Click on the following link for a Room for Debate page: Is Internet Addiction a Health Risk for Teens.
Read all five of the articles, then choose ONE to respond to. Your response should both summarize the main ideas of the author as well put forward your own reasons for agreeing or disagreeing.
Remember the upside down triangle to begin and using the “On the other hand.”
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Response to “Cyberbullying Is a Bigger Problem Than Screen Time Addiction”
Tynes claims that instead of screen time we should be worried about, we should be worried about the bullies on the internet and that it causes psychological damage.
Tynes accurately expresses though that “The harms that can come to children who use technology excessively — including depression, behavioral problems and poor academic performance — are not just caused by too much screen time”. The internet can be some children’s whole lives and the issue should be addressed with parenting not so much as restriction. A concerned parent should be the one who worries about their kid, not their computer time. While there’s the issue of the technology gap between families, parental support and listening can go a long way in helping children and adolescents deal with online issues.
I can agree with Tynes’ statement that “It is the nature of the interactions that take place through the screen that count”. As much as the internet seems like a huge part of people’s lives, there is a difference between interacting to your friends online and in real life. The internet is open and anonymous and people are willing to use it to express their opinions and emotions more than in real life, even at the expense of another person’s feelings. So while there is concern about stopping it, harassment just like in real life isn’t going away. The best way to deal with it is education and learning what information to publish online.
But while I agree that there is harassment on the internet, cyber bullying is almost a symptom of internet addiction. The internet is not real life and letting internet problems get to you means that it is becoming your real life. The internet should be a place to escape to and not a place you need to escape from. While learning to separate internet drama from your actual life is a tough skill, the best way to get that is from a parental figure. People shouldn’t send their children online and think it’s safe or send their children online scared out of their wits.
So while cyber bullying will probably never go away like bullying in real life, parental support can help their children learn to deal with online drama and get the support and treatment that they need to not take the internet so seriously.
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Society is to blame for the way kids are more involved in technology. This is because society means to have the youth conform to the environment that is around them. Society makes it seem as though being connected with the online environment is safer then the world around us. “We have locked them indoors…. Physical world as more dangerous than ever before,”(“Blame society, Not the screen time” by Danah Boyd).
Society should be the one to blame for the youth being so focused on technology. “much higher levels of concern about technology “addiction””(Boyd). Society puts ads regarding technology and apps almost every where you go, like in malls or on a bus we see different images and saying that involve the use of technology. Society also emphasis technology in different programs we watch. The youth is more focused on when the next season of a new show is going to come out or when the next new phone or laptop is going to be created.
Society pushes us towards technology as an outlet for relieving stress. “many of our youth turn to technology….”. The youth gets tested so much to try and improve us
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Today, kids are way to connected to the screen because we push them away. You can see it in the way we act towards them. “They aren’t addicted to the computer; they’re addicted to interaction” stated Boyd. Kids are given little interaction with being outside and exploring do to the fear of getting charged with neglect. Teens turn to technology because of the stress they are put under and it is a way to be with friends without actually having to go out.
If we are able to let our kids go explore and interact with the world around them, they would not spend so much time using tablets and such. Parents are getting afraid to let their kids roam free because if they lose sight of them it could be seen as neglect and have them taken away. so kids will just learn to use tablets as a way to explore and have interaction in their lives.
In schools, teens are given a boat load of work and at home they have chores to get done, it can feel like endless work. Having “endless” amount of work can be hard on a person, s0 to escape the world they turn to technology. Society embrace’s technology as a means to escape with having new gadgets come out every week. If school would easy up on the homework, taking stress off the kids they would not need to turn to tech-savvy human beings.
People will no longer have to go out to places to see other. Technology has proved a way for people to connect over the web.
