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In today's society, the majority of the teenagers spend their time on things like video games or social media. Personally, I spend a lot of time on the internet because I love social media and video games. I chose this topic because I wanted to know why I spend a lot of my time on the internet. The question focuses on what parents can do to reduce excessive usage of technology on children. In the first issue I'll be explaining why children spend time playing video games and how it affects them.
The second issue I will do is about social media. I believe that these two subjects are the main reason why adolescents spend a lot of time on technology. “The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) still recommends a maximum of one hour of “high-quality programming” for children under 6, but thereafter simply encourages parents to “place consistent limits on the time spent using media” and designate screen-free time as a family.” (MacDonald,2018) I will be focusing one two major countries one being America and the other one being Thailand my home country, and looking at points from different perspectives whether it is from a global or national point of view.
Whilst looking at my research question, there were many different topics that affect why children use technology.
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“Video games, social media, mobile apps—these are all hobbies and interests just like sports, reading, and more. The opportunity for socialization with tech, then, is twofold.” Freedom from school, or from their everyday lives to even things that help them relax.
I have chosen the two topics that in my opinion affect the reasons why children use technology. The first one would be video games and the second being social media. Here is a survey done in America that leads to my next point. Sudipta Jana says “A survey has shown that 47% of heavy online players got poor grades, while 23% of light users performed better than them.” (Jana, 2018)
My first topic is video games, video game addictions can be a negative and positive activity. The survey above proves that there is a positive correlation between time spent on video games and grades children get in school. I personally play video games from time to time, and I play whilst knowing that it can be a bad thing for me. “The program director of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Communications and Media, says too much screen time can be unhealthy for both younger and older children. David L. Hill states “The clearest concerns regard sleep and obesity, but there are also concerns regarding aggression, mood and displacement of other healthier activities,” (Hill, 2018)
Addiction towards games are negative because your child can lose focus on what they are currently doing. If they are at school they will stop listening or focusing on the task and think of the game, this could lead to a failure in a test. “The more rapid and the more image-loaded it is, the quicker and the greater the chance of an addiction,” said Dr Bankole Johnson, chairman of the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s department of psychiatry and director of its brain science consortium research unit.” (Agency, 2017)
“The National Health Assembly’s children and media panel head, Teerarat Pantawee, told The Nation Newspaper that Thailand’s eSport industry was worth more than 10 billion Thai baht (around £230 million), with an annual growth rate of 12 percent.” (Wotton, 2018) This means that more and more local Thai children spend their time playing video games instead of doing things like playing football or learning. “Dr Yongyud Wongpiromsarn of the country’s Department of Mental Health has blamed the official recognition of eSports for a 100% rise in the number of children addicted to online gaming. And Thailand’s Institute of Child and Adolescent Mental Health warned in September 2018 that as many as 60 children have sought treatment for game addiction in a matter of months.” (Wotton, 2018) Therefore children in Thailand aren’t all playing to have fun or to play with or make new friends, some play just to make money or become famous.
Whilst your kid plays a game, parents will want their children to stop playing. If you want to engage in a conversation with them without ending up in conflict you should play the game with them so you can have fun together. “Play a video game with your children. It's a good way to demonstrate good sportsmanship and gaming etiquette. Watch a show with them; you will have the opportunity to introduce and share your own life experiences and perspectives—and guidance.” (AAP, 2018) Adding on video games can bring a lot more positive things. “video gaming can enhance multiple cognitive skills such as better allocation of attention, visual processing, memory, reasoning, and perception, according to a research published by the American Psychological Association.” (Jana, 2018)
There are many ways in which parents can reduce the amount of time their children spend on technology. Some work better than others. If you want your kid to reduce the time they spend playing games then you will have to do the same yourself. “Be a good role model for your child and limit your own screen time.” “Do not install any video game equipment in your kid’s bedroom.” If this isn’t done, the child will be tempted to get up and play. This is very bad because it will break their sleeping schedule and become tired for the next day.
