Canton lucerne
Can Tik Tok be healthy? The Parent Education Day answers burning questions about digitization
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Social media does not stop at children’s room doors and classrooms. Dealing with the digital is inevitable for parents. The demand on Parent Education Day in the Canton of Lucerne was correspondingly high.
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“Parenting with smartphones and the like is not always easy.”
With this, District President Marcel Schwerzmann, himself father of a son, speaks to many parents from the soul in his greeting. Accordingly, the fourth parent education day in the canton of Lucerne on Saturday under the title “Digitization in the children’s room” was booked out weeks beforehand.
The workshop with Brigitte Rychen is about the topic of beauty images.
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Before the 150 participants each attend two of the ten workshops, Professor Lutz Jäncke from the University of Zurich gives a plenary talk on “the child’s brain in the digital age”. For this, Jäncke goes far, namely with the emergence of Homo Sapiens over 150,000 years ago and draws a comparison with the invention of the smartphone in 2007:
“Nothing so world-changing has ever happened in such a short time.”
Today, a third of all human beings use mobile phones and even half use social media.
More information consumption does not make us better multi-taskers
The Internet is synonymous with a flood of stimuli. But in the famous “multitasking” mankind is bad: we can only consciously perceive about 0.0005 percent of the information that ends up in the brain. In studies of multitasking skills, those who often use several digital applications and devices at the same time do worst. That may be surprising, but Jäncke has the explanation ready:
“If we receive too much information, we become slaves to charms.”
Then the brain begins to indulge in the crowd, jumping from one interesting stimulus to the next.
This process is particularly drastic when the flood of information hits a young brain. In this way, the pleasure center is activated, but not the frontal cortex, which means that the networks in question are less developed. The latter brain region is responsible for self-discipline, motivation control, planning processes, attention and emotion. Since the frontal cortex and with it these abilities are only fully developed in early adulthood, parents come into play in regulating media consumption in adolescents. Jäncke says:
«We have to replace the frontal cortex. And that happens with education. “
Digitization is inevitable
But that’s not that easy at all. Parents hover around with questions like: At what age should my son start using Snapchat? And how much screen time is recommended? Because everyone agrees that dealing with digitization is inevitable. In the workshop “Tik Tok can be healthy!” interested parents get an insight into the popular video platform. They learn that “calming” videos (for example, of someone removing a doormat) are a trend that can be used to make money. But also that there is a lot to be found on the platform that should not get into the hands of children.
Sharmila Egger from the association “hissy»For safety and media literacy gives tips on how the children can be supported. For example, there is the accompanied mode on Tik Tok, where parents can make privacy settings for their children. And she recommends using a private account or at least not using the hashtag #fyp (For You Page) so that the post does not appear on other users’ start pages. Even if this may not appeal to children and young people who are on the hunt for as many followers as possible.
The parent education day in the video.
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Egger presents guidelines for young people in upper school: After 9 p.m., social media is over, a maximum of 20 hours of consumption per week, a change in leisure time is a must and strangers are only met together. And yes, Tik Tok has its good things too, she says, although the negatives like fear, less sleep, bullying and loneliness outweigh the negative. Ultimately, it strengthens self-identity, friendships, building a community and can offer emotional support for issues that do not want to be discussed with parents.
When am i beautiful enough?
Body image is closely related to social media use, because “Images do a lot to us”, says Brigitte Rychen from the MAS Prevention and Health Promotion at the HSLU in the workshop “The beautiful swan and the ugly duckling? When am I beautiful enough? ». Comparing yourself to unattainable ideals leads to lower self-esteem. Some of it is even deliberately provoked, says Rycher:
“A lot of money can be made with this uncertainty.”
Apart from psychological stress, the constant comparisons increase the willingness of adolescents for diets, extreme fitness training or body operations.
According to a study, almost a third of young people between the ages of 11 and 24 have concerns about their appearance. Rycher advises parents not to comment – even compliments – about their children’s bodies. In addition, one’s own relationship with the body is important. Rychen says:
“If parents only concern themselves with diet, appearance and weight, it does something to the children.”
The most important thing is to keep talking to children about body images and not to judge manipulated images on social media, but to talk about them. “A great deal has already been achieved when children and young people become aware of what comparing with them does.”
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