The Connection Between Technology and Children Obesity

The connection between technology and children obesity

As we said, the technology has improved greatly in recent years and has become very important on our lives.

There are four ways that media harms children generally and contribute to obesity:

 Decreases physical activity

Unhealthy eating

 Increasing snacking behavior

 Unhealthy sleep patterns.

Many studies have found that physical activity decreases, as screen time increases. In other words, the hours that children are watching TV every day took the place of the play time outside with friend that we used to do when we were kids. I remember that when I was a kid we went outside play with friends and every break in school we played outside games that children today don’t even know. Today every kid has its own ipod or tablet and they barely communicate face to face with their friend and almost don’t do sport at all. This physical activity is essential for the normal development of the child.

Moreover, watching TV develops snack habit causes us to consume more calories than we need.

Another issue is the content of the TV's programs and commercials there are many non educational and inappropriate values that kids expose to them on TV. In addition to that, most of the commercials on children programs are for fast food.  80% of all the commercials on children's programming are for fast food.

In average, children watch 11 food advertisements in every hour they are watching TV.

The most harmful influence of the media on children is that is cause disorder in their sleep patterns. Research founded that watching TV 3 or more hours a day doubles the risk of difficulty falling asleep, another essential part on children normal development.