Nowadays, children use social media for many different reasons. This reasons could go from releasing stress all the way to making new friends. However, whilst your kid is on social media you will have to be careful with the amount of time they spend on it because the child could very easily get addicted. Agency shows that “One study found social media can be more addictive than cigarettes and alcohol for some people.” (Agency, 2017) When going through social media, you usually scroll through your feed relatively quickly this will increase the chances of addiction. ““The more rapid and the more image-loaded it is, the quicker and the greater the chance of an addiction,” said Dr Bankole Johnson, chairman of the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s department of psychiatry and director of its brain science consortium research unit.”
Kids at young ages start to memorise what their parents do and say, so parents have to be role models, and more importantly, if a parents keeps the TV on while eating to listen to the news the kid will think it is normal and start to do that. “Keeping the TV on for background noise all the time or scrolling through your phone any time you have a spare minute teaches your child bad habits.” (Morin, 2018)
Online safety is an important topic because some parents lack the tenacity to tell their children what to do. You should be checking your children social media usage around once a week to check their safety. Of course they’ll get mad but you have to check for their own well-being. “Many children lack the maturity needed to handle online problems, such as cyberbullying. It’s important to really take responsibility for helping your child stay safe if he's using social media.” (Morin, 2018)
When children go on social media, it is to pass time or to make themselves happy. However, some social media can also be an even bigger advantage to your children everyday lives. “Some research has found that social media can be a resource for teens to find social support when they are struggling with life issues, and that they can use the different online platforms as a way to express themselves.” (Agency, 2017) This means that social media doesn’t just have a bad effect on children but it can also have a good effect.
Social media does have a few positive sides, but there has been more proven for it to have a negative effect on children. “A study published earlier this year by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine with support from the US National Institutes of Health found that the more time young adults spent on social media, the more likely they were to have problems sleeping and to experience symptoms of depression.” (Agency, 2017) Thailand is currently an NIC, this means that a lot of its population is living under poverty. Also because a lot of the children have money problems, the children will spend time on social media. “Thailand’s online population, defined as people aged from 6 onwards that accessed the internet from a home or work computer in the past 30 days, reached nearly 9.8 million in February 2012, according to comScore. Average users spent 27.4 hours online during the month, consuming an average of 2,845 pages of content, in February 2012.” (Wiki Gender, 2012)
In conclusion, parents should let their children use technology. My perspective has changed because of all the research I have done. The research done has enabled me to see all the negative effects of video games and social media. As a local perspective a lot of people use technology for advertising through social media or even in websites, Thailand is in the top 10 world wide in the world.As a global perspective I think that something should be done to reduce the amount of time spent on technology because it can make people go crazy. In 2010 a couple from South Korea were playing an online video game for long periods of time without stopping, this caused their three-months-old baby to starve to death. (The Guardian, 2010) This proves my point that people get very addicted and live a poor life. Therefore, something has to be done whether it is minor or major something has to be done and quick. For example, people who have their own internet chose a period in the day where the internet has to be shut down for two hours. This enables people to go outside and exercise, or going back to the couple, feeding their baby. Although technology is a huge advantage to today’s society because it has enabled me to write this essay. It should still be restricted. Parents should limit the usage of their children technology time, but they can’t completely remove technology from their childhood orelse they will struggle when they are in college because they won’t know how to completely use laptops or Ipads. Therefore, parents should restrict technology time between 1 hour to 2 hours a week for 2 to 9 year olds and 4 to 10 hours a week for 10 to 18. This gives the 10 to 18 years old 2.4 hours a day which can be spent on games and socialising but more importantly homework. Parents should also check their child's phones to see if they aren’t being cyber-bullied or doing things they shouldn’t be.
Restrict Technology Use Of Children. (2024, Feb 26). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/restrict-technology-use-of-children-essay
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