Using devices benefits parents and their children. Yet, the convenience of these tools has downsides affecting your family’s health. Understanding how they impact wellbeing and learning how to leverage them healthily is key to enjoying technology’s comfort without risks.
Positive Effects Of Devices
The most significant benefit of using home devices is getting extra time for other meaningful activities. Here are ways they can help you.
Promotes Early Education And Brain Health
The first critical phase of brain development happens around age 2 to 7, when your young ones are curious and eager to explore. This period is the best time to educate your kids and help them develop their cognitive abilities. Sign them up for online courses where they learn how to read, solve simple math problems and explore their surroundings to satisfy their inquisitiveness.
Technology can upgrade your kids’ intellectual skills through online games and educational apps. It can further hone their hand-eye coordination, visual-spatial skills and literacy.
Helps You Cook Nutritious Meals
There’s no question that using kitchen appliances can make meal preparation quick and easy. The best thing about it is you can serve your family various meals they’ll enjoy every time. You won’t have to rely on restaurants and takeouts for healthy meals, as you can cook them with less effort at home.
For example, a blender can help you prepare fruit smoothies for the kids. You can cook a less-oily fried chicken with an air fryer. The main point is these kitchen devices can help you try new recipes, put healthier meals on the table and improve your family’s health.
Decreases The Time Spent Doing Housework
As a parent, house chores consume your day and rob you of precious moments with your adorable kids. Not to mention, cleaning is energy draining and stressful. With essential home appliances, you can finish tasks faster and spend the rest of your time playing with your children.
You can toss the dirty laundry in a washer after cleaning it with vinegar, and bathe your kids while the machine operates or prepare nutritious meals. Technology allows you to multitask, do house chores with less stress and get more freedom to do things with family.
Improves Kids’ Emotional Health
Using devices can also promote socialization for your young ones. They can use instant messaging apps to connect with their friends, relatives living in another state and grandparents.
Social skills are essential for growing children. Giving them access to devices to learn how to mingle with others, make friends and strike up conversations is a good investment for their future.
Negative Effects Of Devices
You’ll often come across more downsides to using devices online. Find out what they are.
Causes Neck And Back Pain
Looking down at your phone, tablet, or desktop for long periods can eventually lead to neck and back pain. It becomes worse if you’re sitting and don’t observe proper posture.
Musculoskeletal issues are a common complaint of parents who work from home, but there are remedies for them. Practice ergonomics and consider a standing desk. Switching between sitting and standing positions increases blood circulation and reduces the physical stress on your body.
Leads To Digital Eye Strain
You and your children are susceptible to digital eye strain if you use screens for several hours. With more than 60% of Americans experiencing discomfort related to digital eye strain, it’s a prevalent syndrome. Symptoms are dry eyes, headaches, blurry vision and eye strain.
Use the 20-20-20 rule to give your eyes a screen break. After 20 minutes of work, step away from the screen and look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. Other strategies are blinking more, increasing the font size on devices and getting regular eye checkups.
Contributes To Physical Inactivity
Using devices promotes inactivity. For example, imagine using a washing machine — what do you do after you load it? You might go back to the living room and continue watching TV.
It’s the same for your children. Instead of going out to play with their friends, they might choose to watch videos on their phones. Technology is meant to help you live a healthy lifestyle, so use it wisely. Download apps to help you track and monitor your fitness progress, and use devices for things with a purpose.
Disrupts Sleep
Devices have a blue light that can disrupt your sleep pattern. Exposure to this kind of light during the night can inhibit the production of the sleep hormone melatonin. One Harvard experiment between blue and green light found the former to suppress melatonin twice as long as the latter. Blue light also shifts the circadian rhythm up to two times more than green light.
Sleep is essential for immunity and overall health. If you work at night, wear blue-blocking glasses and use dim red lights.
Increase Risk For Mental Health Problems
A prominent psychological concern for excessive screen time is anxiety and FOMO — or the fear of missing out on something when you see photos of your friends and family. More than this, positive news and information on social media are decreasing.
Limit your and your kids’ gadget time. Set a particular hour in the day when they can use their phone for entertainment purposes. Better yet, encourage them to divert their energy to active, meaningful things, such as playing outdoors or walking. It will have a better effect on their health.
Use Devices Appropriately To Make Your Life Convenient
Devices can help you complete tasks with ease and in a short amount of time. They’re here to improve your life and give you some freedom from doing house chores. However, this convenience potentially risks your health if you don’t use these devices appropriately. Screens are particularly debilitating to wellbeing if you don’t limit the time you spend on them.
Be mindful of how you use these tools to reduce the less-beneficial effects on your family. Talk to your spouse and kids about using devices healthily.