A problem with leisure in society and how to fix it
One of the biggest problems with leisure in society today is our ease of access. The fact that there are too many things you can do in today. For example with kids almost all little kids today are smart enough to figure out how to use an iPad or and iPhone and are cooped up inside. And this creates several problems. The first is damage to the brain and the body. “But could all of the electronic play hurting kids developing brains -- shrinking their attention spans, stunting their social skills or ruining their eyesight?”1
Yes it could and it will. Some reports even state that staring at a screen for too long can change the shape of a child’s eye causing myopia 2, 3 or nearsightedness. This is especially alarming to me because my family already has a history of wearing glasses and I do not want that to get worse than it already is.
A way that we as a society can fix it would be to make the best of the time that we have with our own kids or nieces and nephews brothers and sisters and other relatives by helping them to be more active have them be outside more. Bring back the leisure of playing in the back yard. And some might say that their kids can’t play outside so the only thing that they can do is use the iPad, etc. WRONG. They can read books. It may not be as fun as watching the movie but it will help them later in life trust me. For instance my niece Katelyn loves reading books sure it’s not playing outside but this girl has read all of the Harry Potter books. That is ridiculous. I have never heard of such a thing those books are between two hundred to seven hundred pages long. I’m almost twenty-five and I have never been able to read through anything like that in the amount of time that she has. She is only eight and a half and she has read the entire Harry Potter series. I wouldn't be surprised if she has read the standard works by now.
Anyway how a child spends their leisure time especially today can make or break them for the rest of their lives. For example if all a child does during toddler through teenage years he or she can develop musculoskeletal issues, vision problems and obesity just to name the big ones.4 And I can’t forget to mention being addicted to it. That is probably the worst of all. The lost time. Here’s an idea why not let them see some of the cool stuff that they see in the game. This can be done by going to museums and seeing some of the things that they keep using in their WWII video games. Or instead of going to a different planet on a video game let them peer through a telescope and see other planets with their own eyes.
One of the biggest problems with leisure in society today is our ease of access. The fact that there are too many things you can do in today. For example with kids almost all little kids today are smart enough to figure out how to use an iPad or and iPhone and are cooped up inside. And this creates several problems. The first is damage to the brain and the body. “But could all of the electronic play hurting kids developing brains -- shrinking their attention spans, stunting their social skills or ruining their eyesight?”1
Yes it could and it will. Some reports even state that staring at a screen for too long can change the shape of a child’s eye causing myopia 2, 3 or nearsightedness. This is especially alarming to me because my family already has a history of wearing glasses and I do not want that to get worse than it already is.
A way that we as a society can fix it would be to make the best of the time that we have with our own kids or nieces and nephews brothers and sisters and other relatives by helping them to be more active have them be outside more. Bring back the leisure of playing in the back yard. And some might say that their kids can’t play outside so the only thing that they can do is use the iPad, etc. WRONG. They can read books. It may not be as fun as watching the movie but it will help them later in life trust me. For instance my niece Katelyn loves reading books sure it’s not playing outside but this girl has read all of the Harry Potter books. That is ridiculous. I have never heard of such a thing those books are between two hundred to seven hundred pages long. I’m almost twenty-five and I have never been able to read through anything like that in the amount of time that she has. She is only eight and a half and she has read the entire Harry Potter series. I wouldn't be surprised if she has read the standard works by now.
Anyway how a child spends their leisure time especially today can make or break them for the rest of their lives. For example if all a child does during toddler through teenage years he or she can develop musculoskeletal issues, vision problems and obesity just to name the big ones.4 And I can’t forget to mention being addicted to it. That is probably the worst of all. The lost time. Here’s an idea why not let them see some of the cool stuff that they see in the game. This can be done by going to museums and seeing some of the things that they keep using in their WWII video games. Or instead of going to a different planet on a video game let them peer through a telescope and see other planets with their own eyes.
Bibliography
By Chang, Juju (2013) ABC News, Toddlers Obsessed with iPads: Could It Hurt Their Development?
McGeary, Kevin (2013) thenanfang.com, Kids in GZ ruining their eyesight by spending too much time on their iPads
