Cultivating Children's Resistance to Mobile Phone Addiction

In the digital age we live in, the issue of children's mobile phone addiction has become a concern for many parents. How can we help children use mobile phones rationally and develop the ability to resist addiction? Let's explore this important topic.

The Impact of Mobile Phones on Children Mobile phones have had a profound impact on children's psychological and academic development. A netizen researching mobile phone addiction and his teacher wife conducted an observational study. In the wife's class of dozens of primary school students, after a summer of online classes, their academic performance fluctuated to varying degrees. Among them, 12 children of teachers, whose mobile phone usage time was strictly controlled, did not experience a significant decline in grades. However, 27 children whose parents were lax in managing their mobile phone time became addicted to mobile phones, and their grades dropped significantly. Nine children were in an especially serious situation. Due to long-term gaming and watching short videos, their brain habits changed, and their in-class performance was extremely poor, making it impossible to study normally. The two most severely affected girls, after spending a summer on mobile phones and being exposed to too much age-inappropriate information, refused adult control, even resorted to burglary and threatened their parents with suicide. The wife spent a great deal of effort trying to get these 9 severely addicted children back on track, but only one child showed some improvement when his parents quit their jobs to watch over him. The conditions of the other 8 were almost irreversible.

During winter and summer vacations, many parents use mobile phones as a "cost-effective and labor-saving" parenting tool, thinking that "one mobile phone can keep a child occupied for a day". Little do they know that once children become immersed in mobile phones, they will gradually lose various advantages for survival and development. But in situations like online classes, children inevitably come into contact with mobile phones. In such cases, parents really need to use some "smart tricks" to reclaim their children's lives from mobile phones.

Mobile Phone Dependence: A Prevailing Survival Environment When revisiting Introduction to Psychology, an astonishing truth emerged: Electronic devices such as mobile phones have, as part of the survival environment, continuously infiltrated our lives and imperceptibly changed our physical and mental mechanisms. This means that children born in this era will inevitably be affected by them, whether they play with mobile phones or not.

Firstly, mobile phones have a social aspect. As classmates and peers talk about the content they see on mobile phones, children's attention gradually shifts towards them. Secondly, mobile phones can quickly relieve stress. Once children experience the "fun of mobile phones", they will want to play with them every time they feel stressed. Moreover, mobile phones have changed our brains. Proficiency in using electronic products has now become an essential survival skill, and everyone's cerebral cortex is being altered, leading to varying degrees of dependence.

These three factors are the impacts brought about by mobile phones as part of the survival environment. So, even if you try your best to prevent children from touching mobile phones, they may still be the biggest "suspect" in stealing children's time. Anders Hansen, Sweden's leading psychologist, wrote in The Phone Brain, "Adolescence is a stage when dopamine secretion is at its peak, making teenagers prone to extreme emotions. Children in this stage are particularly likely to become addicted to mobile phones, leading to a series of problems such as decreased self-control, inattentiveness, delayed brain development, depression, and autism."

Some parents in the technology industry have realized this and adopted similar coping strategies. They allow their children to recognize that mobile phones are essential tools for survival, but at the same time, they reduce their children's sensitivity to mobile phones and avoid increasing their addiction levels. Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, always paid close attention to the impact of technology products on children. When he noticed signs of his children becoming addicted to mobile phones, he would strictly limit their usage time. Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, went even further. He once publicly stated that he prohibited his children from using mobile phones until they turned 14. Many reports refer to parents like Jobs and Gates as "low-tech parents". They have influenced generations with technology, yet they minimize the time their children spend with mobile phones at home, protecting their children's brains to the greatest extent possible.

This reminds us that instead of completely isolating children from mobile phones, it is better to help them develop a system for managing mobile phones at an early age. This way, children can benefit from the value of mobile phones while avoiding the abyss of addiction.

Cultivating Children's Resistance to Addiction In practice, finding the right balance for children's mobile phone use is extremely complex. We want children to be proficient in using mobile phones to look up information, learn English, and attend online classes, while also preventing them from spending endless hours gaming, watching short videos, or surfing the Internet. It seems almost impossible to achieve both. However, from a psychological perspective, there is a way to balance whether children use mobile phones for entertainment or for growth.

