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Sunday, May 16, 2010

Facebook = sleep deprivation

I've talked to so many parents who say that their children are addicted to Facebook. Their children get home from their after school activities, eat dinner with their families, and then go on In-Your-Face-book to catch up with their friends, some of whom they may not have seen for three whole hours.

As a result their homework gets put off till 9 or 10 PM, and if they are assiduous about finishing it, they don't get to bed before midnight. If children don't get their eight or nine hours of sleep, their growth, their health, and their concentration during school will all suffer. They might as well be club kids, hanging out till all hours in the nightclubs.

Congress should pass a law making Facebook illegal on weekday nights. Unlike the health care bill, this one would have the support of the American people -- at least those of voting age.

I've tried to pass such a law in my house but don't seem to have the power to enforce it.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not difficult John - pull the internet plug. I know parents who do just that.
G
PS You can keep a secret connection to feed your own internet addiction ;)

Anonymous said...

PPS It takes an internet addict to know one. :)

John Craig said...

That's a good idea, but my kids would just plug it back in. And they'd complain so loudly and vociferously that I'd probably just give in anyway. I never seem to win any test of wills around here.

And yes, I'm absolutely an addict, far worse than my kids as a matter of fact. But I've already been through school etc.

(Does that PPS apply in your case as well?)

Anonymous said...

Of course, I meant that was how I could recognize yours rather than you recognizing your kids' addictions. I'm in therapy but it's only partly working.

Our challenge has been Xbox rather than FB. Mainly Halo and COD. We have a weekday prohibition, and used to require all homework complete before weekend use. But policies have recently been relaxed in line with good behavior.

G

John Craig said...

Guy --
I figured you meant both; they say the first step to recovery is recognizing your addiction. I don't seem to have any desire to recover, though; you're a better man than me.

We had/have a problem with video games as well, but what with my son having not even bothered to apply to college, we haven't exactly been able to hold that over his head as an incentive to study hard. As I said, I have no authority here.

Anonymous said...

Our neighbor's son, who is a big gamer, goes to the air force academy. Apparently he attributes his outstanding performance in the warfare simulation exercises to his gaming skills. As far as I can tell, a good number of the drones used by the military are piloted by "gamers", who don't even need to be in theater so they can surf in the lunch break.

John Craig said...

I've heard that, and that the military actually actively recruits gamers because they'd be good at that type of thing.

I've also heard that for gamers, killing seems more like the video games they've played their whole lives, so it bothers them less.

Anonymous said...

John,

You, of all people, should open a FB account. Actually I can't believe you haven't already. You wold love it. You will get a lot more traction and interaction with these blogs. For sure.
Give it a shot!

Hoff

John Craig said...

Maybe I should. My daughter keeps begging me not to, though, and she seems to win any test of wills we have. (I actually opened one as sort of a joke on her about six months ago, but have only been on something like three times and have a grand total of something like three or four "friends.")

Part of the reason I don't do it, though, is I know I would probably waste time on it just as she does. I'm sorta already frittering my life away as it is.