In today’s hyper-connected world, digital technology is ever-present. Smartphones hog our attention with their constant notifications, and televisions tempt us to fritter hours away watching imaginary tales.

I am glad that my early childhood was mostly free of such distractions, though my grandmother did watch a lot of television while minding me. (As she watched so many cop dramas, five-year-old me had aspirations to become a policewoman someday!)

Educational Games

I remember when my father brought home our first computer, when I was about nine. He gave me a game that tested the accuracy and speed of my typing. He also bought an Encyclopaedia Britannica game where I learned about various biomes – rainforests, savannahs, etc.

In addition, I enjoyed the Zoombinis game, which honed logic skills; and a game that involved solving maths problems in order to save a kingdom. I completed missions all over the world in Globetrotter, encountering different cultures.

My friend introduced me to a Garfield game as well. I could never beat Odie in the boss level, though I spent hours trying. My brother became quite fed up with me monopolising the computer.

When I was eleven, Neopets was all the rage. I decided to avoid signing up, as I knew all too well that my competitive streak and perfectionist nature would have me spending hours on the game trying to complete every available task.

Indeed, when a friend asked me to “pet-sit” for her some years later (“feeding” her Neopet every day while she was on holiday), I was sucked in and became addicted for a whole year! At least it came with games that challenged my vocabulary and mathematical skills.

Now that I have children of my own, I am more aware of the pitfalls of screen time. They are not yet old enough to be enticed by complex games, but the habits they form around digital technology now, will surely affect their screen use in the future.

Television Temptations

When I was ten, I became addicted to the television. I watched cartoons every afternoon. I did pursue hobbies like reading, cross-stitching, painting and so on, but I spent an inordinate amount of time watching Hey Arnold!, ReBoot, Gargoyles, Teletubbies and the like.

Even when I was completing my A-level pre-university exams, I became addicted to Prison Break. But the moment my exams ended, I lost interest in watching it. I suppose it was a reaction to study stress, a way to procrastinate.

When I moved to Australia afterward, I didn’t own a television, so I lost the impetus to watch shows. Then I met my husband, who prefers watching videos to reading books. We fell into the habit of watching Netflix, Amazon Prime or Disney+ while eating our meals.

During my first pregnancy, we borrowed the various seasons of Murdoch Mysteries from the local library. I am sure my son would recognise the iconic theme tune.

At first, our infant son didn’t seem too interested in the television. We were able to keep watching our shows.

But then, as he grew into a toddler, he began to have massive tantrums. We bought a cushioned helmet so that he would not hurt himself from banging his head on the floor in frustration.

One morning, I decided to try putting on a YouTube video of birds to calm him down. This worked far too well. He became engrossed in YouTube, particularly when he discovered there were multiple versions of Wheels on the Bus.

Soon, he was demanding more and more TV time, and we could not watch our shows either as he wanted to watch his during mealtimes.

In the end, we banished our television to the garage, where it has sat for many months. The morning we bit the bullet, our toddlers settled happily into playing with their toy kitchen.

Now and then, our son still asks to watch videos on a tablet, but he is much more settled and hardly throws tantrums anymore. In addition, the tablet provides a natural endpoint to watching, as the battery runs out!

How do you navigate the use of digital devices among your offspring? Is it possible to moderate screen use, or does prohibition work better?

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Image courtesy of Adobe.