Screen Crime?

LWC Houseparent and Teacher of Psychology, Josie Waskett-Long asks if fears around screen time really are a modern phenomenon and suggests how we can continue to widen our world, even if it is full of smartphones.

 

School holidays come with a challenge that feels pretty unique to 21st-century parenting: how to navigate smartphones, streaming and non-stop screens.

 

Jonathan Haidt, an anti-screen advocate, looms large in social media debates on this topic. His concern is that society’s casual acceptance of children having free rein online may be irreversibly harmful.

 

But I try to play devil’s advocate with this. Can I honestly judge today’s teenagers, when I grew up in the 90s and partook in many an after-school TV binge?

 

Remember the schedule? Blue Peter, followed by Home and Away, then Neighbours. Later, Channel 4’s teen programming replaced the 6pm news with American soaps and teatime became an endless parade of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Cosby Show and Saved by the Bell. Not exactly high culture and maybe the earliest incarnation of today’s non-stop scrolling. It was, undoubtedly, hard to resist.

 

My teen life was busy with sport, music and friends, but TV and film were central to the fun. Trips to the video shop at the start of the holidays would result in blissful, two-day rentals. You could watch and re-watch your favourite films at sleepovers (the equivalent of a Netflix binge today), followed by the purchase of a teen magazine complete with a pull-out centre spread of your favourite star. Viewing was less convenient than today and this often limited how long you would spend on a screen. Setting the video recorder to the wrong channel and finding the rolling credits of the news instead of your intended film, was a well-trodden disappointment.

 

And if our rose-tinted view of history leads us to think that there wasn’t anxiety about screen time back then, we’re not remembering correctly. I can still hear my father advising me that, ‘You’re killing every brain cell.’

 

At university, I remember seeing grade A students bingeing on quiz shows and soaps. They still went on to leave further education and get the top jobs. I’m not sure that screentime was automatically ruining anyone. But what more time on screens did mean, was less time doing other things. Reading, practising music, talking and nothing has changed there. The smartphone certainly has the capacity to create insular and divided communities – sapping time as it does so.

 

As a Psychology teacher, I’m well aware of research suggesting screens have a value when it comes to enhancing relationships, though. Recent work suggests that the ‘emotion arc’ you share when watching TV with others, physically connects you. A 2023 study found that when two people watch a TV show together, their facial expressions, physiological arousal (e.g. skin‑conductance) and even their cognitive impressions of the characters, tend to become synchronised.

 

I love a good re-watch of a Friends episode with my eldest son and similarly, in Haygate House, communal TV is brilliant for connection. Sport (yes, our girls watch cricket), I’m a Celebrity, Traitors – sitting down together is a shared experience. And we Brits love our seasonal competitions: whether baking off, sewing off or potting off. In fact, the dance off is arguably social glue…

 

As a mum of two teens and Houseparent at Haygate, I end up asking myself if young people’s media consumption is really as damaging as adults think. Realistically, I don’t believe we have a generation teetering on the brink of moral collapse. The bigger picture is (as it always has been) about balance. Screens are here to stay and for our young people to remain future-ready, we need to accept that. But connection, learning, play and reflection remain irreplaceable and these are the things we need to stay tuned to.

 

Tech can aid with essays or exam preparation, but when I recently heard our girls discussing English texts in the House kitchen over hot chocolate, the conversation illustrated and encouraged impressive depth of knowledge about their novels. Technology hasn’t dulled their understanding – but it’s best combined with real-life interactions.

   

At LWC, I feel we’re good at maintaining balance. There are no smartphones allowed anywhere during the day (except for Sixth Formers to use in their dedicated Sixth Form space). There are further restrictions during study time and students are not permitted to keep phones overnight. What we have are many appealing alternatives to screens, sitting alongside an emerging pupil-led forum which aims to look at how we open up the digital world to pupils in a safe and supportive way.

 

Screens aren’t inherently bad. With guidance, we can get the best out of them whilst enjoying the real world and connecting with others in meaningful ways. The balance is easy to master at schools like ours where our routines, activities and 1200-acre campus make time outdoors almost unavoidable. But if we all strive for balance, whatever our surroundings, we’ll reap the rewards.

 

How do we achieve this? Here are some suggestions…

 

• Try a screen-swap — exchanging one hour of smartphone time for an hour of something physical like a walk, a sport, baking or just chilling outdoors.

• Make meals phone-free — no screens, just real conversation.

• Do a tech-free hour before bed and swap scrolling for reading, drawing or chatting. It aids sleep and gives your brain a rest.

• Start a small challenge such as finishing a book, building something, drawing or cooking — then enjoy the ‘I did it’ feeling, instead of the ‘just one more scroll’ habit.

 

Put your phone down and try getting the best of both worlds. There’s a healthy balance to be struck.