Item — HN Reader

I empathize with the screen time concerns - the reality is most kids in classrooms are already on screens, which are doing very little to move educational outcomes (from what I can tell based on the NAEP evidence).

And then you also have kids at home who are on TikTok or Instagram reels - combining screen time with easy dopamine.

Some kids using Bloomy decide to use it at home in lieu of social media time. I'd take that as a win. Cheap dopamine erodes focus and mental resilience. Bloomy focuses on ‘effortful dopamine.' We structure the experience so that students generate reward by conquering academic challenges, training the brain to find satisfaction in effort, patience, and mastery rather than passive consumption.

I'd be curious to see data that can isolate the relationship between educational outcomes and small bursts of high-quality instruction delivered via tech. That's one longer-term outcome we're trying to demonstrate. So far our efficacy results (still early pilots, but correlative) appear to be incrementally positive.

1 comments

Regardless of the content on the screen, the screen time is bad for kids.

Even desiring pixel-represented "data" for this fact that is obviously observable irl is itself perhaps a result of excessive screen-time, leading to spreadsheet brain, but I can gratify you with these studies: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]

Of course, no study will exactly disprove the claim that there is some possible content that is a net positive for kids, akin to how no study can prove that unicorns don't exist. But this is exactly the kind of brain-melt, culturally destructive kind of thinking you could expect for demanding "data" for every obvious fact.

Screen time is simply bad for kids. Don't give your kids a screen. Give them a ball, a stick, a book, etc

[1] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/... [2] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle... [3] https://red.library.usd.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002... [4] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/... [5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32202633/

Thanks! I’ll have a read. Appreciate your taking the time to source and share these.