Technology has become an important part of everyday life. However, as useful as it is, it can also be harmful, experts say.
Child with mobile phone PHOTO SOURCE The Truth Archive
Statistics show that phones and tablets have started to be used from a younger age, and children spend hours in front of bright screens every day.
Today's kids, tomorrow's future tech addicts
According to statistics provided by All About Parenting, in Romania, children between the ages of two and five end up spending, on average, three hours in front of a screen. So, whether it's a phone, tablet or even TV, this habit can be very harmful.
Specialists claim that as the child's age increases, so does the time spent with gadgets.
Thus, the lack of limits can turn technology into a real enemy for children.
Technology, the friend that turns into the enemy
Even though technology is very useful in many situations, it can turn into a real enemy, especially for young people.
Psychiatrists are talking about a real problem, which has intensified during the Covid19 pandemic.
“It is an increasingly important problem in recent years. Statistics show that not only children and young people are affected, but also older people. We can say that the pandemic has accelerated this phenomenon. If before the pandemic, the recommendations were to limit the use of electronic devices and social networks, these few years have accelerated their use. This happens because, during this period, everything was held online. Here we also refer to work, classes or online courses. Even though, for the most part, things are back to normal, we see that many employees are finding it difficult to return to the offices”, says Dr. Ovidiu Alexinschi, a psychiatrist at the Socola Iasi Institute of Psychiatry.
Three quarters of children own a smartphone
Psychiatrists argue that a solution to this problem needs to be identified and that the time spent on the phone, tablet or laptop needs to be carefully monitored.
“Studies show that almost three-quarters of children and adolescents have a smartphone and more than half say they have a problem related to the type of screen time. Clearly, heavy use takes its toll at some point. Here we are talking about the fact that we do not realize how much time we spend and how immersive this technology is. I think it's good to use an application that monitors the time spent in front of the phones because, often, we don't realize how much time we spend on this“, adds Dr. Ovidiu Alexinschi.
