The Lure of the Screen

The lure of the screen is a hot topic of our times. In contrast to Roberts original in 1889, on 9x5 cigarette box (Harper’s weekly) where a young girl was painted reading a reputable magazine at the time. For historical context, almost 230 years later, young and old are glued to the screen. The iPad is now used in preschool!, TV screen used as babysitting, with concerns raised about impact of the screen on growing brains, concerns about the psychosocial impact of social media on teenagers and privacy issues, with everyone carrying a computer in the palm of their hands, rarely a magazine or a book! All this present a real dilemma to parents and educators in spite of recognition of benefits of the digital world.