This is not an article condemning the act of giving your child gadgets like smartphones and tablets. Indeed, these gadgets can be very cool tools for you and your child. But let’s face it: it comes with a bunch of risks. (To be honest, a lot of these risks are affecting adults, too!)
The good news is that you can tackle all of these. You don’t have to banish gadgets from your house in order to rid your kids of any of these problems. You just have to be wary and alert. Let’s have a look at some of the ways these gadgets can bring negative aspects into the family life.
A lack of concentration
It’s actually somewhat of a myth that today’s kids are any worse at keeping concentration than any previous generation of kids. The problem with smartphones and tablets is that they’re great tool for facilitating a lack of concentration. Helping kids concentrate needs to be done regardless of whether they’re exposed to these devices. Developing your child’s concentration skills can actually ensure that they use these devices in more beneficial and educational ways. This being said, occasionally taking the gadgets away for a moment when they’re not pulling their concentration from them won’t hurt! Read more at successconsciousness.com.
Expensive damage
We want to believe that our kids will take good care of the devices we give them. But hey, let’s be honest: damage to a device is much more likely to occur when it’s in the hands of a child! It’s not so much that your child doesn’t respect the property. Kids just tend to be a bit more clumsy than adults, as their coordination skills simply aren’t as developed as ours. The best thing to do is to teach your child about the things that can damage a device and to use protective cases on them. (The devices, not the kids.) If something does happen to the devices, then work with a responsible repair company. See baltimorecellphonerepair.com for more info.
Reduced sleep
This is actually something that seems to be a concern for all of us. Exposure to the sort of light that these devices emit actually keeps our brains a bit too active for proper sleep if you’re using these things too late into the night. None of us should be using these devices within the hour before we go to bed. As for kids, as you can imagine, these devices affect them even more. We often think about whether or not our kids can get to sleep – but it’s also important that the quality of that sleep is good. It’s what keeps them sharp and able to learn! So it’s best that you keep them from using these gadgets too close to bedtime. Read more about improved sleep at psychologytoday.com.
A lack of appreciation for books
Okay, so maybe this is only going to be a concern for book nerds. But hey, books have been shown time and time again to improve your mood and brain function, and it’s especially important that a child spends more of their spare time reading rather than surfing the Internet.