As a child I had fond memories such as flying through the paddocks on the back of a quad bike, of helping my dad fell trees, of hunting for lizards in the long grass. Memories like these are not what I hear from the words of young children today. Instead, they talk about the new PlayStation game they got for their birthday or the cool new app their Dad has on his phone. They don’t go outside. Why do that when you can get a game that does the exact same thing but without even having to get up and put in the effort.
The children of this generation do not enjoy or know the outdoors as I did when I was young. I used to bike for huge distances to go and say hello to my friends whereas many young children today are so lazy as to text people living in the same household as them. 90% of children from 13-17 years old now have some form of social media in their lives, 70% percent of them having their own profile on a social networking site. These children do not need to bother with exercise, they have everything they need handed to them on a silver platter.
The content these children are exposed to through household media could be anything from the most peaceful games to the bloodiest and goriest of them all with only 50% of homes surveying rules about videogames and only 30% of parents say they monitor their child’s Facebook activity. When I go onto Facebook I see children I know, some younger than ten liking posts of topless woman, racist jokes and other explicit content. Many parents I know have let their children play R18 games such as Grand Theft Auto since they were in their early years in primary school.
The implications of these “numbers” may cause more concern when people start to realise that not only do young people’s interactions with media have the potential to harm them emotionally and mentally, but physically as well. Many people complain, for example, about these new Ultra Bright LED screens that companies such as Apple are employing. They have been well known to cause pain in the eyes, nausea, dizziness and many other types of discomfort. If that is not proof that the electromagnetic radiation emitted from these machines is not bad for you, then I honestly do not know what is. Children at a young age are proven to be highly influenced by what they see and hear around them yet they are left in front of television screens with images of smoking, violence and even in some instances pornographic themes.
Even though the next generation will always be frowned upon by its predecessors I think that the children of today do not fully realise the importance of making the most of the time they have they should focus on things like their education, their childhood, the types of things that they cannot do again, things they only have one opportunity to do right. These children will look back and regret the time they have wasted and wish that they had taken the time in their lives to look away from the screen and instead look to the world around and their future.
By Ryan Wilkinson
Statistics according to:http://preventtogether.org/Resources/Documents/Impact%20of%20Media%20and%20Technology%20on%20Youth%202013.pdf
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