Do you remember back in the day
when you would drive through a neighborhood and every kid on the street was playing
outside? Times have changed drastically
since then. Nowadays, if you were to
drive through that same neighborhood, you may be lucky to find a few kids
playing outside. The internet is
somewhat to blame for that. After teens
and young adults come home from school, most of them go straight to playing
video games, checking Facebook or other social networks, or surfing the
internet. With internet addiction being
fairly new, some parents don’t know the signs of internet addiction. There are steps parents can take to help
break their teen’s addiction.
According to the helpguide.org
under the internet and computer addiction article, parents need to be a
cautious as to how they approach dealing with a teen’s addiction to the
internet. One of the biggest setbacks of
the addiction is that the teen’s skills including emotions and social skills
are not up to par because they spend so much time online and don’t have that
human interaction. One way helpguid.org
suggests to help reduce internet addiction is to encourage other interests and
social activities. Community sports
teams, and Scouts can greatly improve these skills that teens miss from being
on the internet all the time. It helps
teens and young adults stay active both mentally and physically because they
have to work as a team to get an end result.
These activities also help build a person’s confidence and human
interaction skills that cannot be taught on the internet. Granted there also may be some underlying
issues as to why a teen stays on the internet for a long time, but being in a
group setting may help with resolving those issues. Also, the teen or young adult may look up to
a coach or leader than can impact their life.
These life lessons are very hard to learn on the internet, but something
has to be done to help reduce the amount of teens addicted to the internet.
I think parents should be stricter about their children using the internet. When i was a child, I was always active in recreational sports and had practices during the week, and games on the weekend. When i got home from school in the afternoons my brother and I would go outside and ride bikes and play games with our neighbors. My parents would not allow us to watch more than an hour of TV per day, and as far as the computer went we did not have a time limit, but it wasn't as popular as it is now so it wasn't a problem. Children this day in age spend way too much time engaged in video games, watching television, and playing around on the internet. I think the best way parents can keep these things from happening is limiting the amount of time their children spend using these devices, and sticking to these rules.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you, as I was also the same way when I was younger. I'm not sure when the drastic switch was to let kids play online or video games constantly and not be active in outside sports or activities, such as scouts. By doing those sorts of sports/activities, kids develop social skills they can't learn on the internet and how to interact with kids their own age. Some of these important skills include learning how to share, talk to others, and learn how to handle problems or situations.
ReplyDelete-Lauren Gorowski
I believe that the Internet has become an addiction to many young people today especially compared to my childhood. Although I do wonder have there been any studies that show some of these kids that spend more than enough time on the internet, do they have the ability to comprehend new technologies faster? And does it enable them to do better in school grade wise?
ReplyDeleteThe only studies I have found deal with the loss of white matter in internet addicts brains. The loss of the white matter results in people feeling depressed and not able to comprehend emotions very well. However, whether or not it can improve their school grades is a different story. From the research I have read, being addicted to the internet does interfere with their school grades because the kids will skip school or not be focused while they are in school. So by having the kids play outside or be on sports teams, it helps them spend time away from the computer.
ReplyDelete-Lauren Gorowski
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ReplyDeleteTotally agree!!! I think for those who born in the 00's and later have came into a generation of technology, iPhones, iPads, Play Station 3, Xbox 360, etc. I believe technology created opportunities yet at the same time diminishing social interaction. I remember playing hide-and-go-seek and tag-your-it with my neighbors. I remember playing basketball and riding bikes. I remember just sitting outside chit-chatting and just enjoying the beautiful weather. However teenagers this days don't even bother to see what the world has to offer but what technology does. -Jackie Som
ReplyDeleteIt really is sad about how much teens and younger children have to be around technology. I see kids in strollers at the grocery store with an iPhone in their hand to keep them quiet. What happened to the days when you learned to sit patiently and quietly until you were able to go home and play outside. I found this part of internet addiction both interesting and frustrating at the same time because that's not how I grew up and I wish kids these days were able to experience the same thing by being outside and involved in team sports.
ReplyDelete-Lauren Gorowski