The Blue Whale Game

Essay, Pages 9 (2160 words)

Views

In today’s world everyone is very dependant on technology and gadgets. Children all around the world have been put in front of screens when they are eating or crying. This is increasing tantrums all around the world. In my everyday life i see my own family members putting screens in front of the young children's eyes. Hoping they will eat their food or stop crying. This affects the children's behaviour as they grow older and it also exposes them to technology at a young age and they get used to seeing screens and what not around their house.

Don't use plagiarized sources. Get your custom essay on

“ The Blue Whale Game ”

Get custom paper

NEW! smart matching with writer

The whole world is obsessed with video games and social media that they are addicted to their screens. People of all ages from 1 year olds to 80 year olds are keeping up with trends and what not. Artificial Intelligence is slowly conquering the world. BBC even predicts that by 2030 AI will take over 800 million jobs. According to me children should be exposed to technology at the age of 1, this is the perfect age as their braining start absorbing what they witness and their eyes are developed better.

I did a survey asking people of all ages questions on when they thought children should be exposed to technology and their views on the world's dependence on technology. Many people had different views on technology. These were the results of the surveys, more than ¾ th of the people thought that technology was a waste of time and they spent more time indoors than outdoors. As a result of my survey and asking people around i saw that many families were missing out on family time, because they and their children or parents are so obsessed with technology.

I have observed this in my personal life. That I spend more time in my room watching Tv and being on social media than i spend with my parents, and when I am travelling I spend so much time with my parents and less time on my phone and I tell myself that I’ll spend time when I go back, but it never happens. This made me realise that technology is slowly taking over my free time and I don’t get any free time to think or to be with my parents and my dog. Most of people that took the surveys got their first phone between the ages 10-18. Most of the people use technology for Social Media apps,Games and business related work.

My grandparents at the age of 60+ use social medias such as instagram and facebook and post videos and pictures. Anjana Jasani at the age of 67 made a website and started a business all by herself with the help of the children. Today she gets over 12 food orders a day. She was never exposed to technology until her children were born. But that did not stop her from learning and taking risks. When she was 60 years old she decided to change her life and learn how to use a computer, make powerpoints, websites, use google forms,docs and sheets. She made her food website Ajfoods and now is striving in her business. She is living proof, that even if you are not exposed to technology a young age, nothing will stop you, when your parents think it is right for you to get exposed. Mrs.Jasani believes that when you are young you should be outdoors play and not be glued to your television and bed. She says the reason i am so fit is because when i was younger i didn't have this exposure not did my children, and they are fit and are not very dependant of technology as well. I hope more children in the world realize that technology is decreasing their life span and start exercising and spend more time outdoors.

Vara Fazalbhoy and Vania Oberoi are sisters, Vara is currently 9 and Vania is 13, they were born in different generations. Vania was exposed to technology at a way later stage than Vara. Vania watched her first video at the age of 1 ½ years and as of Vara she watched her first nursery rhyme at the age of 6 months. Vara was a very fussy eater when she was younger but her parents never put in her infront of a screen while eating and today is eats everything without a fuss as her parents didn't give into her tantrums. Vara on the other hand was always fed in front of a screen, and at times she still eats in front of one. While speaking to their mother Geeta Fazalbhoy she revealed that Vania and Vara are completely different and they both use a lot of technology. She believes that showing her children rhymes and videos at a young age helped form their love for music,dance and helped in their education as well. She also believes that i children are exposed to technology they should watch things worthwhile, that will help them in their early years. Mrs.Fazalbhoy said something that struck me, she mentioned that Vania learned how to edit and make her first ever powerpoint at the age of 6, for one of her mother's speeches. This was a very proud moment for the family and Vania was getting the hang of using computers at a young age and this would eventually help her in her life. Vara as of today is very tech savvy and is up to date with all of today's new technology, Vania is tech savvy as well but not as much as her sister. They both loves gadgets and technology.

There are new apps that control childrens screentime and their content, Apple has added its own screentime to the setting so that parents can apple this on their children's phone. This also breaks down on which apps the children or adults spend the most time on and their daily usage of the phone. This setting will help children, manage their time and how they use it. On computers there are apps such as the one called self control, in self control there are blacklisted websites that you cannot access while you are doing your work. This app personally helped me do my school work without getting distracted. It helped me procrastinate less as the only apps i could use were the ones i needed.

