In Magnus Johansson's dissertation, screen time is explored as part of parents' lived experiences, practices and meaning-making processes in their everyday lives.

Screen time, commonly understood as time spent in front of screen technologies, represents one such issue which remains central in many parents' daily lives. Following the Swedish recommendations on screen time for young children from the public health department in 2024, Sydsvenskan published an article titled ”Välgrundade och viktiga – eller alltför problemfokuserade och generella?”. The article becomes telling in how the perceived dichotomies around screen time often are articulated and expressed. The Swedish debate surrounding screen time has, as many equivalent countries debates, centered around the perceived harmful effects on children and young people’s excessive use of screen-clad technologies.

Besides parenting and parenthood, three interconnected themes are paramount for understanding this dissertation's approach: phenomenology, everyday life, and screen time. Understanding the complex lived experience of the parents provides additional insights into how parents cope with daily life within social and cultural norms and values, as well as how they constitute certain parts of these. Below are the research questions that have been central to the work in this dissertation.

• How do parents experience, negotiate and practice screen time in their everyday lives?
• In which ways can the subjective experiences of the parents be understood as a media imaginary around screen time?
• How can the intersubjective dimensions around screen time, such as other people, recommendations and public discourses, be understood as part of this imaginary?

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Commentators

Carolina Martinez, Senior Lecturer in Child and Youth Studies, and Associate Professor in Media and Communication Studies, Malmö University

Sara Eldén, Professor of Sociology, Malmö University