It’s not an easy time to be a parent. Since the spring of last year, many families have juggled the challenges of distance learning, working from home and repeated periods of being in lockdown. As a result, kids are spending a lot more time on screens. A new piece in The New York Times warns that experts are “alarmed” at the skyrocketing amounts of time kids are spending on electronics, but with families confined to their houses and the pandemic still raging all over the country, many parents are wondering: What the heck do the experts expect?<\/p>
The NYT piece cites research that shows kids’ screen time<\/a> nearly doubled in 2020. The research also finds the amount of time U.S. kids spent on screens increased monthly throughout most of the year. For example, The NYT reports children spent an average of 57 minutes per day on YouTube<\/a> in February 2020, but by April, that number had ratcheted up to 97 minutes.<\/p>