Saturday, February 11, 2012

Spending Time With Your Friends Is Healthy For Your Mental State

By Frank Andrew Greenwald


It is time to shut off those computers and TVs so that families can spend further quality time with their household members. Family time continues to suffer as time spent by family members on the internet and watching Television increases. A study on American families revealed that household members are spending an increasing amount of time on the web rather than with other family members. Among others, the outcome confirmed that an internet user spends 3 hours online each day and 1.7 hours daily in watching Television.

The appearance of social networking technology gradually changes the definition of "friendship". As opposed to family members listening to one another, they are absorbed with their online contacts. This results in families whose members are ignoring one another. Imminent leaders and responsible people are raised in the home. The home is where children understand the ideals of trust, support, kindness, and how to handle anger, loss, embarrassment, etc. In the home, adults give kids emotional support and function as capable role models.

There is no alternate for the home as an emotional support. Observations on several teenagers show that they are smart, but several of them lack emotional intellect. To put it simpler, many of them do not see how to "read" other people - not even themselves. It has been thought that emotional intelligence refers to the ability of anyone to recognize, interpret, and manage his or her own emotions. This can only be learned when a person is given the time to live, work, and play with actual people.

What happens these days in several families is that members spend more and more time either with their online associates or their TV news and superheroes. A study on internet use done way back in 2004 exposed a major connection between spending time online and time spent with other household members. For every hour spent online daily by a typical user, he or she loses 23.5 minutes that could be given to his or her family. Additionally, the regular surfer also gets a lesser amount of sleep; an average of 8.5 minutes per day for each hour used up online.

Online contacts or games and Television programs should not take over the actual people that family members live with. Family members should strive to spend more time with "real" friends in their households. There are effortless and low-cost ways of family bonding. Gathering around the dinner table and going on an affordable family trip are good examples. Families grow more cohesiveness when members intermingle in person more often. Members get to comprehend one another better, and will come to understand each others real interests and get to identify what they think and feel.




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