Samuel Chiltern answered
There is no way to deny that computers have had a profound effect on young minds. Children are exposed to computer usage from a very early age, and this brings enormous benefits to the development of their skills and personal development.
Whilst I strongly advocate the teaching of computer skills to children, you can have too much of a good thing. If recreational time is biased too heavily towards computer usage, then the effects can be very detrimental.
Less Social Interaction
There is a tendency to sit alone at the computer, so if a child spends a long time using one, then they are missing out on chances to interact face-to-face with other children.
This is not so much the case these days, however, given the rise of video and audio chat services such as Skype - and multiplayer online games which facilitate and encourage social interaction with other people from all over the world.
Discourages Exercise and Outdoor Pursuits
Again, the fact that computer use primarily involves sitting alone comes into play here. In my youth, I spent many days at the computer, only to eventually realise that my hands were freezing, due to the lack of movement in my body.
Whilst there is a growing trend for games to encourage physical activity - by requiring you to wave a controller around in front of you - the most popular still don't take this approach.
There's nothing inherently wrong with this, of course, since people in the past spent a lot of time sitting still reading books and newspapers, and weren't running marathons every day. However, if computer time is yet another thing which takes away from your child's exercise regime (or eliminates it entirely), then this is bad for their health.
Whilst I strongly advocate the teaching of computer skills to children, you can have too much of a good thing. If recreational time is biased too heavily towards computer usage, then the effects can be very detrimental.
Less Social Interaction
There is a tendency to sit alone at the computer, so if a child spends a long time using one, then they are missing out on chances to interact face-to-face with other children.
This is not so much the case these days, however, given the rise of video and audio chat services such as Skype - and multiplayer online games which facilitate and encourage social interaction with other people from all over the world.
Discourages Exercise and Outdoor Pursuits
Again, the fact that computer use primarily involves sitting alone comes into play here. In my youth, I spent many days at the computer, only to eventually realise that my hands were freezing, due to the lack of movement in my body.
Whilst there is a growing trend for games to encourage physical activity - by requiring you to wave a controller around in front of you - the most popular still don't take this approach.
There's nothing inherently wrong with this, of course, since people in the past spent a lot of time sitting still reading books and newspapers, and weren't running marathons every day. However, if computer time is yet another thing which takes away from your child's exercise regime (or eliminates it entirely), then this is bad for their health.
