i-Ban: Why You Should Put The Screens Away

We live in a pretty big world with plenty of things to see and do, but with life as busy as it can be, we are spending more time looking down at screens. The popularity of tablets and touchscreen devices has blown up in recent years and the convenience of learning apps has made people forget that there is more to life than the internet. You don’t have to stare at a screen all day long for entertainment and neither do your children, even if it is convenient at the time.

It’s a sad situation when a child pokes a page in a coloring book, expecting it to move the way an app does but it happens. We use our phones to voice chat, distract the kids, video chat, email, text, Facebook, play games, read books, calculate, diaraise…all these useful things that are all concentrated on one tool keep our eyes looking down and not at the world. We carry a smart screen in our pocket at all times as if being disconnected from the internet would be a bad thing. You could take the time to catch a discount on websites like DontPayFull.com and go out for the day, leaving the screens behind at home. Understanding why you should place an i-Ban on the i-Pad, especially for kids, is important for your families health.

• Most adults keep their phones under their pillows so that they are within easy reach in the morning. The blue light that our phones emit is designed to wake us up. Research also shows that smartphones suppress melatonin, which makes it harder to sink into a deep sleep.
• How many times do you wish you could get a massage? Shoulder and neck pain is common as we spend time hunched over staring at our phones. Muscle strain, herniation of the discs in the spine, and pinched nerves are all outcomes of ‘text neck’.
• Staring at your smartphone distracts you from the world around you, including your children. If you take them to the park, don’t settle on a bench with Facebook for your company. Engage with your kids and keep your eyes on them – it only takes a split second for something to go wrong.
• Did you know your phone can carry more bacteria than your toilet seat? Probably not. Think about where your hands go all day, touching your phone to the toilet and back. Even if you wash your hands, your phone will need a clean too.

Screen time ultimately takes away from the world. When you go to shows, concerts and even the beach, all you see are parents holding up smartphones to ‘capture memories’ but without interacting with the children. Put the screen down and experience life with your families, watch your child’s face when they see fireworks and make actual memories with your eyes, not your phone screen. Otherwise, one day you will realize what you’ve missed, and there’s no getting it back again.