Are you tempted to plan a digital detox?
Internet overload has led millions of people in the UK to take a “digital detox”, according to research from regulator Ofcom.
The survey found 34% of internet users have taken a period of up to a month away from the web.
Some 59% of those surveyed considered themselves hooked on their devices, with a third saying they found it difficult to disconnect.
Half said that they spent longer online than originally intended each day.
With surveys revealing that many people would rather go without daily doses of coffee or television, than be parted with their smart phone or iPad, it’s safe to say that the world we live has changed drastically since the rise of the internet.
That isn’t to say it’s all bad – the World Wide Web has enriched many of our lives for the better and is an essential part to how the world now works.
However, some youngsters are growing up unable to read people’s body language or facial expressions because their eyes never leave mobile devices, and may not spend enough time daydreaming, creating, and exploring.
Do you think children should spend longer talking to each other, playing outside and people watching instead of being constantly absorbed by technology. Are you concerned about how much time you spend engaging with technology? Have we got the balance right?
What are your views?
We'd love to hear your comments
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Too many parents, with the best intentions initially, provide games consoles, and PCs, ostensibly to 'be good parents' providing technology so their youngsters fit comfortably within their existing peer group.
Those same parents want their children to 'fit in with society', 'to go with the flow', and to have a sense of belonging and avoid being seen as outcasts, or, worse still, become the victims of bullying.
Unwittingly, the fact many children often become unable to survive comfortably in social interactions is because they have never experienced non verbal communication with another human. They have never learnt how to recognise visual, and auditory feedback, and, therefore, are unable to comprehend how these natural signs fit into everyday situations in 'REAL LIFE'.
I opine that way before adults provide their 'developing children' with a pile of games, a games console, a PC, and a personal television (often doubling as a monitor) - in nearly every child's bedroom in the developed World - with the intention of keeping them quiet and occupied, they should spend much more physical time with their children.
Input and guidance needs to be there right from birth to teach them how to pick up on the existence of the signs and signals used in human interaction both within and between each other. Parents must, themselves, step in to seriously limit the amount of time children are exposed to attempting to interact with fictional gaming characters. There are 'false' signals in online games, insomuch as they are responses only given out to to the extent the software program stipulates a particular action will be performed.
There wouldn't be the need for any digital detoxation IF people had been taught from an early age NOT to become heavily reliant on the belief that all necessary 'life' communication skills exist electronically.
I was in our local Co-op about four weeks ago when, at the check out queue ahead of me was a young mum could not silence her screaming child in a push chair. What did she do in the end - thrust an iPad, yes an iPad, in the kiddy's hands and it settled down.
So parenting relies on electronics now, does it? Not in my household!
But, I would miss communications from my children.
Yes, Wilf, the internet is here to stay.
I probably spend too much time online as I am a computer geek but go walking every day for exercise, and apart from buying food and clothes I rarely visit a shop.