Responsible use of new technologies can be difficult for children if exposed too often. How can we, as parents, help them find a balance?
When we were kids there were no new technologies, or at least they didn’t have the prominence they have now, and we were crazy to go out and play, after school all we wanted was for them to leave we picked up our friends to go to the park and run. The top, the marbles or a ball were enough to make us happy and enjoy our free time.
- But today.
- The situation seems to have changed.
- Children often spend their hours tied to screens.
- They start watching TV when they leave school and continue to play on their parents’ tablet or mobile phone.
- And what can we do to ensure that children can use new technologies in a responsible way?Read on for some tips!.
“We live in a society deeply dependent on science and technology, where no one knows anything about these issues. Is this a safe formula in the event of a disaster?-Carl Sagan-
On many occasions, when we have trouble getting a child to do something (such as eating, for example), we turn to the Internet or television, we put a picture so that it doesn’t protest and it goes out in the meantime. Achieving our goal with that, what’s wrong with using it?The problem occurs when overuse, addictively.
So, in the case explained above, there may be a time when the child gets angry every time he or she goes to eat, if he doesn’t have a screen in front of him, so he’ll decide not to eat if he doesn’t draw. What to do now that the solution was worse than the problem?This is the heart of it.
The truth is that misuse of new technologies can cause smaller hours to pass glued to screens, so they will spend less time on other activities, such as playing with other children, talking to their families, resting or studying. as a result, the quality and quantity of your interpersonal relationships can decrease significantly, and can even be isolated and lose your social support.
The same goes for her school grades: she is clearly aggravated by the child’s lack of time study; Finally, as tantrums indicate, a child’s behavior can become complicated and disruptive, so behavioral disorders may begin to appear.
“Technology is just a tool. People use tools to improve their lives. Tom Clancy-
The key to avoiding all this is in parents, who at home can encourage responsible use of new technologies, as they are not necessarily harmful if used to the right extent, in this way we will make it easier for children to access screens, but in a balanced way.
In order to use them as good tools for information, learning and entertainment, the first thing adults need to do is know what their children like, browse the Internet or play a video game together will help us connect, get to know each other better. and communicate better with them, in this way we will know firsthand what they like and what they are interested in.
Thus, we can offer them other activities to spend their free time, for example, we can start inviting them to read, suggesting that they look for a book on a topic that we know they are interested in, it is a good way to motivate them. more to vary the way they have fun. The same goes for offering sports for practice or excursions: it can be done according to your tastes.
But not only that, we also need to control the time that children use new technologies, as an indication, it is recommended to limit the use of television to one hour a day and that of video games to three or four hours per week. Parents should set a schedule for these activities, telling the child when they can and can’t.
As for the location of the TV, video game console and computer, it is best to be located in a place of the house accessible to everyone, not in the child’s room, so we will know which sites they visit on the Internet or what content they see on television, making sure they are suitable for their age, but we will not only prevent them from ousting the rest of the family or sleeping little with these new technologies.
Finally, we generally use different things (material or not) in the education of our children, either as reinforcement or as punishment to get children to change behaviors that we consider inappropriate, in this sense it is better not to use new technologies for it, because we can make them assume a more important role for children and their anxiety will increase if they do not have access to them.
Images courtesy of Pan Xiaozhen, Jeshoot. com and Tetsuya Tomomatsu.