Sitting down for extended periods makes you 53% more likely to have a heart attack, according to a study in a medical journal.
Parents with desk jobs are sitting all day long. That’s not good. Kids have to go to school, move between classes, walk from the bus to home and they’re more likely to be moving around and having varied activities. How many office-working adults are on a sports team.
Of course, kids have their summer vacations. Maybe they prefer to stay indoors where the A/C is on and sit for eight hours with only their thumbs moving as they play with a half-dozen friends on some Xbox Live game.
Even adults can make use of ComputerTime to make them get up, stretch, walk around, by setting session limits with mandatory five-minute breaks. The other alternatives are stand-up desks. You’ll burn more calories if you’re standing and moving around a little while you’re working. You don’t have to worry about an expensive ergonomic chair. It’s apparently better for your back, and you probably have less of a risk of throwing a clot from your butt to your brain, resulting in a stroke.
If you use a stand up desk, tell us how you like it by leaving a comment below.
Do you think stand up desks might be good for your kids too? Do you think they might be less comfortable about spending too much time on the computer if you made them stand while being on the computer?
Maybe the treadmill computer desk is the way to go.
As long as you don’t mind a website that looks like it was developed by 9-year-olds, then go for it.
Kids have an amazing capacity to learn whatever they put their mind to it. While they don’t have all of the discipline and experience to do what a professional website designer can put together, they can certainly create something that works for an auto-salvage lot. Nice work boys. I read about this in this story in the NY Times.
I really like the idea of kids at this age getting on a computer and actually learning valuable skills.
It’s also the rare case that kids get on computers and actually learn productive skills like these boys did.
As a parent, I’m going to overlook a bit of excessive computer time if the kids are actually learning something. But it’s time to pull the plug (or let ComputerTime push them off) when all they’re doing is social networking and aimless browsing.
How many of you think that your kids are actually learning valuable skills when they’re on their computers? Maybe I ask that question a different way… Given the amount of time that they are on their computers, do you think they are learning enough valuable skills to justify the amount of time they spend on their computers?
In my previous post, I mentioned my daughter’s desire for a laptop and how I’m currently just saying “no”.
Here is a thought provoking video created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University which illustrates the changing landscape in education.
It’s a very different world now. The older generation has to adapt if it wants to reach the younger generations more than it has in previous generations due to the way that technology in the past twenty to thirty years has changed the way we communicate information.
Oh, by the time my kids are in college, they’ll have laptops. It’s a tool no college student can do without in my opinion. But not right now, in middle school. Right now the allure is just to have an expensive, cool toy.
If you’re a parent of a teen, what are your laptop plans for your kids?
The concerns about Families and Technology extend beyond this blog. SoftwareTime is a company founded on the idea that technology affects families in many ways. Balance and responsible use of technologies is important. SoftwareTime's products will help.
