A gadget is an electronic device that contains software for performing necessary functions and should be mobile and compact for transportation. Gadgets include mobile phones, smartphones, tablets, smart watches, pagers, and electronic books. All of this entered our lives not so long ago and became part of our everyday life. This should not be feared, but wisdom is needed to use this correctly, and somewhere to set boundaries that cannot be violated. A gadget in itself is not evil, as it is an ordinary information carrier, but the source of information itself can be evil or good.
A child was created to grow and develop in a society of similar people, to learn communication and receive wise instruction from adults, to receive from them those cultural and family characteristics that are characteristic of the environment in which he grows up. Parents are given wisdom from above so that they monitor the child's development and timely give him necessary instruction, teach him new sciences, help him develop comprehensively. All of this is within parents' power, and they should use this so that their child develops harmoniously and correctly.
Any source of information that gets into the hands of small children must necessarily be checked by parents. A child does not have sufficient means to independently go and choose a smartphone for himself and then use it as a toy. Any gadget that gets into children's hands begins its journey into children's lives, not bypassing parents. Only adults decide whether their children can use gadgets or not.
Modern electronic devices are designed so that, in addition to educational and useful programs, there are also entertainment functions, as well as internet access. And frequent use of such devices leads the child to neural dependence on the information received. Like computer games, the information flow can capture a child's mind, and indeed any adult person, affecting consciousness and binding to itself with strong neural bonds. Receiving another portion of interesting information, our brain releases the hormone dopamine into the blood, which brings short-term satisfaction and joy. Over time, the hormonal system becomes exhausted, and the organism needs much more of this substance to get the expected satisfaction.
If computer electronic games carry more entertainment and emptiness, devaluing the child's tastes, then the internet carries quite a lot of analytical information and has a unique ability to influence and form worldview depending on what the end user listens to, reads, or watches. Ideology forms the child's consciousness, which then forms habits and becomes part of character.
What does the internet contain? This is a unique platform where a user can learn, be entertained, receive information, trade, communicate, correspond, play, watch and listen to anything, publish what he likes, engage in business, and do many useful and interesting things. Now choose from this list what your child would prefer if given freedom in this choice. If at first this might be a reasonable decision, soon this whole process will slide toward entertainment and games. Freedom of choice without wise guidance from adults will always lead a child to choose what is easier and what doesn't require work to get pleasure.
To get another portion of dopamine, a child doesn't need to make much effort using gadgets. Carnal nature will always choose an easier path to obtain greater pleasure. Uncontrolled stay on the internet and use of gadgets makes a child dependent, and he essentially becomes a spiritual drug addict, and the same processes occur in his organism as occur in chemical drug addicts.
It's important to note that internet culture has an ideology that doesn't just entertain, but also forms thinking in a certain direction. The enemy of the soul has taken care to stuff the worldwide web with all kinds of sources of destructive information that not even all adults can immediately distinguish. The enemy of the soul has learned to disguise his traps under Christian names and content.
A particular danger for both children and adults recently is represented by short videos that are posted by all kinds of users on different platforms to attract more subscribers to themselves. As a rule, these are interesting and amusing plots from other people's lives. They bring joy and quick pleasure, stimulating a person's hormonal system. The hormonal system comes into motion and satisfies the viewer with immediate releases of corresponding hormones into the blood. The mind, receiving short-term information, comes to no longer want to strain long-term to obtain reward. Superficial thinking is formed, and the person cannot concentrate on what requires prolonged attention and concentration of forces. Any prolonged activity begins to tire, becomes boring, and doesn't attract. The mind, accustomed to receiving quick satisfaction, doesn't want to strain because of more serious and long-term projects. A pattern of global stupefaction is formed. Although the person looks normal, this dependence on information flow will necessarily make itself known when in contact with others.
Not every adult can cope with such an attack by the enemy on the mind, let alone children who are not yet capable of analyzing and distinguishing good from evil. But the internet information flow is arranged so that it will necessarily attract your attention to these empty contents. Once falling into this information trap, a person won't have enough strength to break out of this network. Moreover, when a child watches what adults do, he learns, and a certain view of things is formed in him under the influence of the heroes of these videos. He hears what they say, how they react to various situations, how they respond having different problems, and he accordingly learns everything that the authors of publications offer.
But the biggest problem of all gadgets is that they don't carry love and cannot give a person what he can receive from his fellow man. Social relationships are destroyed, and the child plunges into a world of knowing good and evil, in which evil predominates. When buying a gadget for your child, think about whether it's worth giving his soul into the enemy's hands. Maybe it's better to allocate your precious time so that in cooperation with God and with parental wisdom you can invest in the child's mind what will help him become a full-fledged person?
A child who has gotten used to receiving information from electronic sources will find it impossible to understand God's requirements and observe them. His mind is dead to spiritual truths. And parents, giving a gadget, have done everything possible to close the tender doors of children's consciousness to God's influence.
Questions for Reflection
Please read 3 John 1:4; Isa. 54:13; Prov. 4:1; 6:20-21; 22:15; Ps. 118:37; Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 10:5; 1 Pet. 1:13; Mark 9:42; 1 Tim. 4:12, in light of this lesson. What other verses from the Bible came to your mind? What did you understand from this lesson? Up to what age should gadgets not be given to children? How to determine the boundary between useful and harmful use of gadgets for children? Do parents bear responsibility for the child's information security? What is the danger of free choice of content by children? How does perception of reality change in children constantly using gadgets? Why is it important to preserve live communication in the family? How do short videos (shorts) affect a child's psyche and thinking? What long-term consequences can unlimited use of gadgets have? Why is it important to teach children to think critically? Why can't gadgets give love and teach observance of God's commandments? Are gadgets and computers evil?