Jirat Rochdarongkul Mr.Dana Larrick Grade 12 British Literature 23 March, 2020 Parents Versus Electronic Devices Versus the Next Generation Do you think the accessibility of today’s electronic devices by the next generation will affect the smartness in the future? Technologies and electronic devices are everywhere in everyone’s hands today. The number of devices and types of digital media has increased over the past decades and continues to grow. These days, starting from around 3 years-old, parents start to hand their child and turn on cartoon videos to keep them calm and still. However, electronic devices and digital media have certainly improved our lives in many ways, research has shown that many problems can result from overexposure. There are numerous harms to children and teenagers that can lead them to their mental and physical issues in the future. If the reasons for parents to have their children on devices are just to entertain them or for them to concentrate, there are other numerous ways not requiring devices for entertainment and concentration. A research published by journalistsresorce.org says that “63% of kids in the U.S. spend over two hours a day on recreational screen time.” In 2018, healthhub.sg proposed nine health hazards of electronic devices for kids that were referred from most trustworthy organizations such as the World Health Organization, Victoria State Government, and etc. When played on devices, bad posture and muscle aches can be caused and they are long term pains. Uncomfortable seats and poor ergonomics combined with long lazy habits can result in bone problems. Eye strain which causes dry eyes and focusing problems. Loud lights, screen glare and flicker, or screen contrast may make videos and games more thrilling and amusing. Little do they know that these attractions factor can be really harmful to their eyes. Sleep issues are one effect that devices bring up to kids and teenagers. Overuse of devices, especially close to bedtime, can impact the sleep for children and adults. It makes it harder to fall asleep, disrupt sleep during the night, and causes poorer quality sleep in general. These devices produce a type of blue light that enables the brain to regard it as daytime. Especially for kids under 12 years-old, they need more sleeping time than adults. Losing half an hour of sleep can create a negative impact in their behavior the next day. Spending more screen time would also break the development of kids’ brains. Kids can become overstimulated from screen time without recognizing it, which leads to increase in anxiety, irritability, and poor behavior. Research conducted by the Trinh Wong & Faulkner G.E. proposed that “As use increases, so does the risk of mental health problems include depression, anxiety, ADHD, mood disorders, and suicidality. Teens who use electronic devices for more than two hours per day report significantly more mental health symptoms, increased psychological distress, and more suicidal ideation. Children using devices for more than 2 hours per day have increased risk of depression, and that risk rises as screen time increases. The lowest risk is observed in children who use devices for less than 1 hour daily. Studies have shown that children with ADHD symptoms spend more hours engaged in screen time activities than children without ADHD. As the amount of time spent with devices increases, so do symptoms of ADHD. These are some serious impacts that electronic devices can cause to children and teenagers. Of course, no parents want their kids to have mental and physical issues, they want the best for their kids. Somehow, they also want an easy life without considering their child’s mentality and physicality. Some issues such as back aches can be an issue to your kids for decades without any treatment to it. Significantly, mental issues are one of the issues that parents must worry the most. Laziness and comfortability combined with entertainment and fun, parents chose to have their kids watching at the screen instead and enjoy their own time eating or doing their work instead of taking care of their kids. Games are also dangerous without proper advice from parents. Do you want your kids to play bloody, fighting, or shooting games and take it as an example to perform it in real life? Moreover, many parents are not aware of online information and content that promotes wrong value or products. Well, some parents might speak out one could say that excessive mobile usage would have short term problems. But do not worry, these children do not have to continue to live for the problems to be long term. As they won’t develop their brains and die young, the problem will be a short-term problem. That’s one of the unique points because scientist will not have to deal with ADHD, cyberbullying, and decreased sleep. There would be less work for the doctor and they will have more time to work on other patient. Additionally, teenagers can have more fun being addicted to phones and bullying others. They can enjoy their lives as much as possible as they only live once. Games are also fun factor they can enjoy. Playing games which is bloody and shooting can be really satisfied for them, so they can express their emotions out. They can also take it as example and go out to kill people just like in the games so that it will also satisfy them. My modest proposal for the parents is that they can buy five phones per kids because by buying five phones it will make the kid able to develop their thinking of which phone should they use for today. If they want the phone, just get them the phone. If they want a tablet, get them a tablet. Getting what they want will make them to listen to you even more because they will love you more. Moreover, you don’t have to worry when they turn teenagers and go hangouts with their friends. You don’t have to worry about them go partying or doing illegal stuff because they will be staying at home dying away by phones. You can invest in buying more phones for them because you don’t have to pay more money for education as they will fail it. Also, there are several contents on the internet which children and teenagers can do self-learning at home, their parents will not need to invest their money in education In the future, they will no longer be called a mental illness because every child has it so it becomes normal for the world. Anything that majority has it is not wrong! They wouldn’t be the black sheep who are the one who only has mental and physical illness, but all of the next generation will have it! Passion and love are significant because it encourages you to do what you love and keep doing it. Great! Children can finally focus on them: playing phones all day and not doing anything else.