There are many positives to being exposed to technology at a early age, this helps the develop life skills at an earlier age, Hand eye coordination is the coordinated hand and eye movements, this is very important for children later in their future especially if they wish to become an athlete. When children play games on their tablets or watch tv. Their eyes and their hands follow the movement of the app and the game. This helps children when they start school as then they have to learn how to draw and write at the same time while listening at the teacher. There are many apps that help you learn languages at any age such as duolingo, if children are exposed to apps like this at a young age it will help them build up their bases on these languages. A study has shown that the prime time to learn languages is before the age of ten as after that your brain is fully formed, hence making it more difficult to learn more languages. I was exposed to the app duolingo at the age of 9 and I started learning French on the app, i didn't realise how important it was until i started french in school a year later than my class and i was at the same stage as i had learned the language via an app. I did the same over the summer with Spanish, and i observed that it was more difficult for me to learn Spanish than it was to learn French. This is an example to support my point. You can also start reading e-books and learn your ABCs before you start school if you are exposed to technology.

Many schools today are making all their assignments due online on apps such as edmodo and google classroom as children are already on their devices and they can access this on any device. This has helped slow down the rates of children who have not done their homework and has made homework easier to do.

Technology is also increasing the motivation to complete tasks as when you are playing a game, you want to go to the next level and unlock new things, this implemented in the correct way could help encourage children.

Now days on youtube and on apps there are many tutorials on how to play an instrument, and shows you the they chords and the keys making it so easy that a beginner can play. This also helps children get encouraged and makes them eager to learn new things. Children even post videos of them doing gymnastics and then show their viewers how they exactly got that trick done, hoping their viewers will, be able to achieve the same.

Many teenagers today find it easier to express themselves via social media. Some write poetry and share it anonymously or under a pen name other rant out their feelings hoping someone will understand them and a few even make accounts supporting their idols and making friends with people around the world and taking to the, if children are exposed to technology and they are going through some stuff, and they don't talk to their parents at least they express how they feel on social media.

However alongside these positive impacts there are negative impacts as well.

Watching a lot of television and being on screens a lot reduces the child's going outside. This makes the child eat alot and the fat from the food accumulates in the body making the child have a higher risk of being obese. And increases the child’s chances on organ failure.

Being exposed to technology affects the child-parent relationship and weakens the relationship between them making it difficult to communicate as the children are always on their gadgets. Poor social skills, after videogames such as fortnite,pubg and other social media apps and games have been realized many people reduce going outside to be with their friends and prefer staying home,watching tv playing games and lying down in bed.

There are many people that so addicted to texting and being on their phone at their thumbs get cramps and their posture becomes horrible making them more prone to bone diseases such as arthritis.

If children become too dependant on technology they start to copy and plagiarism more as they are more interested in other things. One in every three teenagers are being cyberbullied. It is very easy to gain personal information from social media. And things are spread like wildfire. Many people handle backlash and hate on what they post. One of the most dramatic impacts of technology is that it reduces the child's sleep hours drastically as they are up late at night playing a video game or scrolling through social media. This affects the child's concentration in school and make them more prone to diseases like insomnia. Sometime people see their friends meet without them and they see on instagram and snapchat, this cause FOMO which is Fear Of Missing Out. This causes children to be more stressed and depressed.

The Blue Whale Game or challenge went around the world in 2016. It was a challenge in which you would have to do a self harming task everyday for a particular amount of days until you reached the final day and the challenge was to kill yourself. Many children were drawn in by this challenge and played this game. They could not back out of the game as the owners of this game had all their personal information and their credit card details. Many people died following this trend until the app and any other app like this were shut down completely.

I have listed many pros and cons of being exposed to technology at a young age, our future generations are going to be having much more exposure than we have, just like we had more than our parents. Artificial Intelligence like i mentioned before is slowly taking over the world. Our ancestors are going to be very dependant on them, however they shouldn't lose sight of their lifestyle and take control of their life.

To conclude my case study, I would like to say that we are exposed to loads of technology, but we shouldn't take it for granted and learn how to balance our life, and our use of technology. If we want to live a healthy lifestyle. After doing a lot of research on my case study, I would like to still stick with my point that the perfect age to be exposed to technology is 1, but after being exposed, the content should stay appropriate and you should not misuse your technology.