To speak of today, connectivity is now among the basic needs of humans. Gadgets and devices are on the rise to fill this insatiable needs of man to connect after all humans are social animals that is inclined to be and get connected. Thus and so internet, gadgets and devices has been so useful to man that it provide not just information but also a filling to some of mans never ending quest for comfort and convenience.
Babies are not exempted…
Yes you read it right babies of today’s generation are already connected to the World Wide Web unconsciously of course, according to a US-based survey show there are more than one-third of babies that are already tapping on smartphones and tablets even before they learn to walk or talk.
Further the lead author of Einstein Healthcare Networks in the US named Hilda Kabali said “We did not expect children were using the devices from the age of six months,” as a result when these babies turned one year of age, ratio of one of every seven toddlers uses devices either smartphones or tablets at least an hour per day. Kabali also added that “Some children were on the screen for as long as 30 minutes.”
The result of the survey conducted were presented at Paediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in San Diego.
How the researchers come up with the results being presented?
To find out how exposed young children into mobile media and how they uses devices the researches developed a 20-item survey. They recruited parents of children ages six months to four years old to fill out the 20 item survey. The parents who were recruited were at a hospital-based paediatric clinic that serves a low-income, minority community, going on the results of the survey conducted were in particular. There are a total of 370 parents who showed that children under one year of age are already exposed to media devices in huge figures:
- 52 percent of children aged one year and below watch TV shows
- 32 percent of children aged one year and below had already scrolled touch screen devices
- 24 percent had called someone
- 15 percent of children aged one year and below used apps
- 12 percent of children aged one year and below played video games.
It is no longer surprising that today’s 2-years old already owns their very own smartphone and tablet.