Children are addicted to gadgets, parents need introspection

04/07/2024

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – – Gadget addiction that befalls children may be due to imitating their parents. For this reason, parents need to introspect.

This was conveyed by Azimah Subagijo, Chair of the Community Association Rejecting Pornography (MTP) when providing counseling on “The Dangers of Gadget Addiction and Anticipation” to parents of students at SMAN 28 Jakarta, Tuesday (25/02).

Azimah further said that now many parents care more about their gadgets (read: smartphones) than hearing complaints or just chatting with their children. Whether you wake up or go back to sleep, it’s not uncommon for gadgets to be the first and last thing someone holds. Even when going out to eat with family, or on holiday, many people around us still hold smartphones.

“Based on research, 69 percent of parents and 78 percent of teenagers usually check their gadgets every hour. Maybe the behavior of 69 percent of parents in the survey is us,” said Azimah, who is also a regular speaker on the Parenting Line program, Bravos Radio, Jakarta, in her statement. accepted Republika.co.id, Wednesday (26/2).

On that occasion, Azimah invited the counseling participants to introspect themselves, especially in terms of daily use of gadgets. This is because parents are role models for their children.

Moreover, the impact of gadgets is becoming increasingly evident, starting from minimal face-to-face communication, lack of creativity, wasting time, insomnia, cheating, to moral corruption. Cheating in children and teenagers means cheating on daily tests or exams.

In the past, cheating took the form of asking friends or books, but in this digital era, when exams in schools are computer-based, children not only ask friends in their class, but are able to find answer keys by searching directly from search engines on the internet. (read: google). “Of course we cannot allow this,” said the Commissioner of the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission for the 2010-2013 and 2013-2016 periods.

For this reason, the role of parents and teachers is very important to familiarize children and teenagers with the habit of using gadgets wisely. Remembering that these children and teenagers are known as digital natives, namely children who were born when digital technology was growing and developing rapidly.

Azimah said that the development of digital technology in the 4.0 revolution era is a necessity. For this reason, guiding children and teenagers today must be adapted to the challenges that exist today, one of which is the use of gadgets.

“So if you feel that you are using it excessively and/or deviantly, it is important to go on a diet and gadget detox as a precaution,” said the author of the book ‘Diet and Gadget Detox’.

A gadget diet is a person’s attempt to limit the time they use gadgets, and use them with purpose, namely only for what is important and useful, as well as reducing/deleting applications that they feel take up a lot of time, such as video and game applications. Meanwhile, a gadget detox is a person’s attempt to completely not use gadgets for a certain time.

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