One fine relaxing Sunday afternoon, 5-year-old Norman sits very quietly in a living hall with his parents. His fingers are busy swapping the screen that he’s holding tightly in his hands and his eyes focusing on the iPad. Unsurprisingly, his parents are also busily engaged with their smartphones checking on something or perhaps texting?
Mia a 14-year-old girl, is lying on her bed since 10:00am, holding her smartphone, with her headphones on and smiling alone in her room. She is so disconnected from the real world that she doesn’t even respond to her mother calling her for lunch.
In an eye clinic, 10-year-old Rekha is sitting next to her mother waiting for her turn to meet an Ophthalmologist. Her eyesight has become worse lately. She was very unhappy at the wait until her mother took out a tab from her handbag and handed it to her.
12-year-old Darren invited his neighbourhood friends to his house. The mission is not to form a study group, but to play computer games while his homework piles up.
Modern technologies are invented to make our life easier and for us to stay connected no matter how far we are. It makes it easier for everyone to get access to social media, entertainment, games, emails, online shopping and more. However, the more we use it, the more addicted we get to these devices. Children are not exceptional. These days, children as young as 2 years old know how to use digital gadgets, while young kids aged 3 are now watching videos on their own through these devices with minimal parental guidance.
Lots of parents also undoubtedly allow their children to use the devices to avoid disturbance especially during the time when they have to work from home without realising the long-term bad effects of these gadgets on their children. Parents should act by keeping these devices away from their children when they notice unwanted symptoms such as sleep disturbance, inability to focus on daily activities especially academic, refuse to interact with people around them and when they get too attached with their devices. Some will even show tantrums and scream to get back the devices once it is taken away from them.
7 Alarming Effects Parent Should Be Aware Off
Effect 1: Affects parent-child relationship
Family time is most valuable as it strengthens our bonding and relationship. However, persistent usage of smart devices nowadays may leave a profound effect on family interaction and relationship. These days most family members are no longer engaging in family interaction even when they are at home especially during these times. Their eyes are glued to their mobile devices without any verbal interaction among them.
According to Statista.com, “For 2020, the number of smartphone users in Malaysia was estimated to reach 30.41 million and with a growing population, the number of smartphone users in Malaysia is expected to reach over 33 million by 2024”. In today’s digital era, face to face communication is no longer preferable. If this continues for a longer period, family time will be meaningless.
Effect 2: Impacts academic performances
Although there are many other factors that might lead to poor academic performance among school-age children, frequent use of screen devices also stands as one of the reasons why children are doing poorly at school.
Kids these days are competing with each other in updating their daily routine on social media such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter or Instagram. The Digital News Report 2017 found that Malaysians are the world’s largest users of WhatsApp at 51%. The report also found that Facebook and YouTube are also popular with Malaysians, with 58%and 26% users respectively, and WeChat and Instagram, with 13%.
Kids have a sea of apps to choose from that will keep them entertained for hours and hours, hence the reason why they are showing less interest in their studies. Studying is boring compared to checking out what’s happening on social media or compared to an exciting game. Besides limiting the screen time, parents also should strictly monitor and recognise the usage of these apps and its content because most of these apps are designed for adult usage.
Effect 3: Digital Eye Strain
Allowing your child to commit to their devices will promote symptoms such as eyestrain, headache, dry eyes, dark spots under their eyes and even blurred vision. Furthermore, too much-unsupervised attention to computer monitors, television or any digital devices can also root to permanent vision problem in your child, especially toddlers.
According to an ophthalmologist, the average human being blinks their eyes 15-20 times every minute. Why is it so important to blink? When you blink, it helps to moisturise and clean the surface of the eyes preventing them from getting any infection or dry eyes. However, when your children are looking at the digital devices for too long, they tend to blink less and as a result, their eyes get strained and tired! On this account, parents should be more alert and ensure kids are not playing with these devices especially before their bedtime.
Effect 4: Obesity
Obesity among children is one of the agenda being discussed widely these days. How can obesity be associated with the usage of modern digital devices?
Now imagine if they are sitting in front of the television with snacks for two to three hours? When your kids are no longer exposed to physical activities such as running, jumping and walking or even playing at the playground, this can contribute to the rise of obesity and along with that comes diabetes, heart attack and other health issues.
Effect 5: Sleeping Disorder
When your child goes to bed, are they really sleeping or do they continue engaging with their smartphone under the blanket? Playing with their gadget late at night will keep your child awake because once they have it in their hand then it’s hard to put it down.
As a result, your child won’t get enough sleep which most likely will affect their concentration, academic performance and eye sight problems. Experts from Harvard University also indicate that “children who suffer inadequate or disrupted sleep are far more likely to suffer depression and anxiety as adults”.
Effect 6: Tantrum and violent behaviour
When your child is very attached to their mobile devices, how do they react when it is taken away from them? Yes, kids will throw tantrums when their gadgets are taken away from them. This happens because digital devices have become their favourite pet since they are over-attached. As a result, you will hear them screaming, shouting and throwing tantrums because they can’t control their emotions.
Moreover, increased and varied exposure video games themed on violence will have an adverse impact on children’s behaviors. Children will develop arrogant characteristics and commit malicious acts on other children or to their siblings at home. In most cases, the language used by these characters in the video games might not be appropriate for your children and can leave a very bad influence on them.
Effect 7: Your Child has lost the real joy of playing
The real joy of playing is not created by watching something moving on the digital screen. It is the excitement your child gets when he or she runs happily and kicks the ball in the field, it’s the happiness that ebbs from the playing swing and it is a happiness that comes from building the sand castle with significant others by the beach.
However, the introductions of smart devices are replacing the real joy of playing. Social interaction is negligible when your child’s best friend is now a smartphone. Playing with a smartphone will never allow your child to develop their creativity and imagination, critical thinking, attention span, motivation, spirit of togetherness, friendship, empathy and/or physical development and desire to persevere chiefly in this very demanding life.
Call for Actions: 7 Actions Parents Can Take!
Action 1: It’s time to supervise your children!
Parent’s need to replace smart devices from your children’s life by setting the time on how time can be used productively during the day, meanwhile try and reduce the reliance on smartphones as they don’t really need those gadgets at a young age.
Action 2: Outdoor activities
Encourage your children to get involved in outdoor activities rather than playing with the digital devices as this will make life even more interesting. Additionally, it will help parents to discover your child’s hidden talent in certain games or sport during outdoor activities.
Amid Covid-19, most of us will be at home and it’s nice after a tiring day working from home, to go for an evening walk with your children as it can help to burn calories to battle with obesity and most importantly it promotes good parent child interaction as well.
Action 3: Indoor games
There are many indoor games that can be played at home during these uncertain times. Bring back those old day nostalgic indoor games like “Congkak” and “Batu Seremban” to remember a culture that is almost forgotten.
Additionally, other games such as card games, puzzles, popsicle sticks, scrabbles, chess, monopoly, carrom, building tower with stick and marshmallow also allows your children to be creative, improve their cognitive development and provide the opportunity to develop problem-solving skills.
Action 4: Art can be fun too!
As a parent, if you see that your children enjoy art such as colouring and drawing – engage them in art- based activities. It is proven that art and craft activities can develop gross motor and fine motor skills such as holding the crayon or water brush better compared to swapping a flat screen. When kids create an interesting piece of art, they will feel good about themselves and this will boost their self-confidence and self-esteem too!
Action 5: Bake cookies!
Get your children to help you bake cookies in the kitchen. Baking can help your child learn a surviving skill and develop an understanding of the ingredients used to bake cookies. They will also learn simple calculations such as measuring the ingredients that are needed to bake cookies and count how many cookies they have baked. Besides, baking with your children can be fun as it strengthens your family ties.
Action 6: Get to know your neighbours
Introduce your child to your neighbours as they might also have children the same age as your kids. This can be fun too and it’s a good chance for your child to learn to socialise with his or her peers. Trust me, when they’ve found new friends, they don’t care as much about gadgets anymore.
Action 7: Gardening!
Along with other activities, parents can always encourage children to be involve in gardening. Digging, planting seeds, watering plants and scooping dirt allows children to develop their fine motor, intellectual and cognitive skills.
They can also learn different types of plants and connect with nature and value them. Who knows that one day gardening might be their hobby and passion too!
The presence of digital devices has changed our lives in totality ranging from education to business and corporate areas. Digital technology has eased information to be shared quickly and effectively. So, it is not surprising that today’s digital use is increasingly widespread. But we must realise that Malaysians have now become obsessed with smartphones.
Parents should know that smartphones or digital devices are not designed for children. Hence, allowing your children to befriend these gadgets only promotes negative effects without proper supervision from parents or guardians. Let’s utilise the lockdown periods to experience the real joy of life by communicating and doing fun activities with our family members!
