When I was growing up I constantly heard
from my Mother, “don’t sit too close to the TV or your eyes will go square,”
and yet now children now are being raised with iPads and other screen
technologies that could be more dangerous than sitting close to a TV.
Just the other day I was at an AFL game and
I saw a baby less than 12 months old, sitting on her mum’s lap with an iPhone
in her hand. Her Mum got to watch the game, and the baby was playing some
simple game designed for children and didn’t make a peep. There was no crying
and she never looked up from the screen.
At Christmas last year, my younger cousins
spent more time on their video games and iPads than greeting and talking to
everyone, even avoiding talking to the other children close to their age. What
does this mean for the future in terms of the social skills?
It made me consider my childhood. Computers,
for one, weren’t a big deal at the time, the internet was a lot slower and the
internet wasn’t accessible with appliances such as laptops, iPads and iPhones. We
had a computer room, where my sister and I would have to patiently wait just
for the computer to turn on. More often than not, we would prefer to go outside
and play.
When I think about the future and raising
children in this technological age, I believe that it’s about finding the
balance for appropriate “screen time.” Distracting your children and young
babies with iPhones and iPads so parents can have a break from their children
is not proactive, but that doesn’t mean we should try and stop children from
ever having access screen technologies.
How do we find that line? Should we be
creating tech-free zones for children?
Comment your opinion below.
