Comments on: Harvard Says What?

By: Dr. Dimitri Christakis: International Expert on Media and Child Health… and Marketing

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 21:43:09 +0000

[...] worth noting is that researchers at Harvard see the science differently, they also don’t go after specific brands in their [...]

By: Should Yesterday’s Media Adopt Trends of Today? at A PRotégé’s Approach

Should Yesterday’s Media Adopt Trends of Today? at A PRotégé’s Approach — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:15:19 +0000

[...] opinions matter, regardless of your own. While bloggers may be more subjective in their writing, there’s usually (and their should be) meticulous research evident in their posts, putting money where their mouths [...]

By: ilinap

ilinap — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:34:57 +0000

What the past studies, and perhaps this one (I admit to not reading the whole thing), fail to point out is that the *quality* and appropriatness of the program matter. It’s not like my 5 and 3 year old sons are parked in front of game shows or CSI. Noggin rocks. Ditto for PBS. They do actually learn something from the programs they watch. And by the way, they each get to pick one show a day to watch while I make a home cooked meal. We all sit at the table to eat every single night.

One more thing, we limit media time to 1 hour a day. That means TV, Didj/Leapster/Wii (usually reserved for weekends though)/computer games on noggin.com or pbskids.org. We’re all about getting outside to play, not melting our brains. I do enough of that on Twitter.

By: Leah

Leah — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 22:13:00 +0000

I read something this year that said that it wasn’t tv that was bad, but what the child is doing while they are watching it. When the tv is on all day, children tend to go about doing other things and their attention to whatever task they are trying to do gets broken as the tv interrupts them. It didn’t matter if it was child-related or adult tv. So basically, using the tv all day as a babysitter created shorter attention spans, but using limited tv created a situation where the child pays attention to the program. That was better. So if your child starts doing something else, turn the tv off so they can concentrate on what they are doing.

By: Now That Harvard Has a Sullied Reputation

Now That Harvard Has a Sullied Reputation — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:56:09 +0000

[...] The full text of Harvard’s latest Sanctimommy Spank is here, and you can decide for yourself if you know more than they do. [...]

By: Jessica Gottlieb

Jessica Gottlieb — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:25:09 +0000

@Seamus and @Scott I have posted the entire text of the study. It does not state that there’s a negative impact, it cites other studies that loosely correlate tv watching to obesity, but we could also look at the merits of that study.

The reality is that zealots have (once again) gotten policy changed in an attempt to ridicule, blame and alienate perfectly good mothers.

By: seamus

seamus — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:00:04 +0000

Scott is right.

You should read the study. It states that TV does indeed have negative associations with kids’ health and cognition, but that the associations disappear when you control for other factors. In fact, TV has neither negative *nor* positive impacts on its own. It’s just that kids in more supportive and well-off households watch less TV than those in more challenged households, and kids in more supportive and well-off homes are smarter and healthier.

Additionally, the study doesn’t cover the content of the TV watched, whether the parent watched the TV with the kid, etc. The only thing the study claims is that “TV is not inherently evil,” and that’s an important counterpoint to zero-TV zealotry.

By: Jessica Gottlieb

Jessica Gottlieb — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:34:06 +0000

ZOMG Lisa, you said it out loud?

By: Lisa M

Lisa M — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 04:58:47 +0000

Some dad at the park the other day turned his nose up at me when I mentioned that my kids sometimes watch Spongebob. Yeah, lighten up!

By: Jessica Gottlieb

Jessica Gottlieb — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:06:36 +0000

Naturally, but it does define stupid, does it not?

I’m sure their year end bonuses and stock options are tied into at least one kids show.