grandkids glued to devices

Have my router on a timer - goes off at meal times and a couple of hours before bedtime when they stay over. They just accept that how it is at Nanas.
Get them to go for a walk or to the Park as we have to walk the dog twice a day. They're 9, 11 & 13.

No, me neither - but I don't get Gogglebox either. I don't think I'm quite what the reality TV/YT makers had in mind for their programmes

I can't understand the fascination for watching people watching stuff and commenting on it.

Maybe its kind of like gogglebox for teens.

Neither have I Minnie. The only positive I can take from it is that it seems to have fostered a love of design in him and he's talking about being an architect when he grows up, so I'm holding onto that thought for dear life...

Oh that reminds me of Spanky, SirChengin He babbles on about Minecraft. Now that is an odd game. Never quite got the hang of that one.

m 6 have done this to them grandson pracitcally told me he didnt have any option. He has since, his dad took it from him but he still didn't talk to me. he just sat in the chair and was in a bad mood. I was told not to speak to him and not told anything.

I have a description in an airbnb, wifi disconnected at midnight.

I feel your pain Sara - love it!!

My 12 year old watches Youtube channels of an adult man (Dan TDM I think is his name- so called because he's boring as hell, perhaps?) playing Minecraft. This chap is a multimillionaire apparently and watched by millions . My 19 year old daughter, an intelligent young woman at university, watches something called Love Island. After one too many conversations with me when I've reminded her that these programmes are scientifically proven to destroy brain cells and that she's actually better than that, she has now banned me from the living room while it's on.

Okay, okay point taken! I shall embrace YouTube, and before you know it, I’ll be able to put a bow in my hair in fifty different ways, delight in the fact that a random girl in America has 5000 lip glosses and watch a boring family doing boring things, in dreadful whiny voices

Seriously, you made me laugh!

Exactly - and how grateful were our parents that we spent so little time poring over C&C's problem pages and pinning posters of Simon Le Bon to our walls but instead were keen to spend time with them and our GPs, gardening, discussing current affairs, ruminating on cyclic weather patterns....

Lucky for us we had Cathy and Clare help us through those traumatic years

Sorry! I meant the social commentary by Jackie on the relationship angst experienced by young people in the 80s (aka how to dump the two timing b*****d who's just snogged Michelle in the year below)

SirChenjin

Mindless? Jackie? How could you!

I absolutely agree about the amount of time that young people spend on screens - but mindless rubbish? Wasn't Pong mindless? Or the photo stories in Jackie and Blue Jeans that I devoured in my youth for hours on end? Or rock n roll, which caused hysteria amongst young and old (for different reasons!)? Each generation has its own mindless rubbish and we generally emerge unscathed

SirChenjin

I agree we can’t just dismiss everything out of hand, my own children had game boys, and before that, that tennis game you played on the television.

I think there are two points which are cause for concern, one is the length of time some children spend on their screens, and the meltdown which follows when you take it away, and secondly, the absolute mindless rubbish on YouTube, which seems to be so fascinating to my young granddaughters

Kartush - what a great post . It seems like there's a lot of criticism about devices and how much time young people spend of them at the expense of their time with their GPs - but how many on here ask them about their world or make any effort to get to know what games they're playing or Youtubers they're following? It has to work both ways, surely, if we want the youngsters the be interested in the things we're interested in outside of screens? Time enough for everything, imo.

What about people who constantly read their devices out in restaurants?
My husband and I frequently see parents with their children and they're all on their devices!!! How sad.

Me too, been feeling disappointed that my relationship with my two grandsons (10 and 8) is not what I thought it would be.
They live a number of miles away, so don't see them too often and when I do, we can never seem to do much together

My eldest GS (now 21) has always loved devices but thats ok, I love them as well so we would play the games together, now he shows me stuff when we have lunch together and we chat about his online things. My youngest GS (10) is also a device junkie but I encourage him to show me what hes doing on it and explain what he is doing, he is quite happy to spend time talking about his favourite things. Then I ask him to spend a little time talking about his other activities. i find kids ...well my lot...are happy to do this because I have let them talk about their stuff as well. My husband struggles with this as devices and the games do not interest him.

I also had my head in a book for my entire young life. I don't recall ever sitting and having a conversation with "the oldies" ! Dad was always reading the paper, and Mum watched the TV all the time. I don't think there was much "scintillating conversation" at our place at the best of times !

My grandson is hard to prise off the Xbox.
It's an ongoing battle.

I understand the point the OP is making but I think there was a time when young women were discouraged from reading too much etc etc.

My grandmother said her mother never liked her going to the swimming baths because she thought you caught head lice there.

Things change. In the 1960's, people's parents complained about pop music and watching too much television.

I think there's a happy medium but it's not always easy to find it.

I’ve just had my five year grandchild for the last seven hours, apart from watching a film at the end of the day, no screens at all, I consider that to be a result!

I don’t have a problem with my DC being on them when we’re visiting the GPs providing they’ve spent a large chunk of the time interacting with us. Adult conversation can get a bit boring at times so I’m happy for them to switch off just as I did with a book or magazine when I was young and visiting relatives.

That being said, two of the four GPs are dead, one is a recluse who hasn’t seen his grandchildren or us in years and the other is nearly 90 and of the old school who has very fixed ideas of what her grandchildren should say and do. I really wish they had grandparents they could visit and (largely!) ignore for a few years during adolescence but sadly that won’t happen now

My youngest daughter could not be dragged away from MTV ?
Then it was her mobile phone, which even went with her into the bathroom ?
Luckily, none of my GC or GGC seem as hung up on their mobiles as that one daughter did.
She'd ring when she was clattering dishes or running a bath or in the shower. I routinely cut the call.
I like calls when there are no disturbances, you are not shopping or having a conversation with your companion or in a pub etc.
If you are...don't ring me.