Monday, July 11, 2011

Addiction

Technology addiction is scary.  It is scary because it is real; young people don’t see or realize it, and if caregivers aren’t aware of the existence of the problem, it can become a bigger problem.  I read something once that referred to checking your e-mail and facebook even before your morning coffee.  I am guilty of that!  But I can also live without it.  We went to camp for a couple of days with no power, phone or internet and I loved it.  I never even thought about anything but the sun and the lake.  But I do understand the lure of connectedness.  

One thing this chapter said to me was that we need to think twice about kids and laptops in Maine.  When we checked the histories of our students laptops one year, kids were on them at midnight or later and it was more facebook or games than anything else.  I think what that says to me  is that we need to do more to educate the parents of the students so they will keep an eye on usage times.  I told a friend of mine who had a student with a laptop that it was OK to make her leave it downstairs after 8 or 9 so she wasn’t on it all night.  Maybe parents just need to know?

I know that doesn’t solve the problem as adults are equally addicted, but for me, right now, my main focus in the students.

3 comments:

  1. I agree with you Cathy, but have hard a hard time telling parents how to parent (especially since I am younger than they are). I will say that when I worked on MDI we made it so that the laptops couldn't access the internet from 10pm-5am to help combat this. A lot of parents thanked us for doing that, and it isn't hard to do. Something you might talk to your tech people about.

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  2. I posted a comment last night about what a great idea that was. Don't see it here now. Thanks for sharing that idea.

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  3. Hi my name is Mike and I'm a technology addict...

    Seriously though I've seen kids totally melt down when the network at school goes haywire. Or if their parents have taken their phone and you see the "texter" hand working when the phone isn't even there!

    I really like the idea of having the computers internet access shut down during specific hours. Might have to bring that to my tech gods...

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