iPad vs. the outdoors?
A recent study has found that children who have access to tablets or smartphones in their bedrooms get less sleep than those who do not have the devices with them in the bedroom at night.
Sounds like a no-brainer - and I am sure the same would go for adults who keep their devices with them at night!
They also said that the "small screen" was slightly worse than a TV when it came to sleep deprivation.
Now, I was raised in the old school. Not the old old school, but the old school. I got my first cellphone in 2002 and it was a Nokia 3330, which, if you compare it to the cellphones of 2015, was made in the dark ages. We also didn't have the luxury of 24-hour cartoon channels - so essentially the only thing we really wanted to watch on TV only aired after school. (Cues the likes of DCC on SABC 1) and my parents were very strict about TV time.
The internet when I was younger was a little useless (okay, rather useless) and all we could really do was log onto mweb.com or mnet.com (I don't really remember) and play some game which involved smashing roast chickens. And we couldn't even steal internet time because the landline would go engaged every time you dialled up the interweb.
Now fast forward to 2015 and the children these days are extremely techno-savy. My six-year-old nephew can do so much on a tablet, computer and a smartphone. He knows where to download games, and that if his favourite shows aren't on channel 303, 304, 305 etc (and yes, he names them) he can stream them via the internet. I'm actually shocked at how tech-savy he is. And I'm only 25; can you imagine what my mother feels about him!
As much as I feel that it's important for children to know all about technology and know how to use it, I also think it's more important for them to play outside, and pick up a book and read, and get roasties, and be naughty, and explore the real world, not through a screen.
So how tech-savvy are your kids? Do you prefer them to learn from a screen vs the outdoors? Do you prefer your kids to read off a kindle vs holding a paperback? Let me know! Leave your comments below.
(Photo: Gallo Images)