{"id":277,"date":"2017-10-18T23:22:25","date_gmt":"2017-10-19T06:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0018\/?p=277"},"modified":"2017-11-29T20:52:32","modified_gmt":"2017-11-30T04:52:32","slug":"u4-a8-screen-time-can-it-be-negotiable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0018\/u4-a8-screen-time-can-it-be-negotiable\/","title":{"rendered":"U4 A8 – Screen time… can it be negotiable?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking back at how information technology has evolved during the last three decades some general aspects stand out: Devices shrink; all seems computer-related; print is optional; mobile devices are everywhere; and all kinds of data are available through a screen.<\/p>\n

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Children seem to be born already knowing how to deal with technology. Retrieved from Creative Commons, 2017.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The last point gets this blog started since hardly a day goes by without one looking at a screen.\u00a0 The Guardian’s article about children’s screen time questions initiatives for guidelines to moderate the exposure of children to digital screens (Etchells et al., 2017).\u00a0 The questioning targets the lack of support to sustain the claims of impacts on human behaviour and development upon which the initiatives are based.<\/p>\n

Technology has been a tremendous enabler for humankind long enough to the extent that -should the hazards be true, there should be plenty of cases reported on health damages like those claimed by the initiatives’ supporters.\u00a0 In the absence of such evidences I am inclined to think that the alarming arguments should be softened until there is substantiated proof, which coincides with the authors’ position.<\/p>\n

Besides, having a career in Information Technology and working in the field for a number of years, should allow me to attest the harmless nature of digital technology.\u00a0 But considering that I first came in contact with mobile devices as a young adult, I do not qualify as a survivor of the perils claimed by the authors’ opponents.<\/p>\n

In order to complement my pseudo-late entrance to the mobile device arena, I resort to another article titled “Seven fears and the science of how mobile technologies may be influencing adolescents in the digital age”, George and Odgers (2015) after researching the seven fears of their research concluded: 1.\u00a0 Online mirrors offline; and 2.\u00a0 The individual’s characteristics offline predict the individual’s ventures online.<\/p>\n

The combination of the two articles lead me to conclude that, on one hand in order to say that mobile devices are harmful to children scientific proof shall be stated (e.g. neurology studies). And on the other, the characteristics of a person dictate to a great extent what the conduct of the online avatar will be.\u00a0 Which points to the very origin: the family, because it is in the family where the core values of the individual are created and developed.<\/p>\n

In sum, taking care of values the family instils them in the child, thus he or she shall become a balanced responsible individual.\u00a0 Granting the neurological studies prove no harm, the child will surpass the mobile devices challenge to further grow into adulthood, and have an exciting and fulfilling life increasingly driven by technology.\u00a0 Make it so.<\/p>\n

References<\/p>\n

Etchells, P., et al. (2017).\u00a0Screen time guidelines should be built on evidence, not hype.\u00a0The Guardian<\/i>. January 6, 2017.<\/p>\n

George, M.J., and Odgers, C.L. (2015). Seven\u00a0fears and the science of how mobile technologies may be influencing adolescents in the digital age.\u00a0Perspect Psychol Sci. 2015 Nov; 10<\/em>(6): 832\u2013851.
\n<\/span>doi:\u00a0\u00a010.1177\/1745691615596788<\/span><\/p>\n

Pictures retrieved from Creative Commons website.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looking back at how information technology has evolved during the last three decades some general aspects stand out: Devices shrink; all seems computer-related; print is optional; mobile devices are everywhere; and all kinds of data are available through a screen. The last point gets this blog started since hardly a day goes by without one … Continue reading “U4 A8 – Screen time… can it be negotiable?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lrnt523"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277\/revisions\/322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}