Missed Part I? Read up on our intro to video gaming and screen time as hot-button issues. (Or should that be hot-console?)

You can read about the video gaming part of the debate right here.

And now, onto:

Screens galore, screens galizzle

Ah, screen time. Does anyone else (other than Shmoop) remember when there was but one screen about which to be concerned? Whereas today, we're inundated with screens in all shapes and sizes: televisions, monitors, laptops, tablets, Smartphones, iPods, iPads, handheld gaming devices, and probably at least a few things we haven't heard of yet. Hey, even checkout counters require us to interact with screens in order to make our payments or collect our rewards.

Truth be told, screens are tough to get away from these days—unless, of course, you're cartwheeling through meadows, climbing trees, playing board games, or settling down in a cozy corner with a good book. (Remember that sentence from Part I?)

Obviously, as parents and teachers, we want to make sure that young people are indeed engaging in some pursuits that take them away from screens and challenge their physical and mental capacities. Yes, beyond thumb movements and difficult choices between all those Emoji.

When that's the limit to physical and mental capacities, we're talking something like the cautionary tale that is WALL-E: a future in which our populous, so addicted to the ease and luxury of clicking and scrolling to satisfy all of our needs, must ride everywhere on glorified La-Z-Boys due to completely atrophied muscles. Pixar does it great, but that doesn't mean we should.

As far as the present goes, with screens playing such integral roles in everything from researching and networking to word processing in our daily lives, it can be difficult to draw a line in the sand.

So. Just how much screen time is too much? It's a tough call. In her Atlantic article "The Touch Screen Generation," Hannah Rosin notes that, "On the one hand, parents want their children to swim expertly in the digital stream that they will have to navigate all their lives; on the other hand, they fear that too much digital media, too early, will sink them." Spot-on, Ms. Rosin.

Educators surely feel the same. It's important for students to be able to navigate today's highly technological world, but it's also important for them to maintain their physical and mental wellness and to be able to tackle problems and interact with others. Because not all problems and interactions involve swiping or clicking. And maybe, just maybe, the swipe-and-click modes of socialization leave a bit to be desired.

Anti-social media

Don't get us wrong—we've got nothing against Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and the like, and we agree that social media is a great way to keep in touch with folks across the miles. But apparently, when the bulk of our social interactions take place on screen, we get a little fuzzy when it comes to reading other people's emotions.

So says an August 2014 UCLA study that found that students who went five days device-free saw an immediate increase in their ability to read human emotions. As the study's lead author, Yalda Uhls, states, "You can't learn nonverbal emotional cues from a screen in the way you can learn it from face-to-face communication." And here we thought the range of facial expressions on our emoticons would do the trick.

The zombie effect

Another concern about screen time is the age-old idea that too much television (or other similar media) will rot your brain. You've probably heard that oh-so-poetic phrase at some point in your life. And if you have children or work with them, chances are you've either said it, or caught yourself about to say it and managed to rein those words in before they were verbalized.

But why, knowing as we do that media can be educational, are we so temped to utter this cliché?

Probably because we've all experienced just how disconcerting it can be to call a child's name once, twice, three times—to clap, snap, and all but yell, "Yoohoo! Hey! You!" And find your efforts to no avail because of that all-consuming screen in the room. This phenomenon was termed the "Zombie Effect" by author and teacher Jane Healy in her book, Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't Think—and What We Can Do About It.

Healy's book, first published in 1999, relates her observations of students' interactions with media as well as her belief that over the years students were, in fact, becoming "harder to teach, less attuned to verbal material, both spoken and written." Using loads of anecdotal information for support, Healy posited that television, video games, and the like were compromising young people's abilities to process information.

In using the term "Zombie Effect" to describe children's television-viewing habits, Healy implied that children were entranced by visual media. That trend of staring unblinking and unthinking was taken as a symbol of cognitive abilities wasting away.

Extreme, much? Maybe just a bit.

Not undead, just focused

In contrast to Healy's view, there has been research to indicate that while viewers may behave like zombies when they watch television, their trance-like behavior may not be as trance-like as it appears. Indeed, according to studies by Daniel Anderson, even very young children can be discriminating viewers who will turn away from content that doesn't make sense.

Well, that's reassuring, right?

And Heather Kirkorian, who directs the Cognitive Development and Media Lab at the University of Wisconsin, says that while, sure, some kids may appear to be in a trance and be hard to communicate with while they're watching a screen, they may behave in the same manner (quiet, highly focused, difficult to distract) when engrossed in a good book. That's definitely reassuring.

So, screens aren't inherently evil?

Let's go with an "of course not" to answer that one. But! That doesn't mean screen time shouldn't be limited in some way. Remember WALL-E.

In addition to sharing Pixar's well-documented concerns about the effect of excessive screen time on human musculature, the National Institute of Health suggests that too much screen time could also increase a child's risk of experiencing:

• sleep issues;
• attention problems;
• anxiety; and
• depression

Those aren't things to scoff at, folks.

And Patricia Greenfield, a senior author of that UCLA study we mentioned, says that this new information about the effect of screen time on students' abilities to read emotions should be a wake-up call to educators. She believes that schools must consider the social costs when they hand out the iPads and "make sure their students are getting enough face-to-face social interaction. That might mean reducing screen time."

And we'd believe her, but we just read it on a screen, so we're not sure whether her facial expression and body language really mean all that stuff she's saying.

Know your limits

At present, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents limit entertainment media usage for children and teens and establish screen-free zones in the home. The AAP also suggests that television and other entertainment media should not be consumed by children under the age of two. At all.

It's worth noting that this is an update of their 2006 policy, which recommended zero screen time of any sort for children under two. How do you even get to zero screen time, in this day and age?

And back in 1999, the AAP approach was to limit media time (the phrase screen time hadn't been coined yet) for youth to less than 1-2 hours per day. Whereas the 2013 recommendations specify that limitation applies to "entertainment screen time"—an acknowledgment that today's screens are used for much more than watching Knight Rider.

And pediatrician Marjorie Hogan of Minneapolis says "families should encourage a 'healthy media diet' for their children. Parents and kids should work together to decide how much time to spend with media every day, and to make sure good choices are being made about what media to take in" (source).

So, yeah—once again, whether you're an educator, a parent, or both, it's all about finding the right balance. And to cap it off, here's one great piece of advice, from Common Sense Media, that will work in both educational and home settings:

"Pay attention to how your kids [or students] act during and after watching TV, playing video games, or hanging out online. If they're using high-quality, age-appropriate media; their behavior is positive; and their screen-time activities are balanced with plenty of healthy screen-free ones, there's no need to worry." (Source)

Got that? So get assessing, watch human faces, and find the balance that works for your family, your classroom, or yourself. And in case we didn't hammer it home enough, next time you're ready to indulge in a good couple hours of screen time, WALL-E is a-waiting.