This month I have chosen to do the article Screen Scene which is written by Amy Cameron. This article is about how adults and kids think kids use too much technology. I both agree and disagree with this this article. I agree with this because kids do use too much technology and we should spread awareness about this topic. The reason I disagree with it is because some people say that we should not be using technology if it is not for anything besides education. This however is not the case because I also use it for talking to my relatives and old friends. In this report you will see what this article is about in detail, what I liked and disliked about this article, connections I have made to this piece of writing, questions I had about this article, passages I found interesting, inferences, and what I learned from this. Overall it was a great read and I hope you enjoy reading my thoughts and opinions about it as well!

What is this article about?

This article is about how adults think kids use too much technology. It explains that experts thought that kids used to spend too much time in front of the tv. Now an average Canadian kid spends six hours on different types of technology such as computers, portable gaming, smartphones, e-reading, and iPads and tablets. This article also explains a school district psychologist from Revelstoke, Andrew Sykes says that screen time has benefits such as education and training for the future because all the jobs in the future will connect to technology, no matter what kind it is such as a smartphone, computer, or a tablet. Prachi Ray, a 12 year old girl and Hayley Bleho, 11 thought that technology is important because she can keep in touch with friends, but also do her homework. She also said that it is more fun to do things online and kids do not use up all their time on useless websites, they do important things too. The thing is, not everyone thinks the same thing. Josh Golin, the associate director for the campaign Commercial-Free Childhood does not agree. This organization runs a week where kids in the United States do not use any technology for the week. He thinks that kids are missing out on things such as being with your family and friends and being outside and replacing it with the overused technology. Another girl, Holly Kibbins who is 12, also thinks being in front of screens for five or six hours is too much because unless it’s for education, we are not doing anything important. A nine year old boy, Dylan Anderson agrees with Holly along with health officials, who think that two hours is the most you should be in front of a screen for a day. The last thing they tell us is to find a balance. In conclusion, technology is very important now days, we should be learning to use it, but we should also find a balance with our daily life.

What do I like and dislike about this book?

If I was to rate this piece of writing, I would rate it a 5/10. The things I liked about this article was that it was raising awareness to us about how we should use less technology and how it is important for us to learn more about it. I also liked that kids were giving their different opinions, which made this interesting to read because I thought only adults thought we used too much technology. The things I did not like about this book is they say to do other things, but I thought they should have wrote what kind of things, to make it more detailed. That brings me to another thing I did not like about this article. I did not like that it was not detailed because usually I find the piece of writing more intriguing if it has more detail, which this article did not have.

Connections I made!

One connection I can make to this book it text to self. My connection is to the part when it says, “He believes that screen time has many benefits, including education and training for the future.” I can connect to this because when I use my laptop, I do not use it just for keeping in touch with my friends, I use it for education. I can also connect to this because when I asked my brother about how much drawing skills you will need for being an architect, he said a lot of it will be on the computer and will have a link to computers, along with math. This connects because when it said we need screen time because it helps us train for future jobs, it will because I probably will be doing most of my drawings on the computer. Another connection I can make to this article is text to world. I can connect to the part when it says, “Seventy-five percent of kids in Canada in Grades 3 to 10 watch TV daily. Forty-eight of those kids have their own television.” I can connect to this because I know many kids who have a TV in their room or another form of watching entertainment, including me. I also can connect to this because grades 11 and over probably have too much homework to watch TV everyday, although they probably watch it once a week. The last reason I can connect to this part of the text is because this article was written in 2012, and now it is 2017, which means more kids will most likely have a television. The last connection I can make is text to self. I can connect to the part when it says, “Canadian kids spend an average of six hours a day in front of screens.” I can connect to this because during school I usually use a Chromebook for twenty minutes and when I get home I watch TV, work on assignments on my laptop, and go on my iPod. That would result in five hours and a half, which is basically the average of all Canadian kids. The average might have gone up because once again, this was written in 2012, and now it’s 2017 and a lot can change in five years.

