It will not be me who refuses the smartphones used by children, on some occasion they have taken me out of a predicament and I also had fun playing with them. But the unstoppable growth of both the number of children using mobile devices and the amount of time they spend with them, which is getting smaller and smaller, is for reflection.
A study carried out in the United States by Commons Sense Media indicates that among those under two years of age the use of smartphones has grown 28 points since 2011, standing at 38%. They use it mainly for games, videos and to download applications.
In general (up to eight years old), the increase in the use of the tablet by children has been much greater, standing at 40% compared to 8% two years ago. Traditional screens, such as television, lose strength, although they continue to spend too many hours watching TV.
As we see, they are data that show an unstoppable trend. I think that both phones and computers or tablets can be a great educational and entertainment resource, although I fear that they will sometimes become a "car park".
Nor does my age fall so low. I am sure that a two-year-old boy has fun if we tell him a story, if we play hide, we look at the sky, he "helps" us to clean, sing or dance together ... But of course, it is more comfortable that they are in front of the screen and in this way they do not "take away" time.
The fact that their activity in front of the screens is supposedly educational or stimulating, takes away our regrets (if there have been any).
A good way to ensure that children are not "absorbed" by the screens and make good use of them is to monitor all the games or videos they have. Also limit the Internet connection (which can also save us some fright), use the devices with them and establish a maximum use time.
In this way, we make sure to allow time for other leisure activities and games with other children, for example. There are some things that children get lost in front of the screens, although there are also some very good ones that we can take advantage of (and not doing so would go against our time in the environment in which we live).
But let's make this reflection, and Maybe next time we are going to leave a child with our phone or before buying a tablet, we will think twice and let's do something different and fun by sharing our time (and not just our device) with them.
