Kids don’t stand a chance against the dangers of excessive technology use yet they are also too young to decide on their own what they can and can’t handle when it comes to modern digital living. They may be surrounded by technology and it seems normal for them to live and breathe with it but that’s not what nature designed humans to be – to be slaves to the modern trinkets that give them pure enjoyment but at a high cost. For starters, these devices are expensive and they end up badgering their parents to buy them the latest gadgets so they can keep up with their peers. Second, they can access the web with it. The Internet may be helpful a lot of times but there are hidden dangers. Their smartphones give them the freedom to navigate the web on their own, often without parental guidance and this can be a scary thing on a lot of levels.
Kids these days can usually be seen with a smartphone or a similar smart gadget on their hand most of the time. They are addicted to these devices and use it as much as adults do. They play games for hours on end and tinker with all the latest apps that promises them a boredom-free life. And because the world is highly becoming digital, we can only expect more of these gadgets to rise in the coming years, along with our children growing up. As early as now, many of today’s youth can no longer live without their smartphones and thrive in their own little virtual bubble where they can be whoever they want to be and portray a life unlike their own. If kid’s don’t learn how to deal with the presence of technology in their lives as early as they can, then they may have a hard time coping with life later on because one thing is for sure, modern technology is here to stay for good.
It’s a logical move — even their designers admit smartphones are built to be addictive, slowly trickling out “likes” users have received so they keep checking their phones, in one devious example.
And they’re distracting. As the Globe and Mail recently reported, the University of Texas business school did an experiment last year where three groups of people took a test. One group had their phones face-down on their desks, one had them in their bags or pockets and the last group had them in another room.
The group that performed the worst? The one with the phones on the desks.
In fact, even though no one was allowed to check their phones, the further away the phones were, the better they did.
The very existence of technology has made our lives easier yet in a way also harder. We no longer have to work on things manually as before and we now have access to a wide-range of information at the tip of our fingers but it comes at a price especially for the young ones who still know so little of this world. We lose essential skills because of our over-reliance on machines to do things for us. Kids, for instance, develop poorer cognition because they are too preoccupied with their smartphones while browsing their various social media accounts day in and day out.
For some teens, the constant potential feedback loop from notifications and messaging might create a fear of missing out, or FOMO. And although there is currently no official medical recognition of “smartphone addiction” as a disease or disorder, the term refers to obsessive behaviors that disturb the course of daily activities in a way that mirrors patterns similar to substance abuse.
(Via: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/17/well/family/is-your-child-a-phone-addict.html)
In as much as we care about the amount of time our children spend on their smartphones, we must also give attention to the types of materials they access on these devices especially on their own. It can give you an idea as to the types of dangers your children may be exposed to, so you’re not necessarily clueless about it and you can intervene at any given time. There is no doubt that smartphone has evolved to become an addiction and the best thing we can all do now is to put some limitations to your child’s smartphone use and most importantly make them understand why you are doing it. If you don’t, they may rebel and everything else backfires on you. Also, offer other interesting activities and hobbies they can pursue so their minds aren’t always thinking about their smartphones and the web when it can be avoided.
Apart from smartphones, youngsters can also connect to the Internet through computers. If there’s one major headache from the use of PC, it has to be the technical glitches one may encounter when using one. The hard drive is the most susceptible and it can render your device unusable until you get the problem sorted out. Avoid https://www.harddriverecovery.org/blog/hard-drive-failure-recovery-three-major-user-mistakes/ so there is no need for you to deal with https://www.harddriverecovery.org/about/clean-room-data-recovery/ anytime soon.