I upvoted because you wrote a good original piece even though I personally disagree that electronics are having a negative impact. As an avid reader, when my two oldest children were small I was very wary (to say the least) of electronics. I used to limit time on the computer, monitor activity with keystroke tracking, insist on more time spent reading or outside, etc.

But my views on this have evolved considerably over the past seven years. My oldest two are now 15 and 18, my youngest is 10, and they have completely unfettered access to online activity. I made this change in an experimental fashion about seven years ago, agreeing with my husband that we would give it six months and see what happened.

Contrary to warnings that "all they would do is play games" we found that while the limited time they used to have was entirely dedicated to gaming (and was never, ever enough, leading to fits and pleading when it was time to turn them off) now that they weren't limited, they began exploring all kinds of worlds of education I would never​ have imagined they'd even be interested in.

My eldest learned 5 languages, inspired by the different idioms his foreign language friends used (all of whom he met through online games). My middle child found a mentor through Roblox who is one of the biggest independent developers of mini-games on the site and learned to code through this friendship. He now earns money developing for himself and has just recently engaged his little sister (who loves to draw) in designing on paper the items that he digitizes for use in the games.

The greater benefit though, in my opinion, has been that by embracing this technology they love and immersing myself in it in order to see the good that it has to offer the trust my children have in us as parents has surpassed anything I could have hoped for. Far from hiding away in their rooms glued to the screen day and night, they voluntarily spend time sharing with us what new things they've learned, debating philosophical points, seeking our--and defending their--opinions on world matters. There is no rebellion and little disagreement, unlike when we limited electronic usage. They have goals for the future: My eldest will be going to college to get a degree in English so he can teach overseas. Middle of course wants to go for programming when the time comes. Youngest right now is aiming to someday open her own spa (inspired by the how-to make up videos she watches on YouTube).

And finally, I would point out that like it or not, the world is changing. The reason books were so valued a generation or so ago, is that they were the most efficient method of education. That is simply no longer true. The way people learn from YouTube (like I learned to plumb and run electrical and plaster and saved tens of thousands of dollars) may be different from the way they learn from a book, but that doesn't mean it's worse. Attention spans may be shorter (studies disagree) but even if they are, who's to say that's not a good thing for creativity and speed of development in the world we now face?