Eli Stark-Elster

you know, play stickball on the streets or what have you.

But many of these changes that have led to the state of affairs where physical autonomy is much lower, they're probably not going to change or they will be immensely difficult to change.

I think it's worth keeping front of mind that kids need somewhere to go.

And if it's not going to be physical space, there has to be some alternative.

Not necessarily.

And I think when we're asking whether it's bad, it really depends on what exactly they're doing.

If a kid is spending a huge amount of time just scrolling through TikTok mindlessly, not talking to anyone, that's probably bad, right?

They're not doing anything really on their own.

They're not spending time with their friends.

They're not getting time in these independent groups of peers that kids really do need to be getting time.

If they're spending lots of time on FaceTime with their friends, playing Minecraft, exploring a little world, building houses, that I think ticks all the checkboxes we're looking for in what kids should be doing in this independent peer time.

And so both of those activities maybe look like screen time to us, but they're very, very different kinds.

And again, the key question that parents should probably ask is,

Are my kids getting space to be independent from me, to spend time with their friends unsupervised, and to explore in ways that they're determining on their own?

And you can ask that question about any virtual space.

In some cases, the answer will be no.

In other cases, the answer will be yes.

And so when we think about a measure like screen time that often comes up in the

Studies of the effects of technology on mental health.

That's really a bit like trying to measure, let's say, the effect of food on physical health.