Screen time has been an issue for parents for quite some time, and is even more pertinent during this period of online learning, but we still don’t truly know the long-term effects of being glued to our screens.

That’s according to holistic family interventionist, Lisa Pinhorn, who likens our knowledge of how screen time affects our brains to building a plane while flying it.

She describes our screens as “super stimulants,” noting that we are living in a strange time now where we are looking at ways to help kids adjust to the screen rather than finding ways to get them off of it.

Pinhorn says developing brains are not meant to learn this way and calls our brains “profoundly social”, and says while technology makes us feel connected we are still very much disconnected.

She does say that online learning and screen time can be positive, but we need to be cognizant of the stress it is adding to our bodies.

Pinhorn says that under the layer of stress of a global pandemic, our screens can be what pushes us over the edge and into a full stress cycle.