[gnicholas]

Yep, the question these studies raise is: if you're doing things "right" in general (reading to your kids, taking them to museums/libraries, talking with them about complex things), does it really matter how much screen time they have?

There seems to be no proof that it matters that much, although I suspect that managing screen addiction becomes important at later ages. It's possible that letting kids have some screen time at younger ages, and teaching them from the get-go about the dangers of over-consumption/addiction, could end up being a very valuable parenting technique in the long run.

[murgindrag]

The elephant in the room is that there are differences in screentime. If one child grows up on DragonBox, Scratch, and Logo, and another watches cartoons and plays Jewel Candy Crush, it's really not the same.

[gnicholas]

For sure. I asked my med school professor friend about the differences between different types of screen time, and unfortunately neither he nor his twin brother (himself a neurosurgery professor) was able to say with any certitude which types of activities would be OK, or why certain activities would be more or less harmful.

Obviously the example you gave makes intuitive sense, but there doesn’t seem to be any research or other evidence to support it at this time.

[ddxxdd]

I'm going to play Devil's Advocate and argue that screentime probably does have an impact on one's mental development. Training a child's eyes to focus for long periods of time on a singular object a foot away might not translate well to functioning in the real world. Especially if that singular object is designed and engineered to hook and keep your attention, via Dark Patterns or via Hollywood-style screenwriting with jumpcuts.