Entertainment and Technology

Throughout the short story, the author uses repeated references to and images of the television in order to develop his overarching commentaries on media, entertainment, and technology. In the narrative world of “Screen Time,” the television is a forbidden object and device that the mother and father attempt to keep from their two-year-old son. Although the parents spend every evening watching television in their room together after putting the boy to sleep, the boy has “never watched TV or anyone watching TV, so his parents’ television is vaguely mysterious to him” (3). Although he is familiar with the object’s presence and appearance, he is yet unaware of its design or function. The narrator asserts that while “the couple is in complete agreement that it’s best to put off their son’s exposure to screens as long as possible,” neither of them is a...