Do modern children need their own gadgets?

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

If a four-year-old child is left alone with a tablet computer, then after five minutes you can start to fear lest the child accidentally hack into the Pentagon website or change the orbit of the space satellite, and hundreds of children prove this every day.

Our offspring intuitively understand how to operate smartphones, laptops and other gadgets. And they do it so quickly that it seems that this skill is innate. Something like the next round of evolution.

Parents' opinions on this matter are fundamentally different. Some really consider such an early acquaintance of children with gadgets as evolution and progress, while others call this process nothing but degradation. Who is right?

Our offspring intuitively understand how to operate smartphones, laptops and other gadgets.

Let's get by

“We are not that we grew up without computers - even not everyone had TVs, and toys could be counted on the fingers of the hand. That is why they turned on imagination, read books, trained memory, - explains Maria Semenova, the mother of 5-year-old Petit, to her position. “And now, with the opportunity to get any information on the Internet, the memory of children is weakened, and besides, you do not always know what information and what he will receive there.” Maria herself uses a mobile phone with Internet access and a tablet, but gives her son a tablet only as a last resort - for example, when it is necessary to distract him on a long journey.

The most common arguments of parents against gadgets are the need to control the quality of the content that the child views, fear for the child's eyesight, the difficulty of explaining how to use educational programs and applications, and not just watch cartoons.

Pros and cons

More often, the opinion “against” is held by parents of children under 4 years of age. At this age, they try to keep children busy with books, educational toys, and if they give them a smartphone to play, then as an exception.

Older children, as a rule, can already apply for their own gadget. And here's why: it's time for a child to have something of their own, personal. His leisure time becomes more diversified, it is easy to engage in useful activities (educational games), as well as to encourage him with the help of a gadget.

But when deciding to buy your child their own smartphone or tablet, it is extremely important to take care of the correct software and protect against dangerous and inappropriate content.

“On the one hand, a gadget is a child's property, it is his personal space. On the other hand, there should be nothing superfluous and harmful in this personal space. Modern children's applications allow you to control the child's access to the Internet: not a single game, cartoon or resource will be at the child's disposal until the parent allows it,”says Stanislav Borisov, creator of the Frolik family service. - It is very important for parents to see the success of their child, to be aware of his achievements and new interests, in order to satisfy his curiosity in time, to reveal his abilities. Correct use of a computer or tablet helps with this: you can see how much time the child spends on reading or playing, which topics interest him the most,”adds Stanislav.

In general, according to statistics, children of 2-3 years old, on average, study a gadget (still parent) no more than 20 minutes a day and spend 10 minutes on one application. At 4-5 years old, a child has been playing for several hours and spends an hour on one application. At 8-9 years old, a child sits with a gadget for several hours a day, but this time is controlled by adults.

We live in the information age, and what until recently was a figment of the imagination of the most daring science fiction writers and futurists is the norm today.

To give or not to give?

“The gadget itself is not a source of good or evil. This is a modern tool that you need to learn how to use, - says Evgenia Lazareva, Fedor's mother is 4 years old. - My son learned the alphabet and learned to count using educational apps on his tablet. But parental control must also be present, I try to limit my son when he is overly addicted to the gadget, so that he does not turn into a desperate gamer."

We live in the information age, and what until recently was a figment of the imagination of the most daring science fiction writers and futurists is the norm today.

Not so long ago, we didn't use mobile phones at all. And now leaving the house without a cell phone is as inconceivable for many as walking barefoot. Tablets and smartphones, children's apps and children's Internet are part of our reality. And the degree of benefit and harm depends only on ourselves.

“They are really different - these residents of another time, born with an iPad in their teeth, who began surfing the Internet much earlier than they could speak,” Natalya, the mother of 5-year-old Lesya, writes on her Facebook page. - Not for a second being distracted from the action on the screen (active action with the brain turned on), the daughter absolutely connectedly tells her grandmother what tricks the parrots did in the circus and how the clowns were dressed. That is, he does not answer "yes / no / yeah" like adults who are engaged in something other than a telephone conversation, but completely masters two types of brain activity at the same time. I wonder what to expect from this iGeneration in the future ?!"