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The article Blame Society, Not the Screen Time written by Danah Boyd has some very good points, but they could effect some children and not others it depends on first the individual child, then the parents as their role model. Whether or not the parent(s) wants to introduce technology in the first place the article states this in the beginning but I believe that technology will not doom our kids it will only have a negative affect on them if the parents don’t monitor what they do and set a good example to follow that technology is nothing compared to what someone can experience in life. Don’t miss out ! “Even though multiple generations have now grown up glued to the flickering light of the TV, we still can’t let go of the belief that the next generation of technology is going to doom our kids”. I disagree with the article Blame Society, Not the Screen Time because if you would blame society for how they will act with technology then you will never give them a change to grow as a individual. If the children of the next generation let others judge them because of who they are then they will never be their own person. If other’s don’t accept the a person for who they are then what does that tell you about that person, they have no place to judge any one . If technology is only a big problem if that individual will allow the addictive habits to take a toll on them. A parent has every right to introduce technology to their child, but in my opinion if they see additive patterns they should show them that there is an amazing amount of thing’s that don’t involve T.V’s ,computers or smartphones. If some one try’s to experience life from a screen they will never have a true experience.
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More and more individuals are becoming addicted to the internet/social media. It becomes a habit for all and it is very difficult to break out of. Too much internet time becomes a very high interference with our everyday lives and relationships. Bergman states” Videogames were my first real exposure to programming.” Now the focus is all about how much time is spent in front of the screen and individuals should have a specific limit on how much time they are allowed to be on the internet. Unlimited internet time limits mental development of individuals.
Individuals should limit their time on the internet because there is more to life than just a screen telling one all the information and answers that are needed. For students, instead of being on social media or playing video games for hours, there is a need for more study time and effort that needs to be placed into school. Education comes first than anything else and should be taken seriously. Also, staring at a screen for 3 to 4 hours a day limits individuals to the real world. Life is all about challenging the mind, exploring, etc. Without attempting these components life is technically incomplete because of the limited mental development of individuals. Lastly, Staying behind the screen at all times causes the individual to become anti-social. One can text anytime, but it makes a huge difference when one talks to someone in person. It allows them to express themselves instead of having a screen between them.
Massive internet time does not only interfere in one’s life, but it takes a major toll on one’s future. Life consists of numerous priorities. Some examples are educations, career, etc. Having gaming as a number one priority effects one future with the result of them dropping out of school and not being able to be successful by accomplishing dream goals. This occurs because the focus is on something addicting and non-important than what really matters and beneficial.
All in all, Internet time usage should be limited to individuals because with an excessive amount it causes minuscule mental development which would lead to difficulties in one’s life and eventually lead into their future.
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Technology has become an integral part in our daily life. It provides both goods and harms. The conveniences it provides and greatly help us. For example, online shopping. However, It is argue that it does more harms than goods. At the east of conveniences, there are a lot of issues come along. For instance, Internet addiction has become a rather notorious issue compare to the past. Kimberly Young said “regulating technology at certain age range will help”.
Although I agree to some extend that regulating children’s use of technology at every ages will dramatically decrease the numbers of internet addictions’ rate. For instance, the idea to supervising the use of technology. There are 2 reasons why it would not work if parents were to do that for their children. First of all, the writer said “there should be no screen time until the age of 3 for children”. On the other hand, Kids age from 2 to 3 should be allowed to use small form factors of technology. The likes of Tablets, netbooks come to mind. Kids should be ready for the technology and with certain limitation as mentioned the idea to supervising the usage. It will not result into any kind of addiction. It is no surprise that apps like teaching alphabets , counting numbers, are useful. Furthermore, as of today most schools begin to teach using screen. Secondly, according to the writer ” limiting screen time to less than 2 hours a day for children up until the age of 12 is a good practice.”. From age 8 and above most kids will be required to have computer and internet access at home and school. Not to mention most part of teaching are now on screen. Therefore, limiting the use to less than 2 hours is not an ideal solution. Some days kids will get more workloads than usual and will be required to use the internet on long session. Instead we should granted children the permission to use the internet for their work with no time restriction and limit the usage time when it comes to entertainments.
I personally believe that with certain restrictions like reduce screen time for entertainments and supervising the use of the internet are more than enough and will not spike up the addiction rate if not reduce the rate.
