Please tell all your friends who have kids...
High dependency on wireless mobile devices a growing concern worldwide as it has been found to be hazardous to health in numerous studies... Wireless mobile devices (WMDs) like smartphones, tablets, phablets, notebooks or other digital devices are weapons of mass distractions... can have various psychological, behavioral and neurological side effects.
According to research, among WMDs’ drastic effects on humans include:
- Diminish depth of thinking: We become shallow thinkers and less intelligent beings.
- Distract and disrupt concentration: Their addictive nature can leave you with an attention span of nine seconds – the same as a goldfish.
- Change our reading behaviour: We become cursory readers, browsing instead of actually reading which involves deep brain processing for critical thinking, imagination and reflection.
- Promote the habit of multi-tasking, which is addictive and causes stress.
- Multi-taskers are less able to concentrate and focus on a particular task. They are less patient, less creative, less productive and less able to make good decisions than those who do one thing at a time.
A study revealed that 38% of Americans under age 2 were using WMDs to watch videos, play games and other media-related purposes, and 78% of them would have a WMD by age 8.
Smartphones can disrupt children’s sleep pattern, 4 out of 5 smartphone owning teens would sleep with their phones by their beds according to a survey.
In Britain, children as young as 4 became so addicted to smartphones and iPads that they require psychological treatment.
To minimise the adverse impacts of digital media on our lives, it is imperative that we learn to limit its use and educate our tech-savvy young on its potentially damaging effects.
Source: FreeMalaysiaToday