Who doesn’t have a cellphone these days? Being cellphone-less is akin to either being a member of some uncontacted tribe or other societal misfit. Ask many people what they want and their answer would be the newest phone (never mind food, justice, or a safe, healthy environment). Heck, it seems like even babies are now crawling out the womb with phones clenched in their tiny fists. The same goes for televisions and computers – many homes nowadays have at least one, if not more, of these devices.
Technology is great indeed. Television provides hours of entertainment (some of which can be educational), and computers are increasingly necessary in many spheres of our work and lives. With the invention of cellphones, our ability to communicate with each other increased significantly. (Theoretically, at least. We still have to find the right words to say, as well as the guts to speak up sometimes.) It’s not enough to just have a cellphone though; now those phone must be smartphones- capable of surfing the internet on the road, taking pictures and recording video, playing music, games, and a host of other functions.
One thing that gets my attention is the way that children – increasingly younger in age – seem to be fascinated with this technology. Suckling babes now lock eyes with the phone screen instead of their mamas, and toddlers barely mastering motor skills speedily access apps. In fact, many parents now use their phone to soothe, entertain, and distract a fussy child, in much the same way that television is/was used. Dealing with fretful children can be very stressful indeed, and it is understandable that caregivers would want to turn to electronic devices to help them cope. However, there are compelling reasons to resist this and to limit the amount of ‘screen time’- time spent in front of a television, computer, as well as, increasingly now, smartphone- that children are exposed to.
Today, the average child spends over five hours in front of some sort of screen. While computers may be useful for researching and completing school assignments, and there may be some educational TV programmes and applications on smartphones, the fact is that the health and well-being of many children today is negatively affected by large amounts of screen time. From concerns about cellphones and brain tumours to increased risk of becoming overweight and obese, links between media violence and