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In my response to the article “Blame Society, Not the Screens” by Donah Boyd.
In Boyd’s article she claims society is the one main part why we perceive that all the teenagers today are now having a problem with internet addiction. Boyd’s reasoning is that kids today do not have time to roam around and be active. That parents think it is dangerous to be out or just being over protected but, in reality it is probably the safest time, because of the technology such as cell phones. Another reason being, is that kids in America have to much work load in school with homework and test. Boyd’s ties this with kids from other countries like Finland or the Netherlands how they are have less work and they actually respect the teachers and she less problems when she goes on speaking in other countries.
I agree with some of Boyd’s statements with the partially being true. Going along with kids not being able to go out as much as they would like to. Parents can be strict at times and kids so kids turn to the internet but to what extent do they actually leave with now Twitter and Facebook being the leaders of the social media. Teenagers these days are now worried about how popular they are on social media with the “Likes” act like an ego booster, or when they tweet about what everything is going on their life on social media. I’ve met people who actual do have this problem to the extent that the text and tweet even in the shower.
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Response to “Blame Society, Not the Screen Time” by Danah Boyd
>ADD
In the Debaters section of ” Is Internet Addiction a Health Risk for Teens”, Boyd briefly announces that if Fathers from the U.S want to reduce the amount of time their young sons or daughters spend with technology, they should free up more of their time.
While reading mid-way of Boyd’s Article, she immediately pronounces the following: “They aren’t addicted to the computer; they’re addicted to interaction, and being around their friends. Children, and especially teenagers, don’t want to only socialize with parents and siblings; they want to play with their peers. That’s how they make sense of the world. And we’ve robbed them of that opportunity because we’re afraid of boogeymen.” The whole teenage society isn’t always wishing to interact and/or socialize with their friends like Boyd states in her debate.
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How to Regulate Your Child’s Use of Technology at Every Age.
The mental health community has started to see complaints about screen addiction. This complains comes from the fact of the technology in different parts of the world.
The technology have a lot of power in children’s and more when those children’s don’t have a limit to stop to use the technology. ” Is very important to take parenting guidelines for regulating technology at every age of childhood.” Until the age of three children should have zero screen time. In this stage of children’s, parents need to put attention and disconnected children from technology at this age and children can use they time playing with toys and other children’s.
I think that between the ages of three, six, nine, and more parents need to put more attention because in those ages children are interesting in using the technology, and also in those ages, our parents have a lot of work to do in their job because, they need to make more money to support they children in school, and some parents for this reason they start to put more attention in their jobs that in your children’s. In my opinion all parents and children need to take a responsibility of how to use the technology in their lives and in the world.
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“Don’t Limit Your Teen’s Screen Time” Response
Bergman states in this article that us adults shouldn’t limit the time screen of our children and teens.
Him as a child he only had permission for one hour of video games, his parents thought it was not good for him to spend hours there on television. He experimented at home with his children and stopped restricting the screen time for them, he immediately saw different changes due to his change of rule. “Today technology is so prevalent, it’s hard to keep it away from children and teenagers” Bergman stated. He was in a different era where parents were highly strict and where there was no a lot of technology like there is today.
This article states that Bergman saw his nephew who had limited screen time, and on family trips the limited screen time didn’t count. He noticed that he didn’t went out to play and socialize with family, he was all day on TV. While on the other side his kids rather went out to play with cousins since they didn’t have a strict television time. This is the effect on not having unlimited screen time because of that he thought watching TV was more exciting than go out to play since he only has a certain time of watching TV.
Parents should not limit screen time to their children because this will only cause the children to not be with family members ,because we are telling them not to use the tablet or play videogames this means they will become addicted when they have the chance to use them. However, Bergman he also stated that “Many kids do learn social and technical skills through screen time, even more so now then when I was growing up” this means that they will not have a chance familiarize with the social media. To finalize, children should have the freedom to watch TV or play video games with no restricted time. Now that technology increased and became more popular teens now are more interested in it that it would be impossible for them to not interact with it.
