Your children’s physical health is the foundation for everything they become and do. As corporeal beings, they, like the rest of humanity, are at the mercy of the fitness of their bodies to handle the ordinary challenges and extraordinary demands that are placed on them during childhood and beyond.
You are responsible for ensuring that your children treat their bodies like temples rather than garbage dumps so they continue to function properly for their lifetimes. This means sufficient sleep, a balanced diet, and regular exercise. Unfortunately, Big Media is not only not helping you accomplish this goal, but it’s actually a lot to interfere with your efforts.
Children now spend, on average, more than seven-and-a-half hours a day of free time interacting with technology. That doesn’t even include screen time devoted to school! What do you think children did with that substantial amount of time before this new technology came to dominate their lives? Before the advent of electricity, children worked a lot and played a little, mostly outdoors. Then, with the invention of television, much time has been spent in front of the “boob tube.” With few alternatives, children by default went outside and engaged in physical activity, for example, they ran around, played tag or kick the can, climbed the monkey bars, or rode their bikes. Plus, schools provided daily physical education classes that contributed further to a reasonable level of fitness. Unfortunately, many parents these days are so afraid of letting their children play outside unsupervised that they basically place them under house arrest and force them to stay inside.
And when they are locked up inside, what are they going to most often turn to for entertainment? Well, media, of course, for example, play video games (okay, Wii provides some exercise, but, according to research, isn’t nearly the equal of real physical activity), surf the Internet, and engage in social media. Also, physical education classes are few or nonexistent today due to misguided priorities and budgetary cuts. The result? One-third of American children are overweight or obese and 70 percent of them will become obese adults.
The essential question to ask is: What role does the explosion of media in the last decade play in what many consider to be a public health crisis? A growing body of evidence suggests that the answer to this question is: A significant role. For example, one study found that, among children, pre-teens, and teens, total daily media use was predictive of poor physical health. For pre-teens, daily video game playing was also a predictor. For teens, daily video game playing and daily hours online were also predictive. Importantly, this research controlled for demographics (e.g., age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status) and eating and exercise habits, thus strengthening the argument that technology alone was a significant contributor to poor health among young people.
Research has demonstrated that the more time that children spend in front of a screen (including television and video games), the more they ask for unhealthy food and drinks. The reason why is pretty obvious. The torrent of advertising directed at children and teenagers is comprised primarily of fast food, sugary cereal, candy, and highly processed snack foods (72 percent of all ads aimed at them, in fact), all significant contributors to the epidemic of obesity that has consumed (pun intended) our country. And, due to what the researchers call the “nag factor,” parents often give in and give their children the junk food they crave.
The Internet has created cross-promotional opportunities that have only strengthened this influence. Children are now exposed to junk food advertising not only on television and in print, but also in social media, product placement on television and in video games, movies, smartphone and tablet apps, and ads that are disguised as online games and web sites.
Children have no chance against this tsunami of unhealthy messages that drowns them in a torrent of poor eating, cavities, sugar addiction, and obesity. Additionally, while your children are immersed in media, for example, sitting on the sofa watching TV, playing video games, or surfing the web, they are incurring significant opportunity costs in the form of being sedentary instead of physically active.
The influence of technology may also extend to unhealthy and potentially dangerous habits. One study reported that teens who use Facebook and other social media have significantly higher rates of smoking, alcohol consumption, and marijuana use, and are more likely to have sex at an earlier age. The researchers suggest that widespread and persistent exposure to images depicting these behaviors make them more acceptable and may cause teenagers to feel left out if they don’t engage in them. However, it should be noted that this study was only able to establish a connection between television watching and sexual behavior, but wasn’t able to prove that young people seeing these images actually causes this increase in high-risk behavior.
What or who can prevent your children from heading down a road of poor physical health? One word: parents. We certainly aren’t going to get the purveyors of junk food, candy, sugary drinks, and processed foods to change their ways because their products harm children. Profits, for them, obviously trumps concern for children. The only chance your children have is that you are on their side and take active steps to ensure that they grow up healthy.
You can’t just play defense in your efforts to ensure that technology doesn’t interfere with your children’s healthy development. Instead, you need to proactively create opportunities that will encourage your children’s physical health in spite of the digital world they live in, for example, turn off the TV, disconnect the Internet, and spend time outside.
You should also recognize that, in your efforts to ensure your children’s physical health, you aren’t just fulfilling their immediate physical requirements for a healthy childhood. Just as importantly, you’re setting your children on a health-affirming road in which healthy living will become their defaults for years to come. Is there any more precious gift you could give your children than their physical health? I don’t think so. And that is a gift that will keep on giving throughout their lives.
