When the other day we presented the concern of Japanese pediatricians about the prolonged use of smartphones and tablets, I thought 'When your neighbor's beards see you cut ...'. And it is true that the tendency to use technology without measure (so present around us), can lead to more passive children or a deterioration of personal relationships; although it is also true that Internet addiction is perfectly described (especially with regard to the presence in Social Networks, or the inability to stop being 'present' for a few hours in the conversations that are kept using Whatsapp or Twitter, for example).
In short, I come to say that if the balance is achieved, there is no problem, if the terminals, applications or platforms are used for their own benefit, however, it is not always the case, and That is why parental supervision is so important and where appropriate teachers. Today I want to provide worrisome data (if I may express myself) about another Asian country that stands out for the production of advanced technology, and for its results in international educational tests. Have you guessed it yet? Yes of course, we are going to talk about (the giant) South Korea, and about the restlessness of its authorities regarding the obsession observed in the youngest by the digital world. In that country an annual national survey is carried out, and the last results were known last summer. The news was spread by some media (I remember seeing it on television, and read it in a digital newspaper), although I have the feeling that it did not have much impact.
The concern of rulers, parents and teachers is not unjustified because 20 percent of young people had symptoms of 'addiction' how to feel anxious or depressed when they did not have the mobile phone at hand, inability to reduce the time spent without the terminal in hand; on the other hand they feel happier when they are permanently connected. The focus was mainly on adolescents, but the initiative that I am going to tell you also affects primary school students, even very young children.
With the figures ahead, South Korea has begun to think about organizing courses from schools to prevent Internet addiction, and holiday camps to 'detoxify' students who show clear signs of dependence.
Seoul is considered to be the most connected city on the planet, although it would not surprise me at all that a good part of its inhabitants feel very lonely, and there has been a clear intention to take advantage of digital technology to influence the growth of the city, and from the country; at the same time that technology is very present in Education (and this influences academic results), as we saw here.
In the age range from 12 to 19 years old, more than 80% of South Korean students owned a smartphone in 2012, and 40% of them spend more than three hours a day stuck to their device to chat, retweet or send fast messaging. That without counting on the time they will need to make a use directly linked to the study, and the truth is that it seems like an excessive amount of hours, especially if we talk about children from 12 to 14 or 15 years old.
We also think that in South Korea they spend many hours in school and then in reinforcement or extracurricular academies (a total of 10 daily), do you want to tell me that adding after three (or two or four) hours attached to the mobile will be healthy? I think in general it could be said that the trend can cause many problems.
Kwon Jang - Hee is a former teacher who leads an initiative to fight digital dependence, and has been visiting the country's schools for eight years, to transfer to school children the dangers of adopting a lifestyle in which the time devoted to digital technology is excessive. One of her collaborators (Kim Nam - Hee) does not hesitate to use blunt expressions such as 'brave slaves' in presentations that take place in schools, and when asked she does not hesitate to remember that Silicon Valley Waldorf College - frequented by children of workers of important companies in the world of Internet - it has a less technological approach, and even the use of computers in class is prohibited.
It is an irony, but certainly the brain is there to use it, and if it is atrophied by an indiscriminate use of technology, it may lose some of its capabilities, and curiously some of them have led us to create the same technological tools that now surround us.
Just as I did in the post mentioned at the beginning, talking about balance, and the 'obligation' of parents to show leisure alternatives for children (that's here, because in South Korea they don't have too much time for it). That is when they are young, because when they reach adolescence there must be an effort to prevent them from sleeping with the mobile on (for example).