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Excessive use of computer games among young people in China appears to be taking an alarming turn and may have particular relevance for American parents whose children spend many hours a day focused on electronic screens.
The documentary “Web Junkie,” to be shown next Monday on PBS, highlights the tragic effects on teenagers who become hooked on video games, playing for dozens of hours at a time often without breaks to eat, sleep or even use the bathroom. Many come to view the real world as fake.
Well I disagree that the children are become Web junkie. I kind of like the name Web Junkie it give them an identity of who they are, and want kind of future the children will have that will make them a better person. The effects on children who become hooked on video games, play dozens of games all day it kind of works the brain to those children that does not read too much. “Monday on PBS, highlights the tragic effects on teenagers who become hooked on video games, playing for dozens of hours at a time often without breaks to eat, sleep or even use the bathroom.” With this phenomenon we should established rehabilitation centers where afflicted youngsters are confined for months of sometimes draconian therapy, completely isolated from all media, the effectiveness of which remains to be demonstrated. I said this because with a rehabilitation this will keep up with the children actives and the hours on how they spend their time. While Internet addiction is not yet considered a clinical diagnosis here, there’s no question that American children are plugged in and tuned out of “live” action for many more hours of the day than experts consider healthy for normal development. Yes. Why? Because if the children spend more time on technology they will have the upper hand on things and their live. For examples I saw this child average age 8 to 10 year old spends nearly one hour on tablet and cellphone gradually working on it himself it would be nice to see that children can take over technology. A day with a variety of different media an older child spend should more than 8 hours per day. “Many parents seem to have few rules about use of media by their children and adolescents,” Kaiser Study said their parents had no rules about how much time the youngsters spent with media. Parents should grateful for ways to calm disruptive children and keep them from interrupting their own screen activities, seem to be unaware of the potential harm from so much time spent in the virtual world.
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I am going to write about the article on blaming society and not the screens, I feel this fits what I think in general on this topic rather than what the article says. Danah Boyd makes some valid points on why we should blame society rather than the screens itself. I agree to what she states, but you cannot just blame society for these actions that children and teens make to go on the internet. Parents allow this to happen because they can use technology to keep them distracted so they don’t have to keep a constant eye or a worry on the kids or teens, it’s an easy escape for the adults to take care of them less. Society overwhelms children, teen and young adults, with schoolwork and work or just school in general. Which then makes us uncomfortable and like Danah Boyd, she claims this is what creates our anxiety and stress because of all this pressure that society expects from the younger generations. To me, this is society’s way of conditioning the youth as they have tried with the older generations. Yet what is society trying to distract us from? Are they trying to hide something from us? Nobody will know or understand as long as they have the wool over their eyes.
I can’t say I disagree with this topic and the articles, but Here in this she talks about how in Finland and the Netherlands they out-succeed us in schooling because over there, they encourage student happiness and here in the states, we are overwhelm with homework and extra work in school it does not give us time to figure who we are until we make the wrong choices in life to learn from those instead. We are packed false dreams and hopes of becoming something greater with hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for high end schools for an 8 by 10 piece of paper that says we can officially work in this field. This is why we blame technology for its helping the kids and teens escape the havoc of everyday life because they cannot get a break from the school work load and whatever else that has been shoveled down their throats to take in. I agree with Danah on another thing she has mentioned which is; “We’re raising our children in captivity and they turn to technology to socialize, learn and decompress”. Our children are not going out into the world and experiencing nature and its divine beauty it beholds for everyone to enjoy, even the meanest of people. This is to blame society because they are missing every moment in their waking life to connect with the earth and themselves, yet they can somehow find it through a screen with pixelated images. Also, Danah Boyd claims that reducing the amount of school work and test for the children and teens which gives them more time to themselves to enjoy what is beyond the wooden window pane and brick walls of confinement. By doing this, it allows them to breathe easily and to become more focus for certain things.
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