The child is staring at the mobile phone screen. Photo by reporter Jin Siliu
At the beginning of school, Ms. Li, who lives in Jiangxia, Wuhan, "panicked". "The balance of the bank card is insufficient. When I checked the consumption flow, the 12,000 yuan in the card was all recharged by the children playing games to buy props."
Ms. Li’s child is a "online game fan" this year. During the summer vacation, children play online games to kill time and buy equipment in the online game mall through WeChat coin purse. Ms. Li knows nothing about this.
How do primary school students deal with APP in their leisure time? In the past few days, the reporter launched the "APP survey commonly used by primary school students in Wuhan" online and offline. As of 18: 00 on August 31, more than 600 valid questionnaires were collected, including 431 online surveys and 175 offline surveys. Statistics show that chatting, short videos and game apps have won a lot of "juvenile hearts".
Nearly 60% of primary school students have exclusive mobile phones or iPad.
According to this survey, 58.7% of primary school students have their own smart phones or iPads, and mobile phones or iPads have become "playmates" and "study companions" for many primary school students. 60.09% parents have time restrictions on their children’s use of electronic products such as mobile phones, 36.66% parents only allow their children to study, and only 3.25% parents have no restrictions on electronic products and can use them at any time.
It is noteworthy that in this survey, 56.15% of primary school students said that they used their mobile phones or iPads for less than one hour every day, 35.5% used their mobile phones or iPads for 1-3 hours, 6.03% used their mobile phones or iPads for 3-5 hours, and 2.32% used their mobile phones or iPads for more than 5 hours every day. Experts generally recommend that children use electronic products for no more than one hour every day.
Some primary school students said frankly.
"You can only break up with your mobile phone for one day at most."
In the survey "How long do you think you can live without your smartphone or iPad at most", 20.42% choose a day, 33.41% choose a week, 23.2% choose a month and 22.97% choose a year or more.
"You can only break up with your mobile phone for one day at most!" A 10-year-old boy named "Mark" told reporters that he has his own iPad. Besides online classes, he also downloaded many commonly used apps and online games, such as WeChat, homework help, Tik Tok, Snake and Cool Dog Music. Parents stipulate that you should not use the iPad for more than one hour every day, but it is not strictly enforced on weekends and summer vacations. After a summer vacation, he felt that his eyesight had declined, but he was afraid to tell his parents.
China Children’s Development Report (2019) released by China Children’s Center and Social Science Literature Publishing House on August 2019)— — Children’s life outside school shows that children spend an average of 43.24 minutes using electronic products every day on school days. It takes longer to use electronic products on weekends, with an average of 96.27 minutes.
Excessive use of electronic products is not conducive to children’s physical and mental health. A survey shows that the longer children use electronic products, the lower their social skills and anti-frustration scores, and the higher their myopia.
Chat, short video, game APP
Won the "juvenile heart"
In the "APP you use most often" option survey, 63.11% of the respondents checked "APP related to learning", accounting for the highest proportion. Followed by social apps such as QQ and WeChat, accounting for 61.72%; Short video apps such as Tik Tok and Aauto Quicker accounted for 37.82%, game apps such as the glory of the king accounted for 24.13%, and other apps accounted for 15.31%.
Children put learning-related apps in the first place when filling out the questionnaire, but when the reporter actually investigated and visited, it was found that the latter three types of apps were the most interesting and used by children: social, short videos and games. China Child Development Report (2019)— — The Situation of Children’s Life Outside School also shows that children’s liking for watching Tik Tok, cartoons and Aauto Quicker for entertainment (4.19 points), playing online games and chatting online (4.00 points) has reached or even exceeded 4 points (out of 5 points).
More than 30% of respondents occasionally brush short videos.
Regarding "Do you pay attention to Tik Tok, Aauto Quicker, Volcano, bilibili and other short video apps", 47.33% choose "I know but I’m not interested", 36.43% choose "I pay attention to it and brush it occasionally", 10.9% choose "I brush it often and find it very interesting" and 5.34% choose "I not only brush it, but also try to upload it myself".
It can be seen that short video has attracted more and more attention after the rapid development in recent years. The children interviewed all know short video apps such as Tik Tok and Aauto Quicker, and the proportion of using them for 1-3 hours every day has reached 15.55%.
"According to your observation, what types of short videos do peers around you like to brush? In a survey, pupils’ responses mainly focused on five aspects, among which "parody in life" accounted for 54.99%, "entertainment circle related to idols" accounted for 34.34%, and "game explanation tutorial" accounted for 36.19%. However, "related to learning and professional skills" accounted for 37.35%, and "related to natural and cultural landscapes" accounted for 23.2%.
In the item "Why did you start to brush short video apps", children said that they often saw them online, accounting for 33.41%; Secondly, "curious, take the initiative to use" accounted for 29.23%, "classmates often brush" accounted for 20.88%, and "parents often brush" accounted for 16.47%.
Zhou Lina, a teacher of ideological and political course in Chongren Road Primary School, said that there are more and more APP softwares, which are constantly updated. Many softwares are helpful for children’s learning, which stimulate students’ interest in learning through entertaining, and the game mode meets children’s curiosity. However, for teenagers and even adults, we should have self-control. Parents need to set an example in front of their children, not to let their children drift, and not to ignore communication with them. It is suggested that we can accompany our children to study and discuss together, control the use time reasonably, pay attention to scientific use of eyes and protect our eyesight. In addition, the home and school closely cooperate to check the APPs used by children. Any app that contains pornographic violence, online games, commercial advertisements and other content and links, or uses exam-oriented education to increase students’ academic burden should be uninstalled.
Luo Hongwen, the principal of Qipanjie Primary School in Wuchang District, believes that it is obviously unrealistic for new technologies to keep pouring in and affect students’ lives and blindly block them among children. To teach children to identify and use them reasonably, teachers and parents should also guide them in ways that children are willing to accept, thus effectively improving the quality of education. (Reporter Xiang Jie governs Yang Feng)
