Should Age Limitations be Applied to Electronic Devices?

There are hundreds of age limitations on so many different things in this world. Many of these age limitations protect students from getting too drunk on alcohol, overdosing on drugs, or crashing and possibly dying when unprofessionally driving a car. Many of these age limitations protect the people under and over the age limit. But a question that has been pondered a lot over the recent years has been: should there be an age limitation on electronic devices?

Electronic devices have had a big influence on the generations that have had devices. Many young adults, teenagers, and children today now just stare at their devices half of the time. When there are screens in public places such as malls, restaurants, and/or stores, young children are attracted to looking at these screens and staring at them like zombies. Children used to be attracted to the sweets that were being sold next to the cashier when going into a convenient store, but now the screens playing ads for Sprite get all the attention.

Phones are ruining our young kid’s minds into lowering their self-confidence because they can only handle emojis or stickers, and not criticism from a boss, teacher, co-worker, or spouse.The internet and social media are what our society is centered around in today’s world. These innovations allow leaders of countries to post their thoughts of world events, students to use the internet to research topics for class, entertainment for the public, and many other things. We can’t live without the internet. It’s ingrained into our brain that the internet and social media are our go-to when we don’t have anything better to do.

If age limitations were to be put on phones and iPads, children would then be more exposed to the environment around them instead of the environment they create in their virtual reality. They would be able to go out and use verbal communication to communicate with other human beings rather than use their thumbs to type a bunch of letters to their friends. They would have to go to a restaurant and order food and have conversations with the people they’re eating with rather than stay at their desk and use an app to order a food delivery.

Of course, parents could just buy a device and then hand that device to their child. We can’t have a society where devices aren’t part of our daily lives since we can’t live without a rectangle that has several hundred gigabytes of memory, a thousand different functions, and ten different ways to communicate to others how well your lunch was. Our devices are like our limbs, you’re able to chop it off, but your life will never be the same without that arm/leg.

Take a break from your device and explore your nearby community restaurant that you’ve never been to, or hook up with your friends and go do something fun together instead of staying at home coped up looking at a small screen. We’re such sophisticated creatures that surely there’s something better we could do instead of creating our entertainment. Go out and make the entertainment!

Featured Image – Little girl captivated by fake entertainmentPhoto Courtesy of huffingtonpost.com

by Isaac Ma