Do you realise that your child’s memory is harmed by phone? Teens who spend a lot of time on their phones may be hindering their memory and other skills. Perhaps it isn’t just about teenagers, but also about parents that enable or expose their children to smartphones from an early age.
While it can be possible that when you try to take away or limit your children’s screen time, you might face opposition or anger. Thus, it is even more vital for parents to limit their screen time and then inculcate the same habit in their children. Here are a few reasons why you must limit your kid’s screen time.
What are smartphones doing to the brain?
Distraction is the major drawback of a smartphone, while childhood is such a vital stage in the development process to strengthen memory and the brain cells. In simple words, it might be tough for the mind to establish memories when there are too many distractions or a chaotic situation. Kids certainly avoid their parent’s or teacher’s instructions when they are exceptionally engrossed on their phones, which puts the development process in danger as kids give a shallow effort in learning any skill or adapting an ability.
Harmful blue radiations
Such radiations are not only harmful to the eyes but to the brain cells as well. Blue light impacts the ability to remember things, interferes with short-term memory and makes it difficult to focus on a single activity.
To highlight, when anybody uses the phone late at night, it tricks your brain into believing it’s daytime. When this happens, the body stops producing melatonin, the sleep hormone. Melatonin is the body’s natural way of assisting us in winding down and getting ready for bed. As a result, an individual will remain sleepless and fatigued the next day, unable to accomplish any task to their full potential.
Digital amnesia
Digital amnesia is a condition in which a person forgets information that they have trusted a digital device to remember for them. It has an especially negative impact on figural memory, the region of the brain that recognises shapes and figures. Being so focused on uploading images of every activity on social media causes a youngster to record every detail on digital devices, making it less likely for that information to be stored in long-term memory and even distracting them from properly encoding an event as it occurs.
Solutions
Parents should allow their kids to have only limited exposure to phones or any digital devices.
Parents should necessarily examine a few things, such as how long a kid talks on the phone, how near they hold it to their ear, and whether they are more of a chatter than a texter.
Do not forget to school your kids about all the drawbacks of phones or any digital devices in a friendly manner.
Apart from online classes or assignments, you should make sure that they involve themselves in other physical activities or house chores.
While using the phone, kids should wear anti-fatigue glasses to safeguard their eyes themselves from the harmful rays.
Encourage the idea of talking on speaker phones and avoiding phones near to ears or earphone usage.
Phones or laptops should be a strict no during bedtime.
Source: TOI