Before holiday I took part in a survey by My Voucher Codes as part of their ongoing research into the effect of technology and social media on our lives. Specifically the survey addressed my children’s relationship with video games. Personally, I had little to add as my two are weeny and their gaming is limited to the (somewhat bland) apps they have on their Leap Pad. However, having now seen the full results of the survey as published by Digital Connect Mag, they are a little disturbing.
Image source: Addiction-Treatment.com
The survey questioned parents to see what games they allow their children to play, if they do any research prior to purchasing them, if their children have access to games they have forbidden at friends houses, as well as how long their children spend playing computer games a week.
For me, the most telling question here is access to games outside of the home. Just how likely are your children to fess up and tell you they’re up until midnight battling strangers online at a slumber party? Furthermore, if you knew it was happening round Little Johnnies house, would you stop your child from going there? 23% said yes they’d keep their kids at home, but this is only an option if they knew in the first place.
So in truth, it’s very tricky to get an accurate picture of what games children are playing. With controversial games such as these below, it’s incredibly worrying to think about what our nation’s kids might be exposed to in bedrooms across the UK.
The video game survey further revealed that 50% of UK parents have been asked to buy age restricted games, with 30% admitting they eventually gave in to their child’s demands. This includes popular violent adult games such as Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty and Battlefield. Much of this seems to be a result of parental naivety as 35% admit they won’t even play or research the games first to see if they are suitable.
Mark Pearson founder of My Voucher Codes states the results were “disturbing” and points to peer pressure among youngsters as a major cause. He rightly goes on to state that “age ratings are set for a reason” and I have to agree. We’re not talking about Space Raiders and Pac-Man here with basic graphics and limited gameplay, games nowadays use CGI and are as life-like as the blockbusters we rush to see at the cinema.
In today’s ADHD-afflicted world of smart phones, app-infested iPads and console-addicted teens, immature young minds are plunged headfirst into virtual hedonism. My take is that parents need to seriously question the effects of gaming of children; Are they mentally equipped to make a proper distinction between what is real and what isn’t? Are our children becoming increasingly desensitised to violence as a result? Is it impacting adversely on their physical and mental health? - The studies exist so it’s time to seriously bone up.
My obsession with social media knows no bounds. I used to work in social marketing, then social recruitment and now I’m a professional blogger. I’m a regular reader of Tech Crunch and have countless apps on my iPhone to help me organise this chaotic life of mine. Therefore, when I was recently contacted about the launch of new social media health site PowHealth.com, I couldn’t resist a sneak peek.
This is what piqued my interest…
Do you have drawers full of paperwork, test results and appointment cards?
Are you always running to find the ‘red book’ to track your child’s health?
Do you forget some of your child’s symptoms in the panic of seeing the doctor?
Or do you just want to connect with someone quickly to get some advice?
Yep, yep, yep and yep. I find tracking appointments, monitoring minor illnesses and keeping on top of the children’s development a constant challenge. As our little family has grown, it feels like we live at the doctors, even when we’re not ill! There’s family planning, PND check-ups and smoking cessation for mummy, constant man-flu and allergies for Craigy, immunisations for Heidi and a variety of development checks and specialist appointments for the little man.
My kitchen is currently a homage to post-its and posterised notes to Craig about some appointment or another. Yet still we manage to miss appointments with increasing regularity.
With this in mind, PowHealth.com is really intriguing. It promises to help busy parents manage all their health needs in one place, helping them track their family’s general wellness as well as long term health conditions. With 60% of us in the UK having some form of long-term condition there’s certainly a demand for this kind of application.
Pow Health is a social media network to help you manage your health records and monitor your symptoms and progress, whether you’re doing it for yourself or your children. Parents often turn to each other for advice and Pow Health allows you to not only broaden your network generally but to focus on very specific communities who are in similar situations. Our aim is to bring the experts and the patients together in one place to start building better communications. Ifty Ahmed, CEO and Founder of PowHealth.com
This is a seriously smart website. Free to join yet rammed with clever and intuitive features.
When you join, you’re invited to fill in some basic profile information, join relevant communities, and record any conditions you are experiencing. So far, there are over 11,000 conditions currently listed on PowHealth.com, with more added as and when new users join. Against each condition you can then document any symptoms and track any medications - strict privacy settings will ensure this information is not accessible to others using the site.
Similarly you can input any allergies and appointments of your own and any dependents (i.e. your family). There are also daily trackers (sliders) to track your mood, any pain and a variety of other health indicators. The site then charts your health day-by-day so you can share this with your GP or monitor your emotional and physical wellbeing for yourself. On this same chart, you can add in events such as dosage changes, or cessation of treatment so you can see if there’s a notable change in your mood, pain levels etc.
These trackers can also be used to set personal goals – from child growth trackers, weight loss and calorific intake comparisons to tracking glucose and cholesterol levels. You can even record how much screen-time your children are indulging in. With Slimming World and Weight Watchers boasting huge successes due to regular interaction with other members, PowHealth.com might actually end up saving you a few quid if you’re trying to get beach-ready for summer.
Best of all, you control what you share. Your data is encrypted and held securely at a state-of-the-art data centre. However, if you do want to share your experience, seek guidance, or simply connect with others who share your goals or condition, you can join one of countless communities. There are over 400 communities covering lifestyle themes, such as women’s health, new mums, fitness & exercise; as well as condition-specific communities, such as; diabetes, high cholesterol and asthma.
These forums need padding out, but this will come as more of us join. I like how they’ve been designed with users in mind so you can instantly search for new topics or see what is trending in one-click. You’ll also get email notifications when new topics are posted, or someone has contributed to a discussion you are following. It’s all very slick.
The site aims to bring about a greater engagement with your health and that of your family. Close monitoring of your health promotes greater proactivity and a better prognosis for most medical conditions. Collectively harnessing shared experiences via the forums also allows for users to follow other people’s management of a similar condition, leading to greater awareness and making you feel better supported.
Soon you’ll also be able to connect popular apps and devices too, so you have all your information in one place and can track your health whilst out and about.
We are becoming increasingly health conscious, but at the same time our lifestyles are busier, more demanding and more cluttered in every respect, especially if you’re a parent. Pow Health was designed to help streamline anything related to health in people’s lives… Lots of people are sharing intimate health information on Facebook, though many won’t – by offering an anonymous environment which feels very social, just like Facebook, we hope people can engage with one another more effectively. Ifty Ahmed, CEO and Founder of Pow Health
Watch this short video to find out more:
Regular comment and discussion is also available via Facebook and Twitter. If you’re ready to join the revolution, head to www.powhealth.com!
All quotes provided by the genius behind PowHealth.com:
I’m well known for following (and openly criticising) the antics of the University College London, who seem to spend most of their time confirming the obvious. Yet my reservations aren’t shared by many. Every other day I’ll see figures from one of their meaningless studies propping up new stories from red tops and broadsheets alike - even politicians on Question Time regularly use UCL stats to bolster their arguments. It’s seems we all love a good survey.
So when an altogether more innocent one about the Nation’s Online Habits landed in my inbox from the folks at Ladbrokes Bingo, I thought I’d get off my high-horse and take a look. It seems they’ve collected data on over a thousand of their registered users and the results make for interesting reading. Okay the pool of people is tiddly and you have to keep the context in mind, but I got chatting to Craigy about it last night and we giggled and argued in equal measure over the results.
It seems Facebook is still the social media site of choice with 63% of people surveyed listing it as one of their top three sites. Twitter comes a respectable second with 30%. Linkedin and G+ held 10% respectively proving that people are beginning to take their careers online to search for new jobs and show off their experience Surprisingly some 27.5% of people surveyed didn’t visit social media sites at all.
Sadly 3% of people surveyed had been stalked online. This might seem low, but 3 people in 1000 is, of course, too many. Or is it? Funnily enough 3% also admitted to stalking! Of course this entirely depends on your definition of stalking. I’ve certainly used Facebook to check out love interests (before Craig, of course). This was part of my dating ritual, and my pathetic little nod to ‘responsible’ dating. I’d check to see if someone was single, what they do for a living, if they had any children… whether they can they spell? The basics really.
Where these stalking stats really get interesting however, is when you compare the activities of the self-confessed stalkers by gender. Without getting too bogged down by figures it seems both women and men are equally likely to check out a potential conquest - no surprises there. But men are almost twice as likely to check up on an ex-partner and their friends. Women, on the other hand, are far more preoccupied with love rivals and their partner’s ex’s. I’d simply love to see how these trends would play out as part of a wider study with more participants. There’s definitely some comments begging to be made here about the dating psychology of men vs women.
Getting a little more risque now - 10% of people surveyed had partaken in cyber sex. Surprisingly (to me anyway) this is further broken down by gender with 7.5% of women, and 12% of men making the admission - I had expected less women, and more men. What actually is cyber sex anyway? Talking dirty to someone via IM, or getting down to it in front of a webcam (either alone, or with another)? Either way, this number seems extraordinarily high and a little worrying. Add to this that a whopping 38% of people (of which 18% are female, 60% male) admit to having watched adult content, and it certainly does make you wonder what goes on behind closed doors. Although it’s worth pointing out that all participants are over the age of 18 and therefore responsible adults, I’ve made my feelings on pornography perfectly clear on previous occasions.
So is there anything worth worrying about here? Well on the whole, the adverse impact of social media on people’s lives seems negligible. Only 4% felt their social media usage had adversely affected their career, and a similar number felt it had contributed to the breakdown of a relationship (6%) - unsurprisingly this view is more prevalent among the 18-24 year old’s surveyed. Although relatively small percentages, it still highlights the need to use social media carefully and responsibly. I’ve worked in the social media industry and been a keen personal user for some years now and have seen plenty of incidences of it doing just that. I’ve seen a co-worker dismissed for posting a derogatory comment about our (then) employer, and during the beginning of my relationship with Craig I’ve had a few abusive comments hurled at me by his ex girlfriend. Sadly, with online bullying, the rise of sex-texting, and the distressing news that a few teenage suicides have been linked to social media, I can foresee these figures rising dramatically by the time our teenagers enter young adulthood.
Caught in the act - Facebook cheat ‘Dave’ gets his comeuppance
Scarily, BBC News and the Daily Fail Mail (whoops, slip of the finger there) are the news sites of choice for 71% of people surveyed, with broadsheet offerings only getting the slimmest of look-ins. Of course we do have to consider who these participants are - I’m sure there aren’t too many city stockbrokers, lawyers, or chief execs indulging in a bit of online bingo at the end of a long day. This was further compounded by the fact that 209 participants (20%) named the BBC as the one site they would visit if they could only visit one website for the rest of their life. This just goes to show the all-pervading influence of the news on peoples lives - it certainly compounds the level of responsibility they’ll have come the general election in May 2015, and the much anticipated EU referendum. Here’s hoping the Daily Mail can finally show a bit of maturity when needed.
So there we have it! Are you shocked by any of their findings?
Image source: Addiction-Treatment.com
