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According to Stefanie Olsen from Cnetnews.com “Kids complain of headaches, neck problems and
backaches. And when pediatricians can't identify the source, they'll send the child to a physical
therapist.”
These children are as young as eight years old and should not be experiencing any type of pain like
this.
Doreen Frank is a physical therapist who works near Albany, N.Y and she said in the last five years five
percent of her patients are in middle school and younger and they come in with pains all over their
body.
According to Alan Hedge who is a professor of ergonomics at Cornell University, “it takes an average
of five to 10 years for people with poor computer habits to develop RSI problems”. This means that the
children who are so engulfed in video games at an early age with have multiple problems with their
bodies when they are in high school or college. This makes it harder to work, play sports, or being able
to lift things.
“More than 80 percent of American kids age 12 to 17 use the Internet, and more than half of those
kids log on daily”, according to a Pew Internet and American Life study. I can testify to that, because
not only am I on the internet every single day, but my twelve year old brother and twenty three year
old sister are on it too. It is as if we are all addicted at some point.
http://news.cnet.com/Is-tech-injuring-children/2009-1041_3-6073730.html
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Life has always had some type of technology, so to suddenly deprive a child of it, would
be in a way cruel and unusual punishment.
According to Leigh Goessl, from helium.com, “Today the media thrives on generating
fear and people are constantly bombarded with the negatives in society” this then
causes the parents to be to fearful to send their children out to play. This is when
technology comes in, and the children sit on their behinds for hours on end playing one
video game.
Technology is an easy way to make friends and do something with children your own
age, but it also is an easy way for kids to gain weight together and be lazy.
They also have a tendency to live in a fantasy world, causing them to not be alarmed
and ready when something happens in reality.
www.helium.com
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I am not necessarily saying that technology is completely bad, but like Goessl says,
parents need to guide their children on how much technology is too much and how to
use it. This in turn will make the children smarter, faster, and be more successful.
The internet and such do give a wide amount of power and information at the
fingertips, and if used properly then they can make a person succeed in many ways
through researching and learning to rely on themselves to seek infromation.
Things like video games and internet games teach children to work together and
accomplish something, such as finishing a task or “saving the princess”. According to
Goessl, “This is not to exclude motor skills and hand-eye coordination that is improved
due to the movements needed to effectively navigate a mouse or play a video game.”
www.helium.com
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According to Effects of Technology on Classrooms and Students, “Technology use allows
many more students to be actively thinking about information, making choices, and
executing skills than is typical in teacher-led lessons. Moreover, when technology is used
as a tool to support students in performing authentic tasks, the students are in the
position of defining their goals, making design decisions, and evaluating their progress.”
In a way the teacher becomes the messenger and technology becomes the teacher.
The children are given projects and assignments that require research and creativity, so
they go home or onto a near computer start to play around and figure things out that
adults would never have known. An example of this is PowerPoint, the children are left
to their imagination when they are in front of this word process. I personally love
PowerPoint because there are so many things I can do with it.
Eventually these assignments bring kids together, because they help each other with
things the other person does not know how to do. They learn from each other and can
count on one another for support.
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EdReformStudies/EdTech/effectsstudents.html
According to Michael McCarthy from USA TODAY the top 10 console video
games for 2003 by units sold:Rank, gamePlatformPublisherPrice
 *1. Madden NFL 2004PlayStation 2Electronic Arts$49
 2. Need for Speed: UndergroundPlayStation 2Electronic Arts$49
 3. Legend of Zelda: The Wind WalkerGameCubeNintendo$47
 4. Grand Theft Auto: Vice CityPlayStation 2Take 2 Interactive$41
 5. Mario Kart: Double DashGameCubeNintendo$49
 6. Tony Hawk's UndergroundPlayStation 2Activision$47
 7. Enter the MatrixPlayStation 2Atari$46
 8. Medal of Honor: Rising SunPlayStation 2Electronic Arts$4
 99. NCAA Football 2004PlayStation 2Electronic Arts$49
 10. HaloXboxMicrosoft$38* Average retail price Source: The NPD Group/NPD
Funworld/TRSTS
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http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2004-08-26-video-games_x.htm
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Like I have said many times, myspacing, facebooking or speaking somehow through the
phone/computer is so much easier than speaking face to face because it is so much less stressful,
especially when something negative has to be said to the other person.
Baroness Greenfield from Realtruth.org “said that while social networking websites give the user a
feeling of acceptance, she worried that the activity distanced children ‘from the stress of face-toface, real-life conversation.’”
This addiction to the internet can cause irritability when they are not using the computer and this in
turn causes tension between the relationships they have outside of the internet.
Texting can also cause the people to be in a constant trance or state outside of their real
surroundings. They are consumed with their phone and pay little or no attention to the people around
them. People who feel they are not being heard or paid attention to will soon start to pull away, and
this also causes tension and loss of relationships.
Texting and using the internet starts as young as age eight. I personally was not given a phone till I was
thirteen but my brother who is the youngest in my family was given one at nine and my cousin who is
younger than him got one at six! They are constantly talking on it and texting, this can develop into
very bad habits in the future.
http://www.realtruth.org/news/090303-008-society.html
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H
Wp0DMJIgM