How Can Children Make Responsible Use Of New Technologies?
New technologies weren’t there when we were kids, or at least they weren’t as big a place as they are today, so we were excited to go out and about. play outside. After school, we just wanted our parents to let us meet our friends and go to the park to run around. A spinning top, marbles or a ball were enough for us to be happy and enjoy our free time.
But today, the situation seems to have changed. In many cases, children spend their free time glued to screens. They start watching TV when they leave school and continue to play on their parents’ tablet or laptop. And this all the time… What can we do to prevent children from using new technologies excessively? Read on!
The dangers of being continuously glued to screens
Very often, when we are unable to get a child to do something (such as eating, for example), we will resort to the Internet or television. We put some cartoons on him so that he doesn’t protest and that he stays quiet during this time. If we achieve our goal with this, why is it a problem to use it? The problem arises when we use new technologies excessively so that it is addictive.
So, in the case that we explained before, we can get to the point where the child will get angry every time he goes to eat and is not placed in front of a screen. In this way, he will try not to eat if we do not put his cartoons on him. What to do now that the cure turns out to be worse than the disease? Here lies the heart of the matter.
The reality is that misuse of new technology can cause children to spend hours glued to screens. This way, they will spend less time on other activities, such as playing with other children, talking to loved ones, resting or studying. As a result, the quality and quantity of their interpersonal relationships can drastically diminish, possibly even leading to their isolation and loss of social support.
The same thing happens with their school results: they can drop considerably due to the lack of time devoted to study. Finally, as we indicated by evoking tantrums, the child’s behavior can become complicated and disruptive, so that behavioral disorders could appear.
Parents have the key to change: promoting the responsible use of new technologies
The key to avoiding all of the above is with parents. Responsible use of new technologies can be encouraged in the home, as they are not necessarily bad if used correctly. In this way, we will get children to use them, but in a balanced way.
To get them to use new technologies as information, learning and entertainment tools, the first thing we need to do as adults is find out what our children like. Surfing the Internet or playing a video game together will help us connect, get to know each other and communicate better with them. This way we will be able to learn what other things they like and what worry them.
We will be able to offer other activities to spend free time. For example, we could invite them to read by suggesting that they look for a book on a topic that we know is of particular interest to them. This is a good way to motivate them to change the way they have fun. The same thing happens when it comes to offering sports activities or excursions to do: we can do it according to their tastes.
Standards relating to new technologies
This is not all, we need equal ly control the time they spend using new technologies. As an indication, it is recommended that the use of television be limited to one hour per day, and that of video game consoles to 3 or 4 hours per week. Therefore, parents should set a specific schedule for these activities, telling the child when he can or cannot use them.
As for the location of the television, game console and computer, it is preferable that they be located in a place accessible to everyone in the house, not in the child’s room. . In this way, we can know which websites he is visiting or what is the content of what he is watching on television, thereby ensuring that it is suitable for his age. But still, this will allow us to avoid that he does not isolate himself from the rest of the family or that he sleeps little to use new technologies.
Finally, in the education of our children, we usually use various things (material or not), as reinforcement or as punishment, to get them to change certain behaviors that we consider inappropriate. It is better not to use new technologies for this purpose because we could give them even more importance than they are and thus increase the anxiety of the children if they do not have access to them.
Images courtesy of Pan Xiaozhen, Jeshoot.com and Tetsuya Tomomatsu
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