Research claims that children spend upto 5 hours a day glued to their smart phones, people’s attention spans are shrinking as a consequence of over exposure to technology and those aged under 18-years-of-age should use technology for no more than 2 hours a day. This is all worrying stuff, however if one digs beneath what some might consider as the hysterical headline, “Digital Heroin for Children”, it becomes obvious that not all researchers agree with this gloomy picture. Others argue that gaming can enhance intellectual capacities. A number of contributors also make the point that it is a matter of parental control, for example employing a “no mobile phones at the table” rule and limiting the amount of time children can go online.
As a child I spent much of my time reading and could, at times be anti-social preferring the company of a novel to that of my fellow human beings. I also well recollect, when growing up the concerns about the over exposure of youngsters to television. It was an oft repeated mantra that those who watched “the box” excessively would get “square eyes”. Are we seeing the same panic over the internet as we saw over television?
My own view is that the internet can be addictive. It is easy to go online with the intention of checking if Jo Bloggs has replied to that email only to become distracted by a blog post from one of your favourite bloggers. Being blind I am not a typical internet user as a fair portion of my time online can be traced back to the fact that I am visually impaired. I cant read print and therefore get much of my news via the world wide web. Had I the ability to read print I would buy a daily newspaper (perhaps several) and, as a consequence spend less time surfing the web. When I am online for protracted periods I feel tired and gain a huge sense of wellbeing by switching off the computer and doing something completely different such as reading a braille book or going out into good old fresh air!
So are we going to hell in a hand cart or are we seeing a mad panic over nothing? We cant uninvent the internet (and I wouldn’t wish us to do so), but we can (and in my view should) use it and other forms of technology responsibly (this is particularly the case with children where parents have big responsibilities).
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