Zerstreuung — Blog — Ernst Zwiker

Zerstreuung

Dealing with Social Media – for Parents and Teachers

....Jeder verwendet sie. Die einen stündlich, die anderen gelegentlich. Die älteren unter uns nutzen meist das Notwendige und Nützliche, die jüngeren alles Mögliche.Was gilt es als Eltern und Lehrer diesbezüglich zu berücksichtigen ?..Everybody does…

Everybody does it, some hourly, others seldom. The older generation tends to use only the bare necessities, while the younger set exploits every function available.

What do parents and teachers need to know about it?

The Foundation

Our lives are built on relationships. Agreed? A person who has no satisfying relationships will have difficulties finding meaning in life. People are tightly connected in relationships by mutual love, appreciation, influence and trust. When our ability to connect to others through relationships wanes, our potential to get the most out of life also weakens.

Gaining Understanding

It is a huge challenge for parents to put themselves into their children’s world and try to understand them. Modern technology and information science is especially difficult because they grew up with a totally different set of parameters.

Children want to win and gain as much as possible. Wherever there is a benefit to be had, that’s where their attention will be.  Whether it be sports, cards, computer games or other exciting amusements, as long as they’re having fun, children will not stop until their parents set a limit. Such limits may be based on values, principles or rules. These are becoming more and more important in our digital society today and must be consciously implemented in order to safeguard children’s psyches from the ever-increasing danger of damage (see BLOG). The traditional games that parents and grandparents grew up with were usually played in a social context and were beneficial to a child’s emotional intelligence and brain function. Computer games hinder and destroy frontal lobe function proportionately to the time spent playing them.

Although computer gaming is more dangerous for the brain than social media, the risk of addiction there is also quite high. On the other hand, using the Internet as a research tool is a good thing.

....Sollten Sie zu Hause Regeln aufgestellt haben, zB. ab 20:00 Uhr sind alle Bildschirme aus, ist es wichtig, dass dies auch für Sie als Eltern gilt. Es ist für die Kinder, zumal wenn sie schon älter sind, einfacher, sich auf Einschränkungen einzul…

If you have set up house rules regarding computer usage, for example, after 8:00 pm all screens should be turned off, it would be a very good idea for parents to follow the same rules. When children see their parents following the rules, it helps them identify with them.

Everywhere But Here

The amazing variety of attractions and distraction are so tempting that young people are drawn to them like magnets. In the process, they lose interest in their own social circle, and family relations suffer. Just as people who eat the same food every day would eventually become malnourished, those who spend too much time with media will lose their abilities to interact socially with real people.

Example

I once met a young man who came to visit his sister, who was a student at our mission school.  When I asked him why he would rather stay in his room than come over to get to know the student group, he replied that it would be much too complicated. Dealing with his internet forum and playing computer games was much easier. There he had everything under control.

Nothing I could say or do would convince him to leave the safety of his world and join ours, where the challenge of meeting new people was just too much for him to handle. It made him nervous to think about what others might be thinking of him. Life was much easier in his room alone with his computer.  

Distorted Perception

Since smartphones have come on the scene, mishaps on children’s playgrounds have multiplied. Mothers used to go to the playground with their children and talk to other mothers while keeping a watchful eye on their children. Now their phones are their constant companions and their attention is absorbed by messages, surfing and clips. Time passes faster than perceived, children move faster than expected and accidents happen.

The digital world is developing so quickly we can’t keep up with it. Many users are beginning to develop into a kind of reactive machine. When an impulse comes (beep), they are progressively less able to control their reactions. They allow themselves to become victimized. They don’t want to turn the phone off for fear they might miss out on something.

....Man hat herausgefunden, dass wenn man nachts den Flugmodus einschaltet und das Telefon damit nicht ausgeschaltet ist, dies zu einem schlechteren Schlaf führt, da unterbewusst immer eine Restbereitschaft des Gehirns aktiv bleibt, um auf allfällig…

Studies have shown that people who put their phones into flight mode at night, but don’t turn their phones off, have less restful sleep. Subconsciously, a part of their brains stays active, waiting for a chance to react. Sounds interesting, right? This is not the case with everyone, but according to the evidence from sleep laboratories, more often than not.

Missing Contact

Family interactions and ties are eroding slowly but surely, and it’s the children that suffer most because of it. Their unsatisfied need for the undivided attention of their parents drives them to look for it through media (BLOG). However, this is about as effective as artificial light for a plant that needs sunlight to survive.

In contrast to parents building relationships with their children, the businesses behind social media offer them a false feeling of independence, unlimited time and space, relationships with people in far away places, shopping around the clock, interesting movies and an endless supply of pictures and entertainment. What a sensational menu to choose from! With all these positive points, it’s easy to accept ads and other unwished extras. The additional stress is hardly even noticed.

Monitor Development

The older set among us can still remember a time when our attention was often focused on the inner processes of life. Today many are so caught up in the rush of technological progress with their attention so tightly stretched over a plethora of subjects, that they have no time to tend to the gardens of their souls. As a result, their inner lives becomes like a desert.

As time goes on, teachers need increasingly more training in order to be able to deal with these children. They need to know how to teach children and youth how to take care of their brains.

The oft-mentioned 3-6-9-12 rule, in which children under 3 should not watch TV, those under 6 should not have their own digital game station, children under 9 should not have Internet access and those under 12 should not be admitted into the world of social media, does not take the individual development of children into consideration.   

Here’s a golden rule of thumb: The longer you can avoid these omnipresent toys, the better!!! Ignore all the newest apps for two-year-olds that are recommended to enhance your child’s learning curve.

....Kinder im Vorschulalter brauchen keine digitalen Hilfsmittel. (BLOG) Je natürlicher, desto besser. Werden Kinder in den Mikrokosmos eingeführt, wird ihr intrinsischer Motivations-Faktor (BLOG) gestärkt und damit das ganze Lernverhalten positiv b…

Children don’t need any digital learning devices before they enter school. (BLOG) The more NATURE, the better. When children are introduced to the inner workings of the microcosm of nature, their motivation to learn is strengthened (BLOG). This has a positive impact on their learning behavior in all subjects.

Appeal

We must never forget that our children’s futures and wellbeing depend on our wisdom and foresight. If we as parents and teachers don’t take the time and effort needed to understand how these things work and don’t create solutions, we put our whole society at risk. If things continue as they are now, we will reap the harvest in the form of a huge crisis. These were the final words of a presentation I attended by a famous neurologist speaking to an audience of parents and teachers. Relational skills and social competence are rapidly declining. This development paints a dismal future indeed.

Dear Reader! Something has got to be done! Let’s do it!

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