Gadget addiction in children

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

Gadgets include any modern multifunctional devices designed to make life easier for a person in various fields. Despite its direct purpose to organize a person’s life and free up time for solving personal issues, modern gadgets have become a serious addiction for the entire younger generation.

Toy attraction

Children's dependence on gadgets with access to the Internet can be explained in terms of several factors:

• desire to keep up with peers and be aware of all the new products;
• Internet makes it possible for a child to feel like someone else, more significant than he really is;
• having the ability to access any information, the child gets a feeling of "initiation" into all secrets;
• thirst to diversify your life when it is impossible to do it in reality.

In young children, dependence on gadgets is formed due to the desire to get vivid impressions - to enjoy the colorful presentation of cartoons or to experience an adventurein some adapted game. The life of a small child is already full of events, so by itself he does not feel the need for additional stimulation of his feelings, but having access to a simplified version of busy time, the child is firmly “addicted” to an interesting toy.

Family reasons

Parents are clearly aware of the circumstances that can harm the he alth of the child, but when it comes to the employment of the child, the law of least resistance comes into force when the determining factor becomes that the baby is busy and does not interfere at the same time. Why is this happening?

Firstly, it is convenient for parents that they can go about their business without being distracted by the whims of the child. Secondly, it is much easier to negotiate with children using your favorite tablet or phone as the subject of an agreement - if you complete the task, take the gadget, if you don’t do it, it’s your own fault. Third, parents may themselves be so engrossed in the controversial device that they see nothing but good in its use.

Other causes of gadget addiction born in the family are:

• unfavorable environment at home, when the child is forced to seek means to escape from reality;
• incorrect family notions of reward;
• Fear of parents being "bad" for a child;
• lack of other hobbies in children.

Often the root of the problem is the lack of parental education. If mom and dad are constantly working or for other reasons the baby grows up in the carerelatives who are not ready to pay enough attention to it, the enthusiasm for the gadget can be fatal.

What is the harm of gadgets

The biggest danger in the use of gadgets by children is that a modern toy can become a false alternative to most of the child's activities, which should develop him physically and mentally. Correspondence with virtual acquaintances replaces the child's communication with real friends, and the passage of various quests completely absorbs the teenager's need for self-realization and recognition.

Other dangers of gadget addiction in children:

• psychic overexertion due to the fact that the brain does not have time to process a lot of rapidly presented information;
• the child's mindset is tuned to the future when he can play the game or watch the video again;
• if scary characters are present in the games a child usually plays, phobias and neurotic diseases may develop;
• from sitting for a long time on a small screen, a person's vision is impaired, the spine is bent;
• reduced responsibility, habit of simplistic results.

Role-playing games, where the lead character completely merges with the personality of the gamer, are most destructive to the weak psyche of the child. Such identification with the hero suits children very much - they feel more significant and more powerful. This leads to the suppression of their true "I", which is always qualitatively behind the fictional one.image and gradually deforms the child's understanding of the world around him and his role in it.

Manifestations

What is gadget addiction called? Among the manifestations of subordination to a modern device (in this case, a mobile phone), nomophobia is called the main critical condition - this is the fear of losing a gadget. A child who is punished by taking away a toy or turning off the Internet may behave inappropriately: scream hysterically, rush into a fight, roll on the floor, or even have convulsions.

Less dangerous, but characteristic for the definition of addiction to gadgets are "phantom vibration" or "phantom ring". A person may constantly feel that he is being called or sent one message after another, but the phone screen will be blank. This state is periodically experienced by every active user of the device, but ghost calls visit the addicted person very often.

"Mental scabies" is what happens to a person who has not scrolled through the social media feed for too long or is dissatisfied with the scarcity of news on his page. The discomfort experienced at the same time is felt at the physical level - it dries up in the mouth, itching is felt. Panic attacks or aggression are possible.

Signs of addiction in a teenager

Gadget addiction in adolescents may be less pronounced than in younger children (excluding neglected conditions), but it becomes more obvious the longer the child is isolated fromfavorite device.

