Monday, July 29, 2019
Smartphone Generation
In case you think it's an exaggeration...some time ago I heard of an elderly man who became unwell and drove his car into a channel. It was a busy day, lots of people around. They all were filming with their smartphones and it took a young foreign hairdresser guy to jump into the water and save the old man's life.
Anyway, I posted this cartoon because I want to discuss a real problem. Many of my friends complain about their (teenage) children's cell phone addiction. At the age of 16 or 17 I could hardly sit still yet here we have guys and girls who do little but play with their phones, in the case of guys it's anime and computer games, by girls it's social media. They don't play sports, they don't like to go outside, they have no real life friends, they don't help at home. The only thing they do in their free time is to lock themselves up in a room with a darn phone in their hands.
Is there anyone among my readers who have encountered similar problems and how do you deal with it? Advice will be appreciated!
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Underage societal dysfunctions can usually be traced to lousy media, schools, the general dysfunction of society at large... or the last line defense against said dysfunctions -- the lazy parents themselves.
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, it's not so much laziness...it's more about the parent (usually mother) not being able to maintain discipline. Fathers are usually away from home for a considerable time, and too many mothers want to be their child's buddy more than anything. It's not the only thing, though, it's like the young adults nowadays simply lack motivation to go out and discover the world.
ReplyDeleteParents set a bad example, as well! They need to get off their own phone and put the family technology on hold. My mother uses her phone way too much. Google this, google that ... Siri - yes, let's ask "her" every question ... it is incredible and so ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteOur youngest (11 and 13) don't have phones.
ReplyDeleteOur oldest three (young adults early 20s) are a mixed bag. Throughout their teen years, we didn't allow them to have smart phones. There was one active phone to share, and in the event that more than one of them was out for an activity, one of them would take my phone.
Now that they can -and do!- pay for their own phones and service, we do notice that one is a little heavy on the phone use, but thankfully one of her sisters is quick to say, "You're on your phone too much". Interestingly, she's not on social media, but is mostly into reading fan fiction and watching history documentaries on her phone.
The problem is that it's a bad habit to be looking at a phone all the time, and to be doing all your reading on such a small backlit screen is bound to damage the eyes over time.
It is an education to be out and see how many people (not all young, by the way) are enraptured by their little screens.
Yes, it's true, older folks abuse their phones as well:) But... from what I witnessed, they often use social media to connect with others and share real life activities, unlike the youngsters. For me the worst thing about it is the fact that so many young folks appear to prefer virtual reality to real life and shut themselves off. My parents are boomers and their generation played sports and went hiking and we as GenXers were out exploring as well, but the zoomers...
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, it's really bad for their eyes. Before it was mostly book worms who ended up with glasses, now it's everyone. I read about kids under school age getting myopia. In this case, it's clearly the parents' fault, but when you have the son of 17 who locks himself up with anime and computer games...what are you to do?
Here they used to bicycle with a phone in their hand! Finally the government took a law which prohibits it and you can get fined (95 euro I thought). Some are doing it still.
ReplyDelete