photopin<\/a> cc<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Screen Time:\u00a0A Quick History Screen Time started to become a thing in the mid-90s and our awareness of it has taken of since then.\u00a0With the prevalence of portable screens on smart phones and tables, screen time has become an important … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14,6,8,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bpschat","category-edchat","category-edtech","category-elemchat"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2B5HK-bz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benschersten.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benschersten.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benschersten.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benschersten.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benschersten.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.benschersten.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":908,"href":"https:\/\/www.benschersten.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions\/908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benschersten.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benschersten.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benschersten.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}