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Comment by rayiner | Hacker News Reader

> How much of this is just paranoia about "too much screen time" but reframed for a 21st century approach?

All of it. An entire generation raised glued to the TV is now flipping out about screen time. It would be funny if I didn’t have to deal with other parents all the time.

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Educational TV has come so far too! Daniel Tiger is amazing at teaching social skills compared to any show available in the 90s.

From research it seems the biggest issue with kids watching TV is just that it takes time away from other forms of learning. Which means limit it but no need to get rid of it.

I can't say enough good things about the SciShow Kids YouTube channel. My four year old calls Jessie (the presenter), her "science teacher", and routinely surprises me with information she has learned there. They're a great length (usually 3-5 minutes), so you can 'tune' the time.

https://www.youtube.com/user/scishowkids

As far as PBS shows go, Nature Cat is a favorite (and well written enough to be enjoyable for parents as well).

Completely agree. In our house, TV === PBS stations. Daniel Tiger, et al., on PBS Kids are phenomenal. I would also point out that, at least in the case of my son, he is much more socially and temporally present when watching TV than when using his mother's phone (I do not share my devices with him). There's the additional annoyance that when using the phone, he wants to watch one of us play. He doesn't want to play the game himself or with us, he wants to spectate. So, TV is usually my preferred option for screen time.

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