Main claim: Parents should set limits to how long their children can engage with technology.
In the 21st century, technology has been the most important role of our daily lives. It can be used anywhere at home, work or even school. It is depended on so much as it is extremely convenient; you can transport easily, instead of writing, you can type and instead of solving a math problem, you can just use a calculator. Without technology, we cannot survive; it has completely changed our society. However, if we rely on it too much, it will have a lot of deleterious effects such as surpassing humanity, changes of behaviors, unhealthiness and addiction. Therefore, parents should set limits to how long their children can engage with technology.
Premise 1: Technology is exceeding humanity.
One of the reasons why parents should set limits to how long their children can engage with technology is because of exceeding of humanity. Albert Einstein said prophetic words which is turning out to be completely true – “I fear the day technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.” The generation he was talking about is right now. For instance, it is said that the more they use technology like mobile phones, TVs or computers, the less communication between parents and children will have because technology is replacing human interaction. However, if we keep on relying on it, it will move onto our next generation and eventually surpass our humanity. Therefore, parents should set limits to how long their children can engage with technology so that their children can understand the detrimental impact of it and can teach their children about it as well.
Premise 2: Technology can lead to changes of behaviors.
Children who spend too much time on technology are likely to have psychopathic tendencies because it affects their personalities and behaviors. For example, they will become furious whenever they get interrupted while online. Also, children love playing games and watching animation, ignoring the age restriction, which can cause them to easily get violent. Once they cannot stop being ferocious, they are capable to threaten and physically or emotionally abuse anyone, even their parents when they are in a conflict. It can also involve sexual exploitation. Strasburger said, “I guarantee you that if you have a 14-year-old boy and he has an internet connection in his bedroom, he is looking at pornography.” Internet technology is not safe for children because there are a lot of free websites that have erotic videos that everyone can watch. Therefore, parents must block any mature websites since there is no guarantee what can appear on the site. What is more is that children who waste too much time on technology are expected to have antisocial behavior because they feel uncomfortable getting along with unfamiliar people; all they do is stay at home, all alone with their electronic devices. For example, the study has found that children who took a break using technology for just a day felt extremely lonely and did not know what to do to fill in their time. To prevent them from feeling isolated without depending on technology, parents should set limits to how long they can spend on technology, create daily tasks for them to do so that they will have something to do for the day, and have family times so that their communication with other people can improve.
Premise 3: Using technology too much can affect children’s health.
Furthermore, technology is extremely harmful especially for children. It is said that there is a high possibility for cell-phone users to get brain cancer or other health problems because of radio-frequency radiation which can deliver negative effects to the brain. It is also said that children who spend too much time in front of a screen are likely to overweight or obese due to the fact that spending too much time on technology means spending less on going outside to exercise and eating a lot of junk food from watching the commercials for snacks on the TV or computer. Too much screen time can also cause eye irritation, dryness, or other eye problems because they will start to exhaust by focusing too much at close range which is very unhealthy for them. Moreover, using technology affects sleeping patterns. Mark Rosekind said, “One of the most simple but important reasons technology affects our sleep is cognitive stimulation.” This means that when using technology before sleeping, your brain will work rapidly and it will put your brain and body in a state of stress which will cause its electrical activity to improve and neutrons to start racing. Lastly, computer users are likely to get a forward head posture especially when they are sitting on a computer. This often happens when they are deep into something like work or games. Forward head posture can affect breathing, headaches, backaches, and neck strain. To stop children from being unhealthy, parents must set limits to how long they can engage with technology and force them to go outside to exercise since children are naughty beings that do not try to listen to their parents.
Counter-claim: Parents are not allowing their children to take responsibility. They are making them have stress and be nervous at the time limit.
On the flip side, setting strict time limits to children is totally unfair because parents expect their children to take responsibility and make their own decisions; setting limits for them is the exact opposite of what they want them to do. On top of that, it can affect their education because they will not be able to freely do their assignments because of the nervousness at the time limit. It can also cause them to have stress or be depressed when setting limits since they will not be able to do what they want to do.
Rebuttal: However, technology is very addictive; children will not do what they must do until the last minute – They will procrastinate.
However, even so, it does not change the fact that using technology is extremely addictive. There are high possibility children will not use it on studying but they will use it to do what they want to do like playing games or watching animation. In this society, many children between the ages of two or three use their parents’ smartphones or tablets out of curiosity which cause them to quickly understand the knowledge of technology. Dr. Brent Conrad wrote percentages of children using technology which was – “By age eight, 96% of children have watched TV, 90% have used a computer, 81% have played console video games, and 60% have played games or used apps on portable device (cell phone, handheld game system, iPod, or tablet).” This tells you many children are depending on technology which will lead them to addiction. Once children get addicted to technology, it is nearly impossible to stop them. It is said that technology addiction is much more addictive than drug addiction or even gambling. One of the signs children could be addicted is when they sneak on devices when their parents aren’t watching. Also, many children will procrastinate until the last minute, stay with their devices for 24/7, and later technology will become their idolatry. Therefore, parents should set limits to how long their children can spend on technology.
Conclusion.
As explained clearly above with evidence, we are relying on technology too much. In order to reduce the detrimental effects such as surpassing humanity, changes of behaviors, unhealthiness and addiction, parents must set limits to how long their children can engage with technology.
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