PHOTOGRAPHY
Free Speech Matters (pictured)
Holding it in. Being held against my will. My voice being ripped away from me. My opinion gone. What gave I become? A voiceless mindless person who can’t think for themselves. My voice matters and so does yours. We will not be silenced. Stand against this terribleness. We have a voice.
– Emma Harris, Year 6, Genazzano FCJ College, Kew VIC
ARTICLE
A picture is nothing like the real thing – don’t let life scroll by
A recent survey in Australia interviewed 1000 people of different ages, and found that the average Australian spends five and a half hours a day on their phones. This shocked me because it seems like such a long time to spend on your phone. Although, I often find myself jumping on quickly to check something on my iPad, only to realise that an hour has passed, because my parents come telling me to get off! This always surprises me because I feel like I’ve only been on my device for a few minutes. When I get off I’m sometimes cranky and tired, even though I haven’t moved!
Mum and I often talk about her childhood with little technology and this made me think about how different my life is. I’ve also started to notice, when I am on bus or train or even in a restaurant, people are distracted by what’s in their hands. Even though most of the people I see are adults, there are quite a few kids, playing on their iPads or phones. When my family and I are in our car, I see something cool out the window, my brother often misses it, because he is usually watching something on his device.
I’m now 10 and from seeing adults and teenagers doing everything on their phones like ordering pizza and getting movie tickets, I know that technology is only going to get bigger in my life. I’ve started to think about what activities give me something that screens can’t. On looking into this topic I liked the idea of ‘green time instead of screen time”. Getting outside to ride my bike or practice my netball.
So what’s my plan to make sure my life’s not scrolling by? We have set up something on my iPad called ‘Screen Time’. This sets how long I can have before my iPad locks the apps. After I have been on technology, I’m going to take a brain break (just like we do at school), and practice my netball, or do some sort of craft. The most important thing that I have learnt, is that life on a device will never be as good as real life.
– Hannah Cook, Year 5, Orana Catholic Primary School, Willetton WA
DIGITAL MEDIA
Change the way you game (part transcript)
What is gaming addiction? Video game addiction is defined as compulsive or uncontrolled use of video games, in a way that causes problems in other areas of a person’s life. Despite this, gaming addiction is still being defined by researchers and health professionals.
I caught up with Stephanie from the Kids Helpline to learn a little bit more. Stephanie (Kids Helpline): Researchers and mental health professionals are still in quite a lot of discussion and debate about what that means, what levels it reaches to the point of addiction.
SG: Why do we play video games and are there any benefits in gaming? I spoke to Dan from the FUSE cup who explained this further.
Dan (FUSE Cup): It’s a really great way to bring students and teachers together, in a fun supportive way. It’s also great for building communication skills, teamwork, strategy, critical thinking and a great opportunity to really develop those skills around resilience, digital wellbeing and emotional regulation.
SG: We know that gaming has a number of positives, but when does gaming become a problem?
Stephanie (Kids Helpline): So if you’re starting to notice that you’re gaming before bed, staying up late, do you often feel tired because of that, do your energy levels feel quite low. If you’re losing interest in areas that you once really enjoyed, so activities, sports, hanging out with your friends.
SG: It’s important that when we’re gaming, we have some strategies to do it safely and responsibly. One strategy Stephanie from the Kids Helpline recommends is the ABCD strategy.
A stands for away time. So making sure that we set time to unplug ourselves from the screen and from our games. B = bend and breathe. Include stretches, maybe every 10, 15 minutes or so, getting up having a stretch from your games. C = Check in. Ask ourselves some really tough questions. How am I feeling right now? Do I need a break? How long have I been online for? Why am I continuing to game? D = Downtime before bed.
Stephanie (Kids Helpline): So this is about creating that really positive sleeping routine before bed, (if we don’t gaming can) keep us wired and keep us up at night, or even not getting a good night sleep.
– Stephanie Gauci, Year 6, Oliver Plunkett School, Pascoe Vale VIC