These days, everyone has a smartphone. These devices can be very useful as there are tons of things you can do with them. Starting from the basic phone use to online search to counting your steps, watching videos, connecting it with other devices, you name it!
Smartphones can also be conveniently used when you want to entertain or distract your child. Surely you have noticed more and more small children keeping their eyes on the screen of such a device. Kids are full of energy, they do not like to stay in one place for a long time, they speak their minds, and can become quite annoying in certain situations.
In this sense, handing your smartphone to your child to play or watch cartoons seems like a great solution. The bad thing is that many parents are abusing this so-called solution for hours of silence and not having to entertain their children at all.
As studies show, kids and smartphones are not the best combination. Moreover, their behavior and development can seriously be affected by spending too much time on these smart devices.
Negative effects on the eyes
Nowadays, the smartphone has become one of the most modern must-have devices, and most people are never more than a hair’s breadth away from their unit. However, being overly reliant on this gadget is not the best possible way to spend your time.
Of course, adults can do as they please. When it comes to children, they should not be granted regular access to a computer or smartphone until they at least reach secondary school. New studies have revealed that too much screen time can have a harmful effect on the normal development of growing children.
Furthermore, a lot of time spent on the smartphone also causes the eyes to become irritated and dry. This is a result of blinking less while being concentrated on the screen.
Children who stay focused on the screen for long periods can also find it hard to adjust to distance vision. Usually, that is a short-term issue, as the eyes adjust back to their natural flexibility in a few hours or even days. However, this can become a serious problem for a child who spends countless hours per day on the phone.
Negative effects on sleep
This may come as a strange thing to you, but prolonged periods on the phone can affect your child’s sleep as well. Studies reveal that the blue light from smartphones or computer screens alters the brain’s sleep rhythm, especially when used in the evening.
To explain this more clearly, the brain reads the screen light as daytime and changes the body’s circadian rhythm. Moreover, the exciting content of movies or video games can also agitate a child when he or she should be calming down and preparing for sleep.
Children are also curious. If they are not supervised, they might have access to content that is not suitable for someone of such a young age. This can lead to nightmares and other types of improper behaviors.
Sedentarism
A child who is allowed to use a smartphone without restrictions will spend the most possible amount of time on the device. However, this means that he or she will move less, will rarely get out and play. All of these lead to obesity.
Children are very energetic and have a natural tendency to jump, run, dance, play, and climb. This helps them develop strong and healthy muscles, lungs, bones, heart, and brain. As you can imagine, the lack of such activities can lead to serious health issues and precarious physical development.
Behavior
Since we are social beings, we need to constantly maintain contact with the people around us. It is very important for children to be among other children, to play, and speak with them. This is how they develop social skills. If they are not used to spending time with other people and to communicate, it will be devastating for their social skills.
Children are very outgoing but as they grow, they begin to lose this characteristic. This is a natural phenomenon. A child who is not used to being around others of his or her kind will have serious issues adjusting at kindergarten, school, work, or any other group.
What to do?
Unfortunately, these are only a few of the problems caused by many hours spent on a smartphone. First of all, you should not use your phone as an element to calm your kid down or to keep him or her distracted while you are busy doing something else.
If you consider that your kid is old enough to use a smartphone, make sure you control the time he or she spends on it. Also, you should restrict access using various applications that are created especially for this purpose.
You can also include your kid in your activities. For example, look for a motorcycle dolly online, order it, and when it comes, go outside and mount your motorcycle on in.
A smartphone can be extremely useful if used carefully. However, it should never replace the time you spend with your child, any of your parental responsibilities, or other activities a normal kid should be experiencing.