The Effect of Gadgets on Psychological Health in Children

THE EFFECT OF GADGETS ON PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH IN CHILDREN

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The mental development of early childhood must also be of particular concern to parents. It's true, gadgets can have a positive impact on children because they make them smart and intelligent. However, there are so many smart kids but only a few of them are right in today's technological age.

The answer to every problem lies with the child's parents. To what extent are you as a parent capable. educate children as well as possible, especially in the realm of attitude and personality. What they hear and see is something they will quickly imitate. So gadgets, if used improperly in children will affect the work of the brain so that it interferes with their psychological development. Here are some examples:

1. Low learning enthusiasm

2. Socially hampered children

3. Tangled up in pornography

4. Vulnerable to acts of violence

5. Addiction

This is the negative impact of using uncontrolled gadgets in the mental and psychological realm of children at an early age. Parents must understand this phenomenon very well so that they can realize themselves to immediately take the right action. Here's a brief explanation:

Children who often play gadgets tend to have low enthusiasm for learning. Gadgets that provide various kinds of entertainment will certainly entice users to continue to neglect their tasks and other daily schedules. Included in this is study time. Early childhood, especially the age of 3 years, is the most agile period for learning to speak, socializing with people around and starting to grow curious. Gadgets will take a lot of attention so that children tend not to have time to learn many things in their surroundings.

Sitting all day with gadgets in front of your eyes continuously makes children nervous (less social). The world they see is only in front of the screen. They (especially early childhood) will lose the opportunity to practice socializing with their surroundings, especially their parents. What's sad is that often parents think that children feel happy, safe and easy to supervise when playing gadgets. Finally, parents rarely accompany children in every activity. The role of parents as learning partners while playing children does not occur, because their role is replaced by gadgets.

It's not impossible, early childhood who often interact with gadgets can be entangled in pornography. Uncontrolled use of gadgets, especially online, will allow children to be exposed to pornographic images or videos. Even if it doesn't come to that for cases of early childhood, at least shows that look funny but reveal genitalia are things that parents should pay attention to. For example, like a picture of a child dancing happily with minimal clothes or no clothes at all. The more children are exposed to such shows, the less good morals they will form in the future. Therefore, they must be understood about the limits of genitalia from an early age.

Early childhood who often watch cartoons without being accompanied by their parents are very vulnerable to scenes of violence that they get through their gadgets. Don't think that cartoons are safe! Therefore, many cartoon films are made for adults, not for children. There are several funny but violent scenes such as hitting with hard objects, kicking and injuring friends that are not worth watching. Because children especially at an early age tend to absolutely imitate what they see and hear.

The worst effect for early childhood from using gadgets is ADDICTION. This can happen because from infancy, children have been allowed to linger with gadgets so that they form this deviant behavior. In fact, we have received a true story, a 4-year-old child has been given a gadget gift by his parents.

When asked, why is that? So his parents said, "My child has loved playing with gadgets since he was a baby and we see that he is good at operating gadgets independently." This shows that parents do not know very well about the damaging effects of drugs from uncontrolled gadget use among children at an early age.

Such is the exposure of the dangers of gadgets if parents don't pay attention quickly and precisely. Exposure to the dangers of gadgets for the physical and mental health of children is a phenomenon that many of us encounter around us. However, if examined further, the adverse effects can be more numerous and varied. Therefore, parents must remain vigilant and continue to enrich themselves with the right knowledge and experience, especially in tackling the dangers of this gadget.

Let us give emphasis to fathers and mothers about what must be considered in considering the use of gadgets in children as a conclusion from the discussion in this chapter, as follows:

1. Age of the child (is it appropriate to watch on the gadget or not?).

2. Long duration of use (must be according to the rules of experts).

3. As needed (Is it important and urgent?).

4. Type of content watched (must be kid-friendly).

Father and mother, be patient in educating and guiding your child's life until he grows up. Because good and bad children depend on their environment. And parents are the most responsible party in creating a safe and comfortable environment for them. Is the gadget safe and comfortable for them? The answer will return to you as the parent.