Do children and youth in Cartagena prefer to be online than to go out and play? | THE UNIVERSAL
Can you imagine everything that happens to your children when they go online? It is important to emphasize the significant contribution of the Internet and its benefits to this population, but it can also influence their behavior and attitudes.
El Universal collected statistics from the ICBF Childhood and Adolescence Observatory surveys and contacted Andrés Castro Osorio, a physical education graduate from the University of San Buenaventura, to explain the importance of maintaining a balance between Internet access and entertainment. .
According to Unicef, in recent years more and more children and adolescents are overweight in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is currently estimated that at least 3 in 10 children and adolescents between the ages of 5 and 19 are overweight.
What are digital natives?
It is important to start with the difference between those who were born into the technological environment and those who had to adapt to these changes.
Today’s young people in Cartagena focus their learning through technology, which is why it’s surprising to see them learn so quickly and navigate with such fluency. As well as being informed about everything that happens around them.
They are very creative when it comes to making videos that they post frequently and can edit content in seconds.
The digital immigrant, because of his age, has participated in two different realities: traditional communication and “modern” communication. They tend to be more reflective, therefore slower when using technology.
How many children in Cartagena use the internet?
In 2018, the telecommunications company Tigo Une and the Eafit University of Medellin conducted a study on the use of the Internet among children and adolescents in Colombia. This took place in eight cities in the country: Bogotá, Medellin, Barranquilla, Cartagena, Bucaramanga, Cali, Pereira and Manizales.
In Cartagena, children and adolescents spend 73% of their time playing online, others spend 77% talking with friends on social networks, many also spend 94% of their time listening to or downloading music, and the same 98% of their time making tasks using the Internet, which in most cases bear the stamp of Wikipedia.
The survey-based research was conducted directly in more than 45 schools, with a sample of almost 500 minors surveyed: 50% boys and 50% girls from all social backgrounds.
According to the ICBF 2022 report, new technologies imply distortion of communication in behavior and behavior of minors. Young people handle too much information.
70% of children between the ages of 6 and 18 surf the Internet without any control. For this reason, the role that parents play as supervisors is increasingly important to establish some kind of limit on the time their children surf.
Sedentary lifestyle in minors
Physical activity cannot be left aside in this generation, “Our actions, carried out by the National Government and partners in the regions, reach schools and homes through strategies that promote physical activity together with healthy nutrition. In the same way, we strengthen the capacity of teachers and school principals to encourage educational institutions to provide spaces and time that facilitate the practice of physical activity,” revealed the Unicef website in Colombia.
How detached from reality are you?
The normality with which the excessive use of social networks and platforms is treated can give rise to a false impression of its goals. El Universal contacted Gloria Tatis, a family psychologist, who mentioned some psychological factors that can be influenced in the long term.
the loneliness
Babies or adolescents who spend too much time alone at home are most vulnerable to the risk of addiction, because they see in this communication tool a substitute for those emotional gaps and shortcomings that they do not receive in person.
Low self-esteem
Social networks like Instagram project a universe where vanity and a dreamy lifestyle reign. This desire to project an image of perfection generates anxiety the moment you don’t get a “like” back.
Unlike the virtual world, face-to-face life offers immediate and different interaction. There is a risk of confusing the number of followers with the value of self-esteem. Putting filters first and putting physical health and self-image on the backburner.
Anxiety
It is possible that the child feels more comfortable when communicating online. It is risky because you can develop stress and anxiety when you have to face difficult situations in a school, sports or work environment.
