Growing up in the 21st Century is an exciting but scary concept. Technology has ravished our society and has become a platform for socialising in general, leaving the more traditional means of communication in the dust. People are less likely to call their friends and organise activities to do as a group because the concept of communicating through channels like Facebook gives a false sense of interconnection. It is our duties as adults who grew up in a time where playing out with our friends was a thing to do, to get children together again to enjoy the good ole’ outdoors. This blog is going to give you a little insight as to why you should encourage your kids to ditch their phones and bring them back to the park for some real life fun.
As I mentioned earlier, technology is advancing at such a rate that it becomes difficult to keep your children away from it. This becomes particularly difficult when you have to send your children to school and everyone in their classes have the latest gadgets, from iPhones to XBoxs. Such devices and the means of communication they can bring is amazing in the sense that you can keep in contact with your friends and family without having to arrange dates to meet up for social events but for children, having this leeway for communication from such a young age confuses their minds and makes them believe that such basic level of interaction is enough to sustain healthy relationships in their life. This to me is one of the biggest issues in our society as people will begin to confuse real friends and people they should actually trust with the people they meet online as they think that trust has already been established. How can you really gauge someone’s intentions through a text on a phone or computer screen? This is the reason why human interaction in the form of activities is perfect to allow children to grow and develop in a way that allows them to judge people effectively.
When playing games and getting involved in group activities from a young age, you can learn a multitude of life changing attributes. Perseverance is one that that I find young children lack as they have so many different means to keep themselves entertained with. The energy needed to develop their skills and rankings on Fortnite may seem like a challenge that takes perseverance , but how transferable are those skills in the real world? Taking your children out for a day of adventure golf for example can stimulate their minds so much more effectively in ways that will actually benefit them in life. Dealing with people in real life situations and having to interact in a competitive environment forces children to understand what it like being in a working environment subconsciously. Such situations helps children understand that you can’t always win but also helps them gain a better understanding of the idea that you can lose with a smile on your face. I’ve often witnessed children throwing tantrums at the fact that they’ve not won a group match on certain online games which is clearly unacceptable but playing with a group of people and having a good time whether you win or not is the beauty of competition that can’t be achieved online and something we should always push our children towards.
So if you can hold your hands up and admit that you’ve been a bit complacent with ensuring that your children don’t spend over 2 hours a day on their phones and consoles, that’s absolutely fine it’s never too late to rein it in! Leave your phones at home and come down to Jurassic Falls Adventure Golf or Altitude Adventure” to see how much fun you can have without the distraction of the outside world. It might actually shock you…