Technolandy

Day 41 (of 2025/26) no such thing as screen time…?!?

https://apple.news/AAr-4JdAwTQG1caAiPQH6Yw

Or

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2025/10/screen-time-television-internet/684659/

Fun reminder that pundits like Marshall McLuhan saw screens as a good thing: As such, he thought that screens would help usher in a new age, a “global village” in which multisensory media would connect people in small scale, ad hoc ways, replacing the top-down, authoritative forms of media that preceded them, such as books.  

I know people like to believe that screens have what has led to an increase isolations, but really it has just allowed us to … focus a lens on what we’ve always done… more accepting and looking at the reasons why isolation has always been the goal of much of our society… though the school process has always emphasized at least trying to turn introverts into extroverts… with mixed results that remind me of the ‘encouragement’ for many of us to print with our right hands, not left… I know there is a trend on social media’s to do more forcing kids to read out loud, present to a big audience, and the other things that some do much more comfortably than others… 

Which is why, lately, I continue to lean into the side of education that makes less sense on paper… including being an advocate for screentime, but with a caveat that I thank McLuhan would support: with a mindset that we know if we are creating or consuming (and why for each). I have long seen benefits when students are being creative on screens – ranging from organizing their thoughts on keynote/powerpoint presentation models, to being okay with significant feedback on their writing, because it is easier to edit typed spelling/grammar conventions than it is to start writing on a page from scratch (which only taught me that the less you write, the less you need to re-write… admittedly I know some would wish me more brevity much of the time…)

And I don’t mean screen time for all nor 24/7 – I agree with Canadian Paediatric Societies wish for no screen time for children under the age of 2… though I do wonder if they have an exception for video-chats with family, if other interactive visual experiences might also have some neurological benefits… but NOT something I want anyone to test… except by accident.

Much like TV, I love the guidelines and know that I (and others) completely smash through them… as a passive consumer of visual media – I always noted that the ‘prime time viewing’ of network tv alone meant that people were going to go beyond ‘recommended tv time’ let alone if you added on Jeopardy and A&E Biography…. Who am I kidding – Mousterpiece theater, Donald Duck Presents, Saturday Morning Cartoons —> those all were training grounds for future hours exploring and creating content online!

But I will continue to repeat myself with screen use: Creating > Consuming. Even though we do not use the same mindset with math or language arts… gotta read to learn, but type for an audience of one… and whereas before a lot of introverted were overlooked, everyone’s attention is on personal screens, so we enjoy focusing on the tool as a ‘distraction’ (much as every media previously was as well… tv, radio, books <— yes, even books and text were first worried as a distraction to youth and education…)

I will also encourage scheduling boredom breaks – 5 minutes (beyond the shower) where you don’t do anything but synthesis – no music, no sketching, no reading etc etc… just you and the brain… then you can be mindful about why you are going to use some screen time…

To create?

To consume others content?

To distract yourself? Sometimes you need to distract your brain in order to better focus…

I suggest we worry less about the quantity of screen time -except for the very young… – though much as experts even say interactive FaceTime communication can be good…. We need to focus on the quality of screentime – knowing some slop can be okay, but not too much… 

I also suggest we pay attention to the rise of AI impersonating visual ‘truths’ and raising the need for critical viewing – because AI screen shares can look real – and I really want the animals on trampolines to be real… but at no other time has the visual media been as challenging to decode … and if you’re not paying attention, the global village won’t know which multi-sensory interaction to believe and trust. McLuhan said ‘media forms shape perception’ but even he didn’t think that the media could create those forms… 

And while we have these institutions where we gather students to be together, we might as well teach, practice, and model effective and affective screen use strategies – or the most powerful device to disrupt education may just do it without us…  screentime is inevitable, but it does not have to be about passive brain rot… 

Let’s reframe ScreenTime to Screen PURPOSE – and replace the quantitative limits with qualitative literacy – a skill for both consuming and creating (and value for/to both)