ICT and children- Social or unsocial?

The text who follows are a part of a school prosject and I will be delight if you could read the text and make a comment  :)

  I will need it for my reflection. And of course you can make the comment i Norwegian :)

CC from itupictures

 Taken on November 8, 2012

When should pupils start with ICT? 

We have always been  an active family, but we realized after some years with teenagers in the house,  that  they spend  more time being  social with their friends on social networks , and less time being together physically . During a day they  often talk with their friends on different  social networks . Is this making them more social with their friends than we were? They “need to” talk to their friends  daily and sometimes several times a day. We used to visit our friends , and stayed  in their home for some hours and the next time we spoke was the next day. Now  they are “online together “ several times a day instead of visiting each other physically. Children  who don’t have friends in the neighborhood have more opportunities now for being social . They will always have someone to talk to by using social networks. With someone they might know from school ,but also other kids around the world .They probably don’t feel as lonely as some children did when we grow up without these opportunities.

How will the memories from their childhood be like? Memories from my childhood is often related to outdoor activities . When they become teenagers they don’t  play  outside as much as we did in the same age. My children have  been doing  most of the things I was doing as a child, because we have told them to . Until  they are 10-11 years old they are playing outside almost like us. Climbing trees, go skating, skiing, bicycling, bath in the sea or in the river, picking flowers to parents and neighbors ,  building cottage in trees, making  snow caves, have  snowball fights and a lot of other things. We used our creativity and we got lot of fresh air. When they are getting older their friends become more and more important. They don’t find the same pleasure in playing outside. But can we say that were we more social with our friends, than our children are now ? Do we physical need to be together  for being social? Who can decide that our childhood was better than our children`s childhood is too day?

Hopefully we have learn them to appreciate the nature and being with friends and family enjoying using the sea, the forest, the mountains , the garden and the river. When they are teenagers I like them to do both. Being with their online friends and being with family and friend in the real life. By doing both I hope they will continue having a good health also as grownups . A world without ICT too day is probably a world without development. And a world with too much ICT is a world without reality.