By: Fatima Salahuddin
Kids and cell phones are inseparable. Consider it a perk of the lockdown or otherwise, but the time children are spending before screens have increased monstrously. The sadder part is how their productivity has been compromised disastrously. Now, we cannot help but stay in our homes and keep the kids behind doors, but there’s something we can do to displace the unproductive screen time with some inputs of creativity.
You could choose to interest them in certain tools online that could help them boost their creativity and perhaps be productive. In this way, neither will you have to strive to reduce the screen time and make them unhappy, and the unproductivity shall also perish. In this article, we shall be discussing how you could use technology to combat the unproductive screen time of your ward and boost their creativity.
The same table, but let’s turn it
Parents and teachers are often heard complaining about how students spend most of their time in front of cell phones, laptops, or TV screens. Now that they are supposed to be behind doors for the entire day, and the time that was spent in outdoor games has also been devoted to the screens. Books feel like a hypothetical object that our wards seem to have completely forgotten to hold these days. Forcing them to read or keeping them away from the screens could be like inviting a tussle and sea of arguments. But what we can do instead, is channelize their screen time into a productive one. Involve your children in online games and activities that could boost their out-of-the-box thinking.
The concept and acceptance of newness
Education today is not merely about learning science and mathematics lessons, but it has lately forayed into the digital space too. Various technical concepts can be easily explained through the internet nowadays. Use the internet to teach your ward about how they could convert their documents and important files to zip files, before they send them around to their professors or classmates. It not only protects the file, but also lets the children learn about lossless data compression.
Making them aware of cyber abuse
The hours of screen time can be utilized for learning new skills and more informational matters by the child, and the effectiveness of the process could be enhanced through parent’s involvement in it. Kids, and even us adults, get worked up while trying something new and tend to leave it halfway through. But sticking to the second or the “positive” perspective, and being uncomfortable while learning something new is the first step of learning something new. Teach the kids about cybercrime and how it is one of the biggest dangers surrounding the internet. Or, teach them about how to protect their privacy online by learning how to use VPNs and to check VPN reviews to select the best one.
Coding, writing, and much more
There are tons of skills available for learning on the internet, and a lot for free. A few mentions such as graphic designing, sketching, writing, coding, etc are some of the most popular courses. Some helpful tech tools in such situations can be YouTube channels for the niche and apps related to the activity. For instance, if you’re planning to learn paragraph writing or something similar you could use apps like The Brainstormer and The Brainsparker that might help you increase your speed and efficiency while writing. Tools like Grammarly and Cliché Finder help you edit your work and make it more presentable in a way.
Self-educating
Learning gives rise to innumerable questions in our minds that are sometimes undesirable to be answered by a human being. Websites like Quora, Coggle, Osmosis, etc. save the day in such situations. Asking particular questions straight to a professional via the help of social media might be helpful sometimes. For instance, if you need help with challenging exams, such as the NCLEX RN, PANCE, and similar ones, you can find all the educational sources that you need. There are free practice courses and guides available on many websites that might help you solve your problem by yourself.
Self-confidence
While the future is still uncertain, you build up your self-confidence each time you deal with a difficult situation. There have been good days and bad days over the past few years. Many have understood their strengths and weaknesses, and what they are capable of in an extreme situation. Even if you had a negative experience during the pandemic, put it aside, and focus on the obstacles you have overcome with the milestones you’ve achieved. Indeed, there are many steps we have overcome, and they continue to make you stronger every time you take a step forward. Even the most cheerful, resourceful, quick-witted, and confident people make mistakes, get frustrated, and sometimes lose their pace. The difference is that on a new day, they proudly raise their heads again and again with a desire to gain unique, helpful experience, and are not afraid to face new problems.
Tech savvy
Even if the latest technology is not your thing, you will have to work hard to improve your technical literacy. Even before the pandemic, new advances in science and technology were actively introduced in almost all industries. According to experts, the coronavirus will spur humanity to move to a new technological level, where automated systems and robots will dominate. They are not afraid of epidemics, are undemanding to working conditions, and do not ask for wages. But people will still be needed to develop them, maintain them, and write software. Think about what knowledge will be helpful to you, and be active in moving to the next level, even if it is not related to the current need for work. If you were tech-savvy before the pandemic, you have a chance to be at the forefront of the transition of industrial sectors for a new technological order. The most promising areas are seen in the areas of communication, automation, transactions, and security.
Conclusion:
There are always two sides to the same coin. What seems to be a curse can turn out to be a boon if executed well. Overuse of technology by the young seems to be a distraction from their goals and ambitions. But, it can be used for enhancing their skills that might help them pursue their goals, with the help of the few tech tools mentioned in the article above. Teaching them about cybercrime, zip files, or encouraging them to pursue courses like writing, coding, etc, could prove to be great steps.