# Let's talk screen time for your kids

**Creator:** Dr. Vanessa Lapointe
**Platform:** youtube
**Duration:** 1m
**Source:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_EeymVXmRo

## Summary

The discussion highlights the pervasive shame many parents feel regarding their children's screen time, emphasizing that this is a common struggle. The rapid advancement of technology has outpaced our understanding of its social and ethical implications, leading to a crisis in genuine human connection and mental health.

- Many parents secretly feel ashamed about their children's screen time but are reluctant to admit it.
- The technology revolution has occurred too quickly for society to fully grasp its ethical and social impacts.
- Parents are overwhelmed and unsure how to manage their children's screen use.
- The shift in social interaction due to screens diminishes meaningful human connections.
- Digital interactions can provide superficial social fulfillment, leading to a disinterest in real-life connections.
- The mental health crisis is partly attributed to the disruption caused by excessive screen time and lack of genuine interactions.

## Transcript

[[0:00]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_EeymVXmRo&t=0s)
If you're feeling like secretly very ashamed of how much time your kid is on screens or whatever it is, so too is everybody else. They're just not, you know, courageous enough to admit that publicly. The technology revolution came on very quickly. So it's not like we had two or 30 hundred years to really consider ethically and otherwise what was going to be the impact of all of this. And instead what has happened is we're seeing the impact and we're thinking snap like we need to hurry scurry and figure out how we're going to get ahead of all of this. No wonder parents are struggling with what to do about that. The bigger issue is that it has shifted how we are handling ourselves as social beings. We were meant to look into the whites of each other's eyes and to have real concrete tangible experiences of human connection. When you get those ready hits of social connection through those other means, it's kind of like snacking on brownies and chocolate bars and potato chips all day long and then your parents come along and invite you to feast at their table and you're like, "Nah, I'm good. Thanks." So, it sort of ruins us for the actual connection that we need. There's a lot behind what we are referring to as the mental health crisis. I think part of it comes down to that experience of screens and how it creates a disruption in our ability to connect with one another in meaningful ways.