Communication and technology

My little cousin, who is only eight years old at the moment, has a smartphone. That’s right, she is eight and she has a smartphone.

She is WhatsApp’ing, MXit’ing and who knows what else. When I saw this, it scared me. Immediately I had a flash-forward of how I imagined the future would play out. Children couldn’t communicate with each other face-to-face anymore, there vocabulary was repulsive and they were all lost in their phones communicating only through social networks.

Still now, I am afraid of what the future has in store for us, especially the generation growing up with the advanced technology the world makes available.

It is important for parents to instil discipline in their children. If you want to give your little child a cellphone or, heaven help us, a smartphone, then PLEASE ensure that you set boundaries.

They need to know that face-to-face communication is important, they need to have set times for when they are allowed to use their phones, during the week they should not be allowed to use it, and most importantly, maybe not the most important but very important, THEY ARE NOT ALLOWED TO USE ANY SHORTEN WORDS! They need to use full sentences and full words!

As parents please ensure that your child has good communication skills (real communication skills), uses full sentences and is able to have a conversation with a human being and not only a phone!

Sourced: matolic.com