Here's Why Parents Shouldn't Stress About Their Kid's Screen-Time During Lockdown

為什么父母不應該為孩子在居家隔離期間緊盯屏幕的時間而感到緊張

Millions of working parents have spent months largely trapped in their homes with their children. Many are trying to get their jobs done remotely in the constant presence of their kids, and they are desperate for some peace and quiet.

數(shù)以百萬計的上班族父母花了數(shù)月里的大部分時間和孩子們一起困在家中。許多人試圖在孩子們一直在家的情況下遠程完成工作，父母們迫切需要和平和寧靜的時光。

Many mothers and fathers have sought any available remedy that would enable them to do their jobs and fight cabin fever – including some who have given their children a free pass on video games, social media and television.

許多父母都在尋求任何可用的方法，讓他們能夠從事自己的工作，同時克服長期宅家悶出的毛病，這其中包括讓孩子自由地玩電子游戲、社交媒體和看電視的父母。

One survey of more than 3,000 parents found that screen time for their kids had increased by 500 percent during the pandemic.

一項對3000多名父母的調查發(fā)現(xiàn)，在新冠疫情期間，他們孩子的屏幕時間增加了500%。

Screen time rules

屏幕時間規(guī)則

In case you missed it, when the World Health Organization released daily screen time guidelines for children in April 2019, it suggested tight limits.

以防萬一你錯過了這一點，當世界衛(wèi)生組織在2019年4月發(fā)布兒童每日屏幕時間指南時，其建議嚴格限制屏幕使用時間。

Infants should get none at all, and kids between the ages of 1 and 5 should spend no more than one hour daily staring at devices. The WHO does not provide specific limits for older children, but some research has suggested that excessive screen time for teenagers could be linked to mental health problems like anxiety and depression.

嬰兒不應該使用屏幕，1到5歲的孩子每天盯著電子設備的時間不應該超過一個小時。世衛(wèi)組織沒有為年齡較大的兒童提供具體的限制，但一些研究表明，青少年過多的屏幕時間可能與焦慮和抑郁等心理健康問題有關。

Kids were already spending far more time than recommended with screens before the pandemic, and had been for years.

在新冠疫情之前，孩子們花在屏幕上的時間已經(jīng)遠遠超過了建議的時間，而且這一事實多年來一直如此。

As far back as the late 1990s, children between the ages of 3 and 5 years old were averaging two and a half hours per day with their screens. And, naturally, what screen time rules families had been enforcing have been on hold since at least mid-March 2020, when most US communities entered an era of social distancing.

早在20世紀90年代末，3至5歲的兒童平均每天花兩個半小時看屏幕。自然地，至少自2020年3月中旬以來，大多數(shù)美國社區(qū)都進入了社交疏遠的狀態(tài)，家庭中一直在執(zhí)行的屏幕時間規(guī)則一直無法得以實施。

Prone to distraction

容易分散注意力

Should parents worry if their children are spending more time than ever online to learn, play and while away the hours until they can freely study and socialize again? The short answer is no – as long as they don't allow pandemic screen time habits to morph into permanent screen time habits.

父母是否應該擔心直到孩子能再次自由地學習和社交前，花在網(wǎng)上學習、玩耍和打發(fā)時間的時長比以往任何時候都多呢？簡而言之，答案是否定的——只要他們不讓疫情期間的屏幕時間使用習慣轉變?yōu)橛谰眯缘钠聊粫r間習慣。

Shortly before the coronavirus led to schools across the country suspending in-person instruction for safety reasons, I wrapped up my upcoming book on the power of digital devices to distract students from their learning.

在新冠病毒導致全國各地學校出于安全原因暫停當面教學前不久，我完成了即將出版的關于數(shù)字設備分散學生學習注意力的書。

In Distracted: Why Students Can't Focus and What You Can Do About It, I argue that trying to eliminate distractions from classroom takes the wrong approach. The human brain is naturally prone to distraction, as scientists and philosophers have been attesting for centuries now.

在《分散注意力：為什么學生無法集中注意力以及你能做什么》一書中，我認為試圖減小課堂干擾的做法是錯誤的。正如科學家和哲學家?guī)讉€世紀以來證明的那樣，人腦本就容易分散注意力。

The problem with distraction in school is not the distractions themselves. Children and adults alike can use social media or view screens in perfectly healthy ways.

在學校中分心的問題并不是分心本身。兒童和成人都可以以完全健康的方式使用社交媒體或查看屏幕。

The problem occurs when excessive attention to screens crowds out other learning behaviors. A child watching YouTube on her phone in the classroom or during study time is not developing her writing skills or mastering new vocabulary.

當過度關注屏幕而擠占了其他學習行為時，問題就會出現(xiàn)。孩子在教室里或學習時間用手機看YouTube并不能培養(yǎng)寫作技能，也無法掌握新詞匯。

Teachers should consider how to cultivate better attention to those behaviors, rather than trying to eliminate all distractions.

教師應該考慮如何更好地培養(yǎng)對這些學習行為的注意力，而不是試圖消除所有分散注意力的事情。

Likewise, parents should not view screens as the enemy of their children, even if they do need to be wary of the impact of excessive screen time on eye health and how much sleep their kids get.

同樣，父母也不應該將屏幕視為孩子的敵人，即使他們確實需要警惕使用屏幕時間過長對眼睛健康和孩子睡眠時間的影響。

翻譯：MS小冰晶