Questions I had

Some questions I had while I was reading this article were:

• Do kid's eyes worsen from too much screen time?
• Do adults use more screen time than kids?
• Is the amount of screen time different for different countries?
• How do kids not get tired from seeing the same things over and over again?
• What percent of the kids only play games?
• What percent of the kids only use social media?
• Do most kids have phones or iPods?
• Do adults understand we also use screen time to learn things such as figuring out how to make things or understanding subjects we do not get?
• If kids already are so bad with technology, what will it mean for the future?

Passages that were interesting!

One passage that I found interesting in this article was, “He believes that screen time has many benefits, including education and training for the future.” I thought this was interesting because even I think kids use too much technology, except Andrew Sykes does not think that at all. I also find this interesting because even though I disagree with him because there is a limit to how much screen time you should be using, I agree that we do need technology for the future, which makes this one of those passages that makes you have mix feelings and think about the article a bit more. Another passage that was interesting was, “‘Unless we’re doing it for an educational purpose, then we’re not really doing anything necessary,’ she says.” I think this is interesting because it is intriguing how some kids think we should only use technology for education, while some think that we should also use it for other purposes such as communication with distant relatives and friends. The last passage I thought was interesting was, “‘Spending time in front of screens takes away time from being with friends, eating meals with your family, and being outside,’ says Golin.” I thought this was interesting because in my perspective, I usually spend a lot of my screen time talking to my friends to ask them questions about homework, have funny conversations, and talk to my relatives who are half away across the world. I also thought this was interesting because Golin said we do not go outside if we are on our phones and technology, but if you have a gaming system and have Just Dance, then you can do exercise inside when you cannot do it outside because it is too cold. If you think of it in that perspective then screen time is helping you get more exercise in the winter because you cannot exercise a lot in the winter.

Inferences I made!

What I inference about this piece of writing is that kids will start using more and more technology and new electronics will be invented. I think this because in the text it said, “Experts used to worry about how much TV we were watching. Now, however, kids in North America use not only television but also computers, smartphones, portable gaming systems, e-readers, and tablets.” This part of the article is telling us that before experts were getting worried but now we have way more technology that has been invented. It is predicted that if there has been so many things that have been invented in about a decade, that means there probably will be more. I also think this is because before there was not a lot of wifi available, but now there is even wifi in cars. The last reason I think this is because even now, instead of small phones for adults, kids have good sized smartphones. Another inference I have is instead of six hours of screen time–even though we should only be using two–we will be having our whole life revolve around technology even more than we already do. As in at school we might be able to play games to help us focus instead of little fidget toys. At night we could be in store for a bed massager or a calming voice to help you go to sleep. Perhaps after school a virtual tool to do your homework for you will be available and before school there might be another tool to do the simple tasks for you as in waking you up or picking an outfit. Another reason I think this is because on our smartphones now, we already have so many useful apps that I think will be taken to the next level. A few examples are morning alarms, timers, online shopping, recipes online, and homework help.

What did I learn?

Since I did an article, I am doing things I have learned instead of a prediction. I have learned that experts only recommend two hours of screen time a day, but an average Canadian kid spends six hours. Another thing I have learned is an average Canadian kids spend 8 hours a day being inactive. The third thing I have learned is although we all use technology, everyone has their own opinions. Not only about technology, but about many other things such as politics and sports. The fourth and final thing I have learned is technology can be good, but if you use it too much then it can harm your health and your own education.

In conclusion this was a great read as well as a subtle warning for kids to know that too much screen time is not good! In the end I do agree that we do use too much technology at times, but sometimes it can be helpful. I really do hope that more and more articles come out about this topic because people need to recognize this problem before it gets much worse. I also think that we can do things around the community to help kids get more active such as host a tournament. Overall, the article has really inspired me to be more active, learn something, and find more hobbies.