Nowadays, a significant number of adolescents own and use their smartphones. Although modern portable gadgets can cause several health-related diseases, I believe that they are able to teach children more effectively than traditional education.
On the one hand, the major drawback of teens owning smart devices is their influence on children’s health. This is to say that using and reading on such a small gadget on a regular basis can deteriorate eyesight, causing myopia, and worsen posture, developing scoliosis and other posture-related disorders, as well as mental health issues, such as an addiction. For example, the research conducted by the WHO revealed that 30% of all young people were recognised as short-sighted, compared to the children 20 years ago. However, I tend to think that these problems are easy to handle by restricting and monitoring children’s screen time by special applications for parents, and there is a more significant benefit for schooling.
On the other hand, the biggest advantage is that smartphones are a very useful tool for education. The reason for this is that there are numerous educational applications, platforms and games that may develop a juvenile’s ability to study. They can also be used by teachers for the teaching process, as it is easier to educate students by new technologies. For instance, 80% of all school students are familiar with Minecraft, popular video and mobile game among children, because they encountered it previously, at young ages, and now this game is being used as the educational platform to teach children a range of school subjects, such as geography, arts and history. For this reason, I consider that it is beneficial for minors to have access to such an opportunity.
To conclude, although more adolescents using smartphones can lead to some health problems among them, I believe that smartphones are beneficial devices for teaching.