Digital devices are good for children - rebuttal speeches

Second proposing speech
Dear honorable judges, thanks to new technologies this debate will actually be available to the reading of any child willing to find arguments in favor of what they do best : using new devices. (Continues below.)

by MD

Second opposing speech
Dear readers, unlike what one could imagine, as the proposing team did, digital devices are an obstacle to children’s creativity, for the following reasons. The digital world is turning more and more into an imposition of situations rather than a solid base for imagination. (Continues below.)

by WEF

Second proposing speech
Dear honorable judges, thanks to new technologies this debate will actually be available to the reading of any child willing to find arguments in favor of what they do best : using new devices.

It’s funny that i’m writing this text now because five minutes ago I was Skyping with my little brother. He was very pleased to call me because after one week of an exchange program in the UK he was feeling homesick and was missing his beloved sister. That just goes to prove how those new devices can actually help a scattered family reconnect. It is the most efficient way to keep in touch with your relatives and share wonderful moments. The tremendous amount of application s that computers and smartphones provide simply allows you to share your memories as fast as a click. Apple, a visionary company, understood this point quite well. They based their whole marketing strategy for the iPhone on that very point by showing us, in their ads, how FaceTime can connect you with your graduating daughter across the world. Of course there are always devious minds who get addicted to those devices and use them far more than they should contributing to their isolation. But those extreme situations are not peculiar to new technologies. Indeed, alcohol, drugs and even work can bring about the same behaviors and break families apart.
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Moreover, in the beginning of the 20th century, it has been shown that people were already complaining about the fact that everybody was distracted by their new magazine or newspapers and not talking to their family. Therefore, today’s new technologies are not the first inventions reducing people’s attention span, there will always be something distracting people from their work or their family and we all learn to live with it.

In fact, we are more and more used to being distracted by the permanent flow of information surrounding us during internet navigation. The younger you are confronted to it, the more it will improve your capability to quickly analyze a massive amount of data. A study conducted by the university of Vienna even proved the web boosts the IQ.
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Regarding the matter of education, the first opposing speaker as only considered the narrow aspect of texting during class but new technologies at school is much more important than that. Let’s talk about the use of computer by teachers. It enables them to get the attention of their pupils by using interactive methods such as PowerPoint presentations, TV, teaching games etc. I still remember a science class I attended to in middle class in which the professor showed us a video of an active volcano but I can’t remember what I studied in history class at the same time. Our world is constantly evolving with this new devices and the first people impacted are children in their everyday life. Yet, our scholar system has not yet made the move to become more modern about it. The gap between children’s life at and out of school is the origin of the decrease of attention span and not the devices themselves.
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From the beginning of this debate we are stuck in a narrow minded definition of digital devices and children. I personally believe that the word children is not a synonym of pupils but that entertainment is the main activity that children should occur. Moreover, digital devices also include GPS, GoPros, AirDrones, video games etc. and thanks to those technologies the young generations of today have the opportunity to enhance their knowledge about the world in a much faster way than we did. My parents didn’t have the possibility to talk to an Australian friend for free as a child and now there are tons of applications to do so.

Finally, just to confirm the argument that new devices are becoming cheaper everyday, I’m writing this debate on a Indian computer that cost me less than a 100 euros. Now, if you haven’t already bought your child a tablet for his birthday, after reading this debate, I am sure you will. !
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Vote for us !

MD

Second opposing speech
Dear readers, unlike what one could imagine, as the proposing team did, digital devices are an obstacle to children’s creativity, for the following reasons.

The digital world is turning more and more into an imposition of situations rather than a solid base for imagination. In fact, if one takes the example of video games, the only thing the child can do is moving his character in an already constructed, well-defined world. Moreover, your interaction with this world is always done in quite a linear way. There is no place for random or even unexpected events displayed on that screen that is burning your children’s retina to death. To consolidate this point of view, I would make that inevitable comparison between books and video games. While reading a book (I think we all did), the narrator is inviting us to build our own environment for the story, to imagine in our own way his characters, to make his book a unique and personal experience for ourselves. While in video games, everything is pre-set.

Furthermore, digital devices do not only spoil children’s imagination, they also distract them from essential tasks like education. It is obvious that with iPads and PCs… the flow of information that the user is getting can no longer be controlled since those devices are multitasking and more and more used for educational purposes in the same time. Who didn’t open his facebook page while attending a computer science lecture (or any lecture using internet connected devices)? Who could concentrate on boring lessons instead of playing Angry Birds on their Smartphones? So imagine the result with some “curious” children who always seek entertainment.                                                      

But there are more dangerous threats that digital devices represent nowadays. They threaten our children’s development and safety. Indeed, children are using more and more digital devices at the expense of their essential physical activities. You always hear that spending too much hours in front of your PC could be bad for your health but, in some cases, it can be even deadly. And this reminds us of that poor person who died while playing, without interruption, World of Warcraft for seven consecutive days. These are extreme cases but no one can predict how much children can get addicted to those video games. 

Moreover, digital devices can affect children’s behavior in a bad way. In fact, some young people may not be able to discern between the virtual world and the real one. We always hear that story of that young kid who tried to imitate the flight of Superman when jumping from the roof. Well, we all tried, in our own way, to realize this fantasy, but sometimes it can get really messy and dramatic. When we read that a little boy shot his grandmother with a loaded gun after playing GTA IV, it is clear that virtual worlds are basically taking away our children’s innocence. They are brainwashing them and inciting them to believe that everything is possible since you have no boundaries while playing the game.

We should also think about our children’s safety while they are surfing on the internet. Are they protected enough? Who can guarantee that your child is not chatting with a dangerous criminal from the other side of the screen? The FBI? They are busy enough with Megaupload. In addition to that, children are more exposed to communicating sensitive information like addresses or names which can lead to tragic situations like abduction or worse…

I hope you will all enjoy the reading and don’t hesitate to leave your comments. So please vote for us.      

WEF