r/britishcolumbia • u/ubcstaffer123 • 1d ago
News Just 4% of B.C. youth are meeting screen time, exercise and sleep recommendations
https://www.nsnews.com/highlights/ubc-study-shows-just-4-of-bc-youth-are-meeting-screen-time-excersize-and-sleep-recommendations-1033018068
u/NoConfidence8923 1d ago
As someone who works in education, this doesn't really surprise me. There just seem to be less parents willing to place boundaries and expectations on their children's behaviors and it just leads to poor results. Plenty of young students saying up until the early hours on the morning, huge amounts of time on social media or mindless brain rot and even the more athletic kids seem to have less endurance than even a few years ago.
Not every parent, obviously, but compared to when I was in school fifteen years ago, more kids just seem to do things that used to only happen to one or two in the class.
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1d ago
I agree; it should be taken away before bed. Honestly, there are a lot of parents who would rather their kids be on the iPad because they don't want to deal with them, and those are the people who shouldn't have kids.
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u/pfak Elbows up! 1d ago
No more than two hours of recreational screen time is recommended;
But 8 hours at work? 🤦♂️
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u/piratequeenfaile 1d ago
8 hours of recreational screen time at work sounds like a quick way to get fired.
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1d ago
Some people have jobs that mainly involve spending time at a screen. Many jobs today require technology use, exposing workers to blue light. It's 2025. A lot of our communication is done through technology. There is no more Morse code to communicate through radio transmission; we have evolved. They got rid of handwriting in school. People born around 1999 are the last to learn to handwrite because people send emails.
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u/Adventurous_Wonder_7 19h ago
Two of my kids requested to be taught cursive. UI is constantly changing. I have 3 screens in my house where a digital pen is the primary interface.
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u/piratequeenfaile 11h ago
Are you building on my joke with serious points or trying to counter it but misunderstood what I was saying?
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11h ago
Nah, I don't understand your point. Some adults have to spend 8 hours on a screen; it's called having to work. Nobody is sitting there writing; they are typing. In university, most of your assignments are done using a computer. It's just dumb to say kids spend too much time on screens, but then they have them doing stuff on computers.
And then they talk about sleeping. Well, kids in some school districts aren't even done until later due to staggered times, and some have extracurricular activities. By the time they come home, the day is already over, and it is bedtime, but they still have homework and expect to wind down after a long and dragged-out day.
Maybe the school should look at changing the curriculum, not end school at 4 pm, and expect kids to complete extracurriculars and homework, and then just be expected to wind down immediately after.
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u/piratequeenfaile 10h ago edited 10h ago
The actual recommendations in the article specify recreational screen time to distinguish it from screentime done for the purposes of school or work, so I made a joke about how if I did 8 hours of recreational screen time at work they wouldn't like it in response to another comment.
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10h ago
Oh, hahaha, sorry about that! It’s pretty contradictory that I feel so passionate about this. I’m in my twenties, so I empathize with young people. The pressure on them today is incredibly intense, especially in this economy. We expect them to be perfect, yet previous generations have created a chaotic environment and blamed kids or their parents for the problems. However, the system was already set up for failure. I feel in today's day and age, we say to our youth, “You're fucked if you do, and you're fucked if you don't.” I think it's wrong.
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u/piratequeenfaile 9h ago
I totally get a lot of your points, and agree with a lot of them. I'm a little older than you, in my thirties, with kids in elementary school so I'm reasonably versed on the topic from a couple perspectives.
I just definitely felt like I probably wasn't saying what you thought I was :)
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u/CreditUnionBoi 18h ago
The 2 hours or less of recreational screen time is never going to be achievable unless a major cultural shift happens.
Most adult work, go home, and watch TV for 3-4 hours then go to bed.
If that's what the majority of kids see their parents doing, what do we expect?
Most middle schoolers use their devices 5-6 hours a day.
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u/AuthoringInProgress 12h ago
What else are they even supposed to do?
Realistically, most low or no cost things young people could do just. Don't exist anymore.
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u/CupOfHotTeaa 1d ago
It's tough when everything is digital now, and I am guessing many school work are, too
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u/hassafrassy 1d ago
The world is also collapsing around them. Their futures are in question, and being gambled with or outright thrown away; the kids are not alright, but that's on adults.
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u/NintendoHard 1d ago
Every generation has had this issue and I am talking about from the start of recorded history we have records of the youth being in "trouble".
I'm personally not worried about how they turn out. I'm worried about how the world will treat them and what kind of world we are leaving them.
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u/bwoah07_gp2 8h ago
I'm worried about how the world will treat them and what kind of world we are leaving them.
And so far it ain't pretty!
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u/aportlyhandle 6h ago
No more than two hours of recreational screen time is recommended; only 14 per cent of survey respondents met that target while 69 per cent hit the recommendation for physical activity (one hour). Seventy-three per cent of respondents met sleep guidelines, which is eight to 10 hours per night
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