Last week I bumped into another post about Internet Addiction and kids. Written by Liz Quilty on Google Plus, this post suggests a very common method to stop kids from getting addicted to the Internet – to unplug it.

Quoting Liz Quilty:
Its great that you let your kids use your digital devices, but how much of the day do they spend on them? or TV? or anything else?
Having seen this first hand, i can assure you its a real addiction, and adults have this as well as a lot of teenagers. It’s not a nice thing to have to get over, or to see somebody else from suffering with.
Luckily its an easy one to get over, take a holiday away for a couple of weeks, make sure there is no internet or cell coverage. Go tramping, go overseas, or heck, even unplug the router and post it in the mail to yourself for a few days peace 🙂

Well, I think that’s the wrong way to go.

Many people I speak with think differently. Avoiding Internet cannot be the only solution to Internet addiction. This is like telling a fat guy: “stop eating”. I personally think that the way to go is to educate this person about what and why he eats more than he needs, what are the effects of this behaviour, and how it changes him and his environment.

Kids are smart. You can take the Internet off their hands at home, but they’ll find it in school or at a friend’s house. Only education can change it, and it should start with us, grown-ups. One can’t tell his kid off about something he’s doing all day long himself. And let’s admit it – us grown-ups are not much better than kids in that aspect.

I think when we better understand how to change ourselves, education will be easier to apply for the kids as well. The discussion should go deep into understanding what is making us so addicted to the Internet or to our smartphones. Let’s start the discussion now.