The key lies in understanding the psychological tendency behind children's mobile phone use: motivation. Psychology suggests that when there is a lack or imbalance within an organism, needs arise and transform into motivation, which stimulates the organism to take action to meet those needs. We can cultivate children's addiction-resistant habits by grasping the three functions of motivation:

1. The Excitation Function Does the mobile phone inspire or stifle a child's desire to do something? Just as a hungry person is more sensitive to food and a full person has no interest in looking for food, when external stimuli are related to internal motivation, children are more likely to be inspired.

When I was a child, my father loved playing games, and there were a lot of game cartridges at home. I played games from the fifth grade of primary school until I was admitted to university, but I didn't let gaming affect my studies. This was because my father played an important excitation role. He taught me to use the computer software RPGmaker, which is used to create games, and asked two older brothers majoring in software engineering to cooperate with me. Throughout the summer vacation before junior high school graduation, I was learning how to write code, edit scripts, and set up game plots... With the help of the brothers, I even created a 3-minute plot animation using the software, which shocked the entire online forum. My father understood games and why I liked them. He could understand my motivation and stimulate my enthusiasm according to it. Once motivation is inspired, it will continuously activate enthusiasm. A child with a firm goal in mind has no time to become addicted to things other than that goal.

2. The Directing Function Different motivations lead to different activity directions and goals. If a child doesn't know what they like or dislike and doesn't receive enough support from their parents when pursuing their passions, they may be easily lured by mobile phones due to inner emptiness. On the contrary, if a child's inner motivation has a strong directing function, even when using a mobile phone, they will use it to pursue their interests. They may even give up playing with mobile phones and choose a lifestyle that is more conducive to pursuing their passions.

This is why many psychologists encourage parents to cultivate their children's interests. Even if a child only likes playing with plasticine, which may seem unrelated to learning, the directivity brought by passion can help clear obstacles in the child's learning journey. Because children can experience the highest level of happiness from the things they love the most. As long as this happiness is not overshadowed by the happiness brought by mobile phones, the child's inner path will not deviate.

3. The Maintenance and Regulation Function If a child has a motivation regulation system in mind and can control it, adjusting its intensity and duration, it will be difficult for the brain to be shaped by mobile phones. For example, parents can introduce some games that are beneficial for improving attention to their children. Telling children that they can play these games for 10 minutes to relax when they are tired from studying is an example of adjusting the motivation intensity.

When children are overwhelmed by the information on mobile phones and lack the energy to do anything, parents can guide them to go on a trip, climb a mountain, swim, run, or simply do some light exercise. The children's energy will gradually recover. Generally speaking, the maintenance and regulation function is like a safety airbag when children are mentally exhausted.

When children realize that they can regulate their mood while using mobile phones instead of being led by their emotions, mobile phones will just be a tool for them, not an indispensable spiritual comfort. Even if they get addicted occasionally, their inner motivation will remind them to manage their lives outside of mobile phones.

The Physiological Development Law That Cannot Be Ignored In general, it is difficult to avoid children having a certain degree of dependence on mobile phones in this digital age. However, this does not mean that children will definitely become addicted. In addition to using "smart tricks" to cultivate addiction resistance, parents also need to understand the laws of their children's physiological development.

Different levels of physical and mental maturity require different strategies to deal with mobile phone addiction. The frontal lobe in a child's brain, which controls emotions, develops very slowly. It takes decades of experience accumulation, and it is not fully mature until after the age of 20.

Therefore, for children aged 0 - 12, parents should strictly plan their exposure to electronic devices. Even if it is impossible to completely avoid it, they should try to minimize their children's contact with mobile phone content that brings strong pleasure to ensure the healthy development of the frontal lobe. When children can control their emotions and the frontal lobe begins to take shape, they can be allowed to use electronic devices. During this process, parents should cultivate their children's inner motivation to help them master the use of mobile phones as early as possible.

Some people say that in the next 10 years, the key will be whether AI controls humans or humans control AI. If children can master mobile phones at a young age, they will be able to handle larger virtual networks when they grow up. Parents helping their children cultivate addiction resistance is guiding them to stay at the forefront of the times.

This process requires the right methods, but most importantly, it requires parents' unconditional love for their children. When a child's heart is filled with their parents' love, the happiness brought by mobile phones will be overshadowed. Only then can a child develop truly strong willpower and live their own life in the era of information explosion.