Internet plays a huge role in our daily life. When we are woken up by our mobile phones, instead of an old-fashioned alarm clock, the first thing we do is check every social media application. We check what’s new on the feeds of Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter. After that, we check our mailbox and answer any Whatsapp messages we received during the night. When this is all done, we are quite awake enough to get out of bed. During breakfast, we check our e-mail again. Actually, this goes on for the rest of the day. It’s in our system, part of our daily routine. We can’t live without it. A lot of people complain about a busy life, a lack of privacy, having to be online and reachable 24/7. But when someone would ask you to take your phone for a day and answer all your calls and messages, not many would say yes.. because we are addicted.
This development is not only of our generation, it is even worse in the next generations. People of our age have experienced what it was to live without a smartphone and all these social media channels. Apple released their first Iphone in 2007. This gave an impulse to other brands. Since then a mobile phone with fast internet was not only for the wealthy businessmen, but also for the ‘regular consumer’. Access to internet became a crucial characteristic of a good telephone (United Consumers, 2016). This means that children aged 9 and younger have grown up in and environment where the constant use of smartphones is more than normal. The fact that children start using technological devices and internet at a younger age. At their 6th birthday, they get a game console as a present, at their 9th birthday they already get a smartphone, when they go to the secondary school they get a laptop. But from the age of 2, they already use the IPad of their parents, to play games and watch movies.
In summer, in work in a restaurant. Last summer, a family with 3 small children, in the age of 2-4, came for dinner at our restaurant. These children all had an IPad in front of them. From the moment they arrived until the moment they left, they were watching movies. Their parents were talking to each other and did not really pay attention to the kids. It seemed like they enjoyed the fact that the children were amused by the technological device and that they were silent. Similar to this family, I saw so many. To my opinion, this is not the idea of going out for dinner with your family. This should be a social activity as a group. These children didn’t participate in the social happening at all. If you don’t put a certain limit on the use of all these devices for your children, there will be a certain lack of social and emotional development. Of course, there are a lot of advantages such as online learning for children in a playful way. But a lot of them are addicted to internet from a very young age, and an activity as playing outside like children used to do, years ago, is not entertaining enough. This sometimes scares me, especially because internet is becoming a bigger part of our lives.
What do you think?
References
United Consumers (2016), https://www.unitedconsumers.com/gsm/ontstaan-mobiele-telefoon/index.jsp, 22-10-2016
Hi Katelijne, thanks for the interesting post! I do agree with you that it is very easy for children to get addicted to technology and the internet at a very young age. This indeed raises the question that you blogged about- “What is the right age for child to get a smartphone?”. However, picking the right age can be really tricky. Limiting a child’s access to a smartphone or to the internet at an age when all his friends have access to them can make the child feel excluded and lacking behind. This, in terms, can also have negative impact on the child’s development. Studies show that the average age for owning a smartphone has fallen from 12 to 10 since 2012, and that more than half of the children use social media by the age of 10. Thus, limiting their online experience is not really an option anymore- it could be more important for parents to try and maintain an open dialog with their children about their online activities and experiences.
I was wondering- what do you think about the role of parenting control and the teaching responsibility of parents with regards to smartphones and the internet?
Because they can also be very powerful tools, that give access to new information, education tools and chatting apps, which allow children to communicate with their friends. These are all important features that can enhance the development of children, however without parenting control, this freedom can easily turn into a social media addiction, for example.
Sources:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2552658/More-half-children-use-social-media-age-10-Facebook-popular-site-youngsters-join.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/21/technology/personaltech/whats-the-right-age-to-give-a-child-a-smartphone.html
Dear Katelijne, I totally agree with you. I remember going to a family birthday once, and two kids age 2 and 4 both had their own iPads. This was a few years ago, when I did not even have an iPhone yet (I had a really slow smartphone haha). To this day, every birthday, they are still on their iPad and they do not interact. While their parents think it might be easy to keep them occupied, it seems quite strange to me that from such a young age, these kids only want to play with their iPads. My parents would just send me outside when I was younger and I would be happy playing there (most of the times). However, you cannot possibly blame the childeren, but you have to look at the parents to provide the kids with a better environment. Kids younger than 10 have a Facebook profile nowadays, or even Instagram, which in my opinion is totally unneccessary. I remember that I had to wait until I went to high school to get my first mobile phone (a nokia with the game snake). Hence, I think parents should be educated about the effect it has on their kids, because kids cannot learn what they are not taught…
Hi Katelijne,
Thanks for your interesting post! I definitely agree with you that we should be concerned about the development of children getting addicted to technological devices or getting a so called screen/display addiction. In my opinion, social media platforms have a large share in this development. The fact that it is called ‘social’ media is therefore a bit contradictory.
One thing that could be causing this addiction is the ‘fear of missing out’. Through social media, you see more things that you are missing which will give you the feeling you should also post the great activities YOU are doing, to show them what THEY are missing out on. Causing a vicious cycle of following and posting and thus checking your phone constantly.
Another thing I find important to point out is the fact that there is so much online traffic that we can follow which is giving us a lot (maybe too many) of impulses. Personally, I find them very hard to ignore. If you leave your phone for a day, your list of notifications from Whatsapp, Snapchat, Facebook etc. will be endless. Think about how much time it takes to read it all, react and post things yourself. Next to that, all these notifications will distract you often from your serious work you have to do during the day.
All in all, we could say that social media is making us less social. Even though social media can be great fun, I think we should be more careful in using it and teach the next generation to find balance in doing real social activities and browsing and sharing social activities online. The importance of posting a social activity should not exceed the importance of doing the activity itself. Do you share my view?
Best,
Emily
Dear Katelijne,
Thank you for the interesting blog! I am really shocked to hear that you have experienced above situations. I totally agree with your opinion that enjoying a meal in a restaurant should be an social habit. Often I am wondering what is the right age for children to get used to all the technological developments and even after reading your article I am not really sure. I think it is very important that children learn how to interact with people and learn to be a social person, so I would suggest to let them play outside or in company with other children instead of giving them all the time to play with an Ipad or mobile phone. Especially during times that it is common to be social and therefore I hope they will understand themselves when to leave their Ipad for what it is. Besides, I would want them to learn about different (popular) technological devices and programs as in their future I guess it is important to understand the world of information technology. So I think I would try to minimalize their ‘online’ time and to be very strict at this, but also to give them their time to experience the world of technology.