Digital Age - World of Intelligent Systems
Atrocities Of A Modern-Day Parent
You will most likely hear “Technology drives the universe” and it is good to position your children this way. What you don’t or have not realize is the child’s mind is still developing and at a very fast pace, children cross the learning stage after 12 years and it is key you instill as much human values as possible. When you hand over the gateway to the world which is an internet connected hand held device, you have damaged the child ability – to think for themselves, improvise, grow their intelligence quotient at their own pace and learning human values and culture. This hinders the growth of the child mentally and psychologically. Growing up as an African child we did not have much toys to play with, and so most of the time we made our own cars with tin container from milk and sardine cans, make and fly kites, play in the sand with improvised pointed materials that spin or insert to stand and counters ball – which the cork of bottled soft drinks that we use to play football but actually the counters do the playing, so with our hands we dribble our way to the opponent goal post and attempt to score a goal. You should see all the possibilities but I will still highlight them:
Team work.
Building intelligent quotient.
Dispute resolution tactics.
Learning various methods and improvising.
Friendship and companionship.
Adapting under various circumstances.
These are very important values to instill in children whiles they are still young. Embracing technology should be at the right stage in life when they have been exposed to what is means to be human. The kiddie tab is a big problem and you mite think it keeps the kids busy and they are learning a lot until they come across a scenario that has no meaning to them and you see the kind of reaction they give and sometimes it will result into violence. As a parent you will wonder where did I go wrong.
Giving a child a device that is personalized for them with a case that has all kinds of design and shapes will not help the child. They think it’s their right to have a tab because it’s been made for them and like you buy cloths and toys for them, they deserve one too. If you are a parent and you child is not felling like you are not threating them better, you need to find a way of explaining it to them that it’s for the better.
When I child has been given a device and they have not crossed the learning stage of 12 which is the minimum time it takes for a normal human being to build a character, a lot can go wrong. They are glued to these devices as the only way to gain knowledge and you will not understand the anxious mind of a child wanting to know so many things at a time. This is because a lot is going on around them, they need to get up to speed about. In my line of duty, I deal a lot with the youth from age 14 -24. They way they are composed is not very encouraging because they have a lot of deficiencies because of the way they interacted with themselves. I don’t want to put so much blame on their parents. There are ten key personal senses that drive every human being and if have deficiency in any of them, it will show all they way to how you behave as a citizen of a country because these are values of direction. The are
Sense of Purpose
Sense of Identity / Self
Sense of Belonging
Sense of Responsibility
Sense of Achievement / Accomplishment
Sense of Self-worth / Esteem
Sense of Security
Sense of Self-actualization
Sense of Justice / Fairness
Sense of Direction / Vision
I will want to believe my audience have a fair idea of the senses because this is self-explanatory. The children are to be equipped with these senses after 12 years of existing on this universe. I will not take out what will be the items to be developed by the parents and what they have to learn in the wild but when you interact to any of these children, it’s sad. They don’t have an ambition to drive a direction, they have not determined what part they have to play and what to expect in return and finally they have no fear for the law and they feal nothing around them. You may not understand what I am saying until you have given one of these flashy tablets to your kids and something happened that makes you decide to take it away. You may see what you have not seen before, a behavior so violent you mite not know in that instance who is the child or parent.
I recommend you lend you device from time to time, not regularly and if you thing you can still get a kiddie tablet and limit screen time, it will not be of help. The child should not know that they have their own device, else they will ask why it has not been released for full usage. In this instance they are right because nobody uses the tablet. When you give your phone to them, they understand that it’s a privilege and it will not be every day. Helping your child build and grow well is a gift you are impacting to them. This will go with them, and they will grow to become better responsible parents in future.
This article is by Kelvin Kabute. I am a diploma holder in Software Engineering and Web Technologies. I work with the Ghana Library Authority as a Librarian and an Advocate for Technology development for the youth.