Gadgets include any modern multifunctional devices designed to facilitate a person’s life in various fields. Despite its direct mission to organize a person’s life and free his time to solve personal issues, modern gadgets have become the cause of serious dependence of a whole younger generation.
Toy appeal
Child addiction to gadgets with Internet access is understandable in terms of several factors:
- desire to keep up with peers and keep abreast of all new products;
- the Internet enables the child to feel like someone else, more significant than he really is;
- having the ability to access any information, the child receives a feeling of “dedication” to all secrets;
- thirst to diversify your life when it is impossible to do it in reality.
In young children, addiction to gadgets is formed due to the desire to get vivid impressions - enjoy the colorful presentation of cartoons or survive an adventure in some adapted game. The life of a young child is already eventful, therefore, by itself, he does not feel the need for additional stimulation of his senses, but, having gained access to a simplified version of the busy time, the child firmly “sits down” on an interesting toy.
Reasons in the family
Parents are clearly aware of the circumstances that can harm the health 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 is that the baby is busy and does not interfere at the same time. Why is this happening?
Firstly, it’s convenient for parents that they can go about their business without being distracted by the vagaries of the child. Secondly, it’s much easier to negotiate with children using your favorite tablet or phone as the subject of the agreement — if you execute an order, take a gadget, you don’t fulfill it, it’s your own fault. Thirdly, parents themselves can be so passionate about a controversial device that they see only good in using it.
Other causes of addiction to gadgets born in the family are:
- unfavorable situation at home, when the child is forced to seek means to escape from reality;
- misconceptions about promotion accepted in the family;
- fear of parents to be “bad” for the child;
- lack of other hobbies in children.
Often at the root of the problem is the lack of parenting. If mom and dad are constantly working, or for other reasons, the baby grows up in the care of relatives who are not ready to give him enough attention, enthusiasm for the gadget can become 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 hazards of gadget addiction in children:
- mental overstrain associated with the fact that the brain does not have time to process a lot of rapidly presented information;
- the child’s thinking is set for the future, when he can again start the game or watch the video;
- if there are scary characters in the games the child usually plays, the development of phobias and neurotic diseases is possible;
- from long sitting over a small screen, a person's vision is disturbed, the spine is bent;
- loss of responsibility, habit of simplified results.
The most destructive to the child’s weak psyche is role-playing games, where the driven character merges completely with the personality of the gamer. Such identification with the hero is very suitable for children - they feel more significant and powerful. This leads to the suppression of their true "I", which always lags behind the fictitious image and gradually deforms the child's idea of the world and its role in it.
Manifestations
What is gadget addiction called? Among the manifestations of subordination to a modern device (in this case, a mobile phone), the main critical condition is called nomophobia - this is the fear of losing the gadget. A child who is punished by taking away a toy or turning off the Internet may behave inappropriately: scream hysterically, throw himself into a fight, roll on the floor or even cramp.
Less dangerous, but characteristic for determining the dependence on gadgets are “phantom vibration” or “phantom call”. It may constantly seem to a person that they are calling or sending one message after another, but the phone screen will be blank. Every active user of the device periodically experiences this condition, but phantom calls are visited very often by an addicted person.
“Mental scabies” is what happens to a person who has not been flipping through a feed on a social network for too long or who is frustrated by the scarcity of news on his page. The discomfort experienced in this case is felt on a physical level - it is dry in the mouth, itching is felt. Panic attacks or aggression are possible.
Signs of addiction in a teenager
The dependence on gadgets in adolescents may be less pronounced than in young children (excluding neglected conditions), but it also becomes more apparent the longer the child is isolated from his / her favorite device.
On what grounds will it be easy for parents to identify the problem:
- gaining access to his phone or tablet, a teenager experiences arousal close to a euphoric state;
- other activities, games seem uninteresting to the child;
- during a game or communication in social networks, a teenager loses the idea of time;
- parents' attempts to seize the phone or restrict access to it meet with the teenager active resistance and aggression;
- 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, which is propagated by the child, will also tell about the dependence on gadgets, where all people, in his opinion, are divided into two categories - “chosen ones” (with a fashionable device) and “retarded” (without one). According to the created scheme, the attitude of the child to others is also determined.
How to get rid of gadget addiction
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 in the world there are many things and activities 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 the subject of encouragement, as well as a ban on their use - a punishment;
- if the child learns to express himself in the family and society, he will be less attracted to virtual communication;
- in the house should be designated areas free from the use of gadgets (for example, a kitchen);
- every evening, parents and children should get together and discuss the past day, share their impressions and emotions;
- a child can be invited to keep a diary - this is a good alternative to a page on the social network.
Introducing reasonable restrictions on the use of the device, it should be remembered that children under 7 years old can play on the phone 15-20 minutes a day, younger students up to 30 minutes, and adolescents up to 1 hour.
The danger of a categorical ban
The gadget addiction problem arises when there are two extremes in approaching 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 variant of the extreme the problem is obvious and needs to be carefully corrected, 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 still sooner or later gets access to the device. Knowing the position of parents regarding the forbidden fetus, children make every effort to hide their new addiction, which only exacerbates the depth of their dependent position and aggravates the situation in the family.
Illiterate employment
Often people’s addiction to gadgets arises from the sheer 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? To find a child sufficient motivation to act in the real world and achieve “bonuses” in the form of real achievements.
The other side of the issue is the child’s excessive employment, which does not meet his true interests. Children are required to be both 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 is to entice him every minute, otherwise it will turn into a difficult routine, to get out of which it will be possible only through a bright, entertaining and not requiring anything in return gadget.
No panic!
Parental panic, unfolded against the backdrop of the problem of the child’s dependence on the gadget, is never justified. It occurs when adults shut themselves off from the needs of their offspring by demonstrating the consequences of destructive passion, without trying to at the same time consider the essence of the difficulty.
The following happens: the child is taken away from his gadgets, deprived of all kinds of rewards, punished with 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 do more lessons; 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 of parents.
You can avoid all this, and with much less effort than it takes to systematically select a device from a teenager and vigilantly monitor his movements. It is necessary to have 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 common in the family, so that each of the households shares their thoughts, feelings and plans for the future. There is nothing wrong with the fact that the child will play on the phone a little longer than it should be - it is important that he can then stop himself and switch to other things. To make this painless, 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 cease to be acute.