CAT 5 blog 4.2

Rewired

Luis Palacio

I read an article written by Larry Rosen called “Rewired: Understanding the iGeneration and the Way They Learn”. In it he states “that most children and teens spend so much time “plugged in” and this causes health problems including obesity. Then he begins to talk about School work and technology and how the internet and mobile devices should be used as teaching tools. I agree with what he is saying about technology being used to better help school kids with their work.

Rosen talks about how the use of these technological devices causes health problems but it is a need in school when it comes to teaching. I feel that kids and teens should be allowed only four hours of tech time each day. And by doing so can help them do their work and decrease the percentage of any health problems occurring.

To me Larry Rosen's main ideas of this article was to state how technologies are needed as teaching tools, and how it causes health problems if you are plugged into them for too long. I feel that his formula for the problem is off. If you ask me thirty minutes of non-tech work being done followed by one hour of tech work being done, nothing at all will get done. I say this mainly because I was once a kid, and if I did home work for thirty minutes then was allowed an hour to do some of it online. I would spend the online time chatting with my friend instead of doing my home work. That is why I feel that kids and teens should be allowed only four hours of tech time each day. Two hours for school work and two for their social life. If you give them such a little amount of time to chat and stuff with their friends they are going to use their school work time for chatting like I did. By giving them a good amount time to do both you will increase their work productivity. They will most likely concentrate on their school work to get it over with so that they can have a little more time being “plugged in” as Rosen stated.

And to discuss one of his main issues about being “plugged in” for too long leading to health problems; I will say this again that is why I recommend four hours of tech time. I remember my brother always on the computer watching movies and playing games, then at the end of the day he will tell my mom his eyes hurt. When we took him to the doctor we found out that he needed glasses for straining his eyes so much from being in front of that monitor. Only if he had four hours of being plugged in two for school work and two for fun, he wouldn’t be looking like a geek with his huge glasses. Also by decreasing the amount of time being allowed to be plugged into your computer, you probably would be doing something more energetic; meaning playing in the park instead of sitting and eating junk that would lead to obesity. I had a very intelligent little cousin that did all his work in school and by the time he got home he was playing games online. He wasn’t given a limit to how long he could stay plugged in so that was all he did. Two months went by and he gained 17 pounds, then his mom started to cut his tech time an encouraged him to go outside and play. But by then it was too late because he was use to it. You wouldn’t want to see my cousin now he is extremely Obese. So please parents out there set a good time for your kids and enforce it. That is one way you can help them with their school work and make sure they are staying healthy.