A short YouTube monologue by Ming @ Agents of Speech arguing that excessive screen time does not cause autism but can produce a similar condition dubbed "virtual autism." Ming explains the similarity, cites Romanian psychologists' terminology, and emphasizes interactive, high-quality language time (5–10 minutes daily), supervised or dialog-rich screen content, and play/reading to restore language and social skills.
Screen time doesn't create autism. The Romanian psychologists called it virtual autism because there's parallels to it. It looks nearly the same, but it's actually created by something external. You cannot leave them alone with the videos all the time. You have to interact with them, watch with them, and teach them how to use it every day. That's 1, 2. Have quality language time. Language environment is everything. Have you seen Tarzan? That guy only spoke to gorillas. He doesn't know how to speak human language, but after he started to interact with the civilization, his language started to come out. It's the same as children who are stuck in a virtual world. You have to take them out, play with them, and have that quality time. It's important for you to set aside, no matter how busy you are, to have five to 10 minutes every day, to just interact with the kid, no matter if it's playing or reading a book. And other times, if you cannot take it, of course you can use screen time. Use something more safe, something that has a lot more dialogue in it, instead of nursery rhymes showing shapes and numbers.
