Maryanne Wolf Quotes

The things kids can do on screens can be really delightful - if they are age appropriate. But no, they shouldn't spend all their time on a screen; they should split up their time doing multiple, different things.

Computers tend to separate us from each other - Mum's on the laptop, Dad's on the iPad, teenagers are on Facebook, toddlers are on the DS, and so on.

The average teen today spends about 35 hours a week in front of a screen of some kind: iPod, movie, TV, video. And a lot of it is good, but a lot of it's not. And so I think you've got that five hours a day of media coming into your kid's head that's creating a lot of havoc out there.

You know, I have a lot of books on my iPad, but when I try to read them, I find myself wandering off to play games. Those are books I'm interested in. I can't imagine what would have happened to me in college if my biology class had been on the same computer as 'Words With Friends' and 'Doom.'

Kids are growing up with a bombardment of information through technology.

I used to be a nanny and the kids used to laugh at me when I'd say 'Shall we paint something?' They just wanted to go on their iPads.

It comes down to a question of attention: it's difficult to use the Net distractedly, unlike the television or the radio.

People just don't sit down and just watch TV at night. Between cellphones, television, video games, the Internet and instant messaging, people are just spending their time in different places.

I think that the online world has actually brought books back. People are reading because they're reading the damn screen. That's more reading than people used to do.

Some researchers sensibly suggest that rather than worrying too much about which programs our children are watching, we should concentrate on trying to reduce the total amount of time they spend in front of the screen.

I hate the thought of my children being glued to a screen. Children only play on computers all day because their parents let them.

I don't even want to guess at what computer literacy might do to children, except to say that if cyberspace is considered a place, then there are people who are already in it and people who are not in it.

Every pastor, youth pastor, and every parent is in competition with the Internet and the information it is spreading. Most young people don't get their news from CNN or CBS; they get it from bloggers.

I'm on my computer a lot, but I swear I have an excuse! I spend about nine hours on media a day, but seven or eight of those are doing my schoolwork.

People are so busy positioning themselves before the screen and talking on the damn cellphones, communicating, that we're not reading, and in fact we're not really communicating, either. We're not talking to each other. There's just all these screens and wires and technology in between.

Some children naturally have more cognitive control than others, and in all kids this essential skill is being compromised by the usual suspects: smartphones, TV, etc. But there are many ways that adults can help kids learn better cognitive control.

The younger generation is surrounded by the Internet, apps, and video games. But somehow, my books make them read.

I have a 6-year-old daughter, and we never look through magazines. But when we're on a plane, that's the one time we have screen-time and magazine-time sometimes. And I do not open a magazine with her without saying: 'Now remind me, are these real pictures?'

I have three boys. Sometimes my wife and I really have to battle to keep video games from encroaching.

I get concerned when I see kids on their phones. They don't read enough anymore, anything longer than a tweet.

I do like to get away from technology. I still read a lot. Having said that, most of my reading is on computers or a Kindle or an iPad.

'Screen time' is meaningless - what matters is what you do while on the screen. The good, the bad, and the ugly faces of screen time will all have to do with which activities you engage into.

The sad thing is that I only ever read novels in bed and now only on the iPad, and thanks to Netflix and iTunes my reading time is getting eaten up more and more by movies and brilliant sci-fi television, like the U.K. series 'Misfits!'

The iPad is becoming the babysitter… Silicon Valley programs these things to be addictive.

It's easy to look at kids sitting around a campfire looking at their phones and to think, 'What a shame.' But I think they're going to be more advanced in terms of communication than my generation.