I was reading a very interesting article on Yahoo! Parenting about children and tech. I was thrilled to see this important topic on such a highly viewed media source. It makes me believe that maybe–just maybe parents will begin to get the vital information they need in regards to their children and tech!
Children and Tech
I started researching this topic about a year ago, and was shocked at all that I did not know. I was also surprised by the fact that what I discovered was not publicized more prominently!
3 things you may want to consider when exposing your children to tech…
1. As posted in the Yahoo! Parenting post, the American Academy of Pediatrics updated its guidelines for children and media use last year. They recommend that kids under two have no screen time, and that kids over two should be limited to two hours or less a day. I recommend that you follow ALL the links in the article!
2. In my research over this past year, I discovered that WiFi can be downright dangerous! It generates electromagnetic radiation that penetrates the human body, causing a large variety of symptoms, and contributing to many disorders and diseases.
Scientific reports link WiFi radiation exposure with:
Loss of short term memory
Depression & Anxiety
Correlations have also been made to ADHD, Autism & Asthma.
Note: If you really want to let your kid play games or type on a tech device, TURN THE WI-FI button OFF! And turn the airplane mode on, so that it does not emit any wireless microwave signal.
3. Finally, there was another fact posted in the Yahoo! Parenting article that was really quite alarming; UCLA researchers conducted a study and found that “immediately after playing video games or using technology, kids were deficient when it came to displaying empathy or interpreting emotional cues from others“.
That is very scary.
Here is a quote from the study:
“Many people are looking at the benefits of digital media in education, and not many are looking at the costs,” said Patricia Greenfield, a distinguished professor of psychology in the UCLA College and senior author of the study. “Decreased sensitivity to emotional cues — losing the ability to understand the emotions of other people — is one of the costs. The displacement of in-person social interaction by screen interaction seems to be reducing social skills.”
We need to get out kids outside in the fresh air more, reading more old fashioned made from paper books, and participating in activities that encourage social behavior with other human beings–not high tech characters.
I mean we do not need to go crazy and never let our children near tech! I just think we need to be better informed and make necessary changes to limit their exposure. We need to help them develop a love for the outdoors, the simple things, and to appreciate face to face communication!
I encourage you to read the Yahoo! article, and also do your own research. It is so important that we take this important issue of children and tech seriously as parents.
What are your thoughts on Children and Tech?
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.