Today is World Internet Day and that is why we focus on the strong bond of children with technology. They are the generation called Cyberchildren, with main characteristics differentiated. Digital natives for an adult world that still seeks answers to many questions.
What are we talking about when we talk about these little ones learning to use the tablet while learning to walk? Children who move their fingers to the side when viewing a screen naturally. What, as they grow up, they become dependent on a technology with great virtues but it also poses some risks when it is not used safely.
Hyperconnected children
A single adjective would suffice to summarize the main characteristics of cyberkids: hyperconnection. The new generations have grown up under the light of that mega information network called the Internet, a network that has revolutionized the world since its birth. Is It Possible To Raise Analog Children In World Wide Web Times? Of course not, and it would be a mistake to deny the advancement of the world and new technologies. On the contrary, technological resources are available to those who need them and children can make good use of technology.
What is the healthy limit then? In some way, we could say that all children today are cyber kids. To a greater or lesser extent and like adults, they are exposed and influenced by new technologies and the Internet. The theme here is not to deny reality but to teach them to self-regulate in their relationship with it.
Internet opens a range of alternatives for any individual beyond age. From designing, researching, obtaining information, sending files, simplifying data, organizing systems, sharing information, creating collaboratively, etc. Thousands of options that open the game to knowledge and learning while improving work processes. However, the web also presents clear limits regarding its uses so that then these cyber kids learn to make a healthy use of technology.
Cyberkids with good habits
With parents and teachers present and willing to teach cyberkids the main characteristics Internet and any technological environment, the little ones will be able to understand the nature of this vast network. In this way, they will learn to discern and develop critical thinking in relation to what appears on Google or any search engine. It is important that adults teach the positives and negatives of technology, that they educate for self-regulation and thus can instill healthy technology habits.
If a child of 12 or 13 stays until 5 am playing online it is clear that it is harmful but a couple of hours a day at a daytime schedule can be a great way to learn new skills and socialize in times where online games generate links between the teenagers. Children still need to develop motor skills, running, jumping, cycling. Between the main characteristics of cyberkids there is the eternal stillness and sitting for hours, something harmful in an age where the expenditure of energy guarantees a comprehensive child health.
A healthy Internet connection is key for cyber kids, which can hardly be classified strictly as their habits are closely linked to the uses they make of technology. There are children who, accompanied by responsible older adults, manage to use the best of technology by taking advantage of the resources available for both learning and life. Others, on the other hand, use their time in an insignificant and hyper-connected leisure that makes them prisoners of connectivity.
The keys
The connection time, the rules of ciberseguridad and critical thinking are essential tools to achieve a healthy consumption of technology, through which children can develop new skills in a digital environment that, clearly, is installed in society.