• getting access to his phone or tablet, a teenager experiences arousal close to euphoric state;
• other activities, games seem uninteresting to the child;
• when playing or chatting on social networks, a teenager loses track of time;
• attempts by parents to seize the phone or restrict access to it meet active resistance and aggression in a teenager;
• all conversations with a child come down to the advantages or disadvantages of his gadget, new games, news from social networks.

The child's personal version of social separation, propagated by the child, will also tell about dependence on gadgets, where all people, in his opinion, are divided into two categories - "chosen ones" (having a fashionable device) and "backward" (not having one). According to the created scheme, the relation of the child to others is also determined.

How to get rid of addiction to gadgets

Having discovered the prerequisites for a dangerous addiction, parents must resist the desire to immediately take extreme measures. You should first convey to the child that there are many things and activities in the world that are more interesting than a smartphone and virtual reality locked in it, and only then impose restrictions on the use of the gadget.

Adults should know that:

• a tablet or phone cannot be a subject of encouragement, as well as a ban on their use - a punishment;
• if the child learnsexpress himself in the family and society, he will be less drawn to virtual communication;
• zones free from the use of gadgets should be designated in the house (for example, the kitchen);
• every evening parents and children should gather and discuss the past day, share their impressions and emotions;
• you can offer your child to keep a diary - this is a good alternative to a social network page.

Introducing reasonable restrictions on the use of the device, it should be remembered that children under 7 years old can play on the phone for 15-20 minutes a day, younger students - up to 30 minutes, and teenagers - up to 1 hour.

Danger of a categorical ban

The problem of gadget addiction occurs when there are two extremes in the approach to the problem:

• in the absence of parental control and the complete connivance of a bad habit;
• with a strict ban on the use of the device.

And if in the first version of the extreme the problem is obvious and subject to careful adjustment, then in the second case the dependence is hidden and therefore is detected suddenly and in very active manifestations.

A complete ban on gadgets is always meaningless, because the child will eventually get access to the device anyway. Knowing the position of their parents regarding the forbidden fruit, children make every effort to hide their new addiction, which only aggravates the depth of their dependent position and makes the situation in the family more difficult.

Badly shaped employment

Often people are addicted to gadgets because of the huge amount of free time. By investing an unrealized time resource in creating a more successful version of oneself on the Internet, a person gets the illusion of success and completely loses the idea of reality. Which exit? Find enough motivation for your child to act in the real world and achieve "bonuses" in the form of real achievements.

The other side of the issue is the excessive employment of the child, which does not meet his true interests. Children are required to be simultaneously athletes, artists, musicians, ostensibly to expand the scope of future life choices, but the child is unable to live with thoughts about the future. What he does must captivate him every minute, otherwise it will turn into a difficult routine, from which it will be possible to get out only with a bright, entertaining gadget that does not require anything in return.

No panic

Parental panic unleashed against the backdrop of a child's addiction to a gadget is never justified. It arises when adults close themselves from the needs of their offspring by demonstrating the consequences of destructive passion, without trying to consider the essence of the difficulty.

The following happens: the child is deprived of his gadgets, deprived of all kinds of incentives, punished by studies or forced visits to a psychologist. None of this brings positive results, but the external idyll has been achieved - the teenager stops sitting on the phone,begins to study more; in other words, he is "present" again. All this leads to the development of a huge number of complexes, contributes to the development of hidden aggression and even hatred towards parents.

All this can be avoided, and with much less effort than it takes to systematically take away a device from a teenager and vigilantly monitor his movements. It is necessary to conduct a constant dialogue with the child, where his opinion will be taken into account on an equal basis with the opinion of adults, and his interests will be the main part of his pastime free from school.

Let it become commonplace in the family so that each of the household members shares their thoughts, experiences and plans for the future. There is nothing wrong with the fact that the child plays on the phone a little longer than expected - it is important that he can then stop himself and switch to other things. To make this happen painlessly, you should ask him to keep track of the time allotted for the game. Over time, the young gamer will get used to self-control, and the problem will no longer be acute.