The development of technology give some impacts to the children activities. Before everyone have phones in their pockets, we used to gain entertainments from outdoor activities such as gardening, walking around, engage with neighbors or friends, and so on. Now, because the availability of sophisticated gadgets such as phones and computers, children have tendency to reduce their movement and being more interested to what is provided by their gadgets. Outdoor games usually played in group such as hide and seek are now replaced with digital games in computers
Consequently, parents have to do more efforts to motivate their children to go outside. Some of them worry about the time their children spent on their gadgets that brings some potential disadvantages, especially when it comes to addiction. Addiction to computer games are evidently give impacts to children's cognitive and behavior. They ability to focus decrease, as they are easily distracted while learning new materials in school or just attempting to learn new things related to their daily life. Some psychological study shows that the children with addiction to video games are losing their ability to control emotion. The development of verbal and communication skills are restricted if children spend most of their time playing computer games. There are more risks than we can imagine if we do not pay attention to our children's screen-time.
Besides the disadvantages, there are researches that says particular type of video games help children to improve their problem solving skills. Several computer games are developed as learning tools to help students understands subjects as mathematics and sciences. Hence, parents must be selective and get involved to what their children are playing. But still, the time management is inevitably needed to avoid addiction.
In the other hand, spending time outdoor gives significant improvements to children mental and physical health. Those outdoor activities can not be replaced by just sitting inside comfortable room indoor. Children need some basic life skills that can be gained from outside home: how to shop at supermarket, how to follow the traffics, how to socialize with neighbors, how to get fresh air and sunlight in the early morning to refresh our lungs, and so on. Parent need to encourage their children to go outside and educate them why they have to do.