New Devices = New Learning Opportunities This Holiday Season

As the holidays approach, most of us look forward to spending quality time with our loved ones, a break from school/work, and time to reflect and celebrate another year gone by.  For many, gifts are exchanged in conjunction with the holiday season, which may mean new electronic devices for some.

I vividly remember the Christmas following my sixteenth birthday.  After turning sixteen a few months prior in September, I received a hot pink Nokia cell phone for my Christmas gift.  I was thrilled!  I set my ringtone to the "Mexican Hat Dance" and quickly learned how to play "Snake", the one game that came on my cell phone, that same day.  My parents were very quick to remind me that the cell phone came with a very limited package of air time, which meant that making calls from my cell phone was to be restricted to driving emergencies only (hence the reason the gift was given after my sixteenth birthday).  No warnings had to be given about texting or appropriate social media use since these things did not yet exist.

Today, parents gifting devices to their children have many more considerations to deliberate than my parents did years ago.  Smartphones and tablets provide immediate access to the internet, and a plethora of downloadable apps allow users to access, create, and share information instantly with others.  Plus, children nowadays are receiving these devices at younger ages, which means their prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain responsible for decision making, is less developed.  (Read this quick article from the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychology for a brief overview of teen brain development.)  While these devices are extremely useful and provide many positive learning opportunities, it is also important to provide children with guidance as they learn to appropriately navigate the freedom these devices afford them.

In attempts to support parents as they navigate conversations with their children related to the responsible use of devices and social media, we have created an Internet Safety web page on our school website.  For future reference, this web page can be found on the Pleasantdale Middle School website under the "Information" tab.  Posted resources provide parents with information and conversation starters related to topics like safe cell phone usage, cyberbullying, and posting appropriately on social media.  Pleasantdale District 107 actively works to create good digital citizens, and in order to do so, we need the help of our parents, too.

In addition to providing children with guidance on internet safety, it is important to have conversations with children related to the amount of screentime spent in front of a device.  A recent article from T.H.E. Journal titled "Parents Admit to Social Media Spying on their Tweens" provides key findings from a study conducted by Common Sense Media and The Center on Media and Human Development at Northwestern University related to the impact of screen time for children ages 8 - 18 years old.  One of the most shocking statistics is that parents say their tweens spend approximately nine hours a day on social media.  This makes having conversations related to social media usage, as well as taking the time to monitor social media usage, that much more critical when some spend so much time on such apps and websites.  In addition, a recently published article by Healthy Day titled "Smartphones, Tablets, and Weight gain in Teens"  highlights the health dangers of too much screen time.

So this holiday season, take the time to give the gift of conversation along with that new device.  Take the time to talk with children about responsible device usage, and set reasonable boundaries related to screen time.  This will make for a more pleasant, safe holiday season which will inevitably lead to a more pleasant, safe year ahead in 2017.

Wising everyone a very happy, safe and healthy holiday season!