Kids and Post-Holiday Electronics Mania
How to Cope
The holidays have come and gone — and in their wake, a gluttony of Wii, iPods, and PlayStations adorn American households. Now what?
According to Dr. David Dutwin, author of Unplug Your Kids: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Happy, Active, and Well-Adjusted Children in the Digital Age, published by Adams Media, “January is always a time when kids’ media habits dramatically increase.” When you break down the stats (on an ordinary day — forget post holiday!), any parent would be alarmed. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, children ages 8 – 18 spend more time (an average of 44.5 hours per week) in front of a computer, television, or game screen. That is more time spent than any other activity in their lives — except sleeping. Teaching parents how to manage their children’s digital lives, this book is a much-needed resource for the modern American family.
All agree, totally escaping the Wii, iPod, and Web is not realistic, and a significant argument can be made that mastering a level of technology at a young age is a solid foundation for any child in today’s increasingly digital world. But, what is a healthy amount of exposure? How can parents find a happy medium when it comes to technology and raise physically active, well-rounded children that actually enjoy playing outside?
Organized in three sections, Dutwin offers a balanced and realistic approach for managing children of all age-levels, including tactics for:
- Introducing toddlers to TV — or not
- Allowing small children to use computers
- Controlling pre-teens’ online access
- Evaluating the pros and cons of video games
- Filtering the internet for teens
- Combating the negative social stigmas pervasive in today’s media
- Countering images of sex and violence
A social science researcher for International Communications Research and an adjunct professor for West Chester University, David Dutwin received his doctoral degree in communication at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania-one of the premier schools for mass media studies in the world today.
He has taught and lectured on a wide range of topics, including the effects of the mass media and communication research methods. In addition to teaching, he regularly speaks at a number of conferences regarding survey research, media research, political research, and health research. A media veteran, Dutwin has appeared on television numerous times. Dutwin’s book, Unplug Your Kids: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Happy, Active, and Well-Adjusted Children in the Digital Age, was published by Adams Media.
Source: Adams Media
