Kids Are Dumber Than Ever
WhoIsHostingThis .com (a company that exposes the names of cheap hosting companies behind various websites) conducted a recent survey that shows just how addicted kids are to the Internet. This addiction is bad, the survey points out, because it is making kids stupid. Whoa. That seems like a somewhat biased and one-sided statement, doesn't it? 
But, WhoIsHostingThis .com has some proof to back up that statement. The information contained in this article might shock you – more than a cheap hosting company that offers what it says it will (and that's a big shock!).
The Shocking Stats
By the age of 2-years old (two years old!) 90% of kids have an online presence, the survey found. This might seem like a young age, but I saw firsthand evidence of this the other day. My friend's four year old daughter has a Facebook page. That's right, 4-years old! Ready for more shocking stats?
By the age of five years, most kids know how to use a tablet — better than adults. Kids spend far more time on the Internet than talking to parents, teachers, or other friends. If you've ever tried to take a phone or tablet away from a kid, you know just how true this statistic is. But, wouldn't all of this technology just make kids smarter? Not so much.
Kids Are Becoming Dumber
That's right, kids are dumber than every before. Why? Thanks to the Internet, kids have shortened attention spans. So short that most kids can't pay attention to anything longer than a few minutes. The average attention span of a kid aged five-years old is five minutes. Five minutes!
All of that browsing doesn't help either. Research indicates that obsessive browsing leads to cