Mobile addiction: 87% kids having excessive screen time !
Thursday - December 5, 2019 5:53 pm ,
Category : WTN SPECIAL
WTN- A study has found that screen time of children is growing by leaps and bounds which is gravely affecting their lifestyle and mental perspectives. Children's average daily time spent on screens increased from 53 minutes at age 12 months to more than 150 minutes at 3 years, according to the study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.
The researchers noted that by age 8, children were more likely to log the highest amount of screen time if they had been in home-based childcare or were born to first-time mothers. Screen habits begin early and interventions to reduce screen time could have a better chance of success if introduced early. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends avoiding digital media exposure for children less than 18 months of age, introducing children 18 to 24 months of age to screen media slowly, and limiting screen time to an hour a day for children from 2 to 5 years of age. The researchers found that 87 per cent of the children had screen time exceeding these recommendations.
The problem just doesn’t end with screen time; it becomes more worrisome when it turns into mobile addiction where children cannot control their urge to hook on to the screen for games, which give them a high, akin to doing drugs. Then it becomes all the more difficult to get them away from it and in extreme cases may even need medical intervention. Irregulated screen time and excessive compulsive desire to log on to the screen can lead to depleted hunger, inadequate sleep, lack of exercise, peer-disconnect, lack of concentration, pressure, tension, depression and headache apart from eye ailments for the strain constant viewing causes to them.
Parents must encourage children to engage in creative pursuits and physical exercise to wean them away from mobile and computer addiction. They must push them into those activities which stimulate the intellectual faculties and enhance physical capacities like outdoor activities. And for this, they too need to lead by example as children pick the early cues fast. If parents are poring into their mobile screens, children are bound to imbibe the same. In most homes this is the way the addictive habit is formed. The more educated and disciplined parents are, less likely are their children to fall in the trap. It is the surroundings which shape our thoughts and habits because we all do and learn from what we see around us. The better children get, better they would be.
Parents need to be caring and they must have exclusive time for their kids wherein they can share their problems and feelings freely. This makes a lot of difference in children’s lives and this is the filter that keeps kids away from many bad habits. Children are the assets of society and the nation builders of tomorrow. If we abet things which are detrimental to their physical and mental health, we indirectly pave the way for a society we won’t want to live in ourselves.
As elders we must be conscious of our roles and responsibilities in our homes and society before we point fingers at the modern-day maladies and whine at lost childhoods.-Window o News
The researchers noted that by age 8, children were more likely to log the highest amount of screen time if they had been in home-based childcare or were born to first-time mothers. Screen habits begin early and interventions to reduce screen time could have a better chance of success if introduced early. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends avoiding digital media exposure for children less than 18 months of age, introducing children 18 to 24 months of age to screen media slowly, and limiting screen time to an hour a day for children from 2 to 5 years of age. The researchers found that 87 per cent of the children had screen time exceeding these recommendations.
The problem just doesn’t end with screen time; it becomes more worrisome when it turns into mobile addiction where children cannot control their urge to hook on to the screen for games, which give them a high, akin to doing drugs. Then it becomes all the more difficult to get them away from it and in extreme cases may even need medical intervention. Irregulated screen time and excessive compulsive desire to log on to the screen can lead to depleted hunger, inadequate sleep, lack of exercise, peer-disconnect, lack of concentration, pressure, tension, depression and headache apart from eye ailments for the strain constant viewing causes to them.
Parents must encourage children to engage in creative pursuits and physical exercise to wean them away from mobile and computer addiction. They must push them into those activities which stimulate the intellectual faculties and enhance physical capacities like outdoor activities. And for this, they too need to lead by example as children pick the early cues fast. If parents are poring into their mobile screens, children are bound to imbibe the same. In most homes this is the way the addictive habit is formed. The more educated and disciplined parents are, less likely are their children to fall in the trap. It is the surroundings which shape our thoughts and habits because we all do and learn from what we see around us. The better children get, better they would be.
Parents need to be caring and they must have exclusive time for their kids wherein they can share their problems and feelings freely. This makes a lot of difference in children’s lives and this is the filter that keeps kids away from many bad habits. Children are the assets of society and the nation builders of tomorrow. If we abet things which are detrimental to their physical and mental health, we indirectly pave the way for a society we won’t want to live in ourselves.
As elders we must be conscious of our roles and responsibilities in our homes and society before we point fingers at the modern-day maladies and whine at lost childhoods.-Window o News
