Stop Saying the Research Says All Screens Harm Children. It Doesn’t.

Research about social media, cell phones, distraction, and excessive use is too often used to condemn every screen students encounter.

That is not what the research says.

A student scrolling through social media is not having the same experience as one using a device to analyze data, translate text, receive feedback, collaborate, create, or access captions and text-to-speech. Calling both “screen time” strips away the information that actually matters.

In my latest article, I examine what the research shows, where the arguments from Jared Cooney Horvath and Jonathan Haidt do and do not apply, and why returning students to paper does not automatically improve learning.

The question is not whether students are looking at a screen. The question is what they are doing, whether the technology supports learning, and whether students have meaningful choices.

[Read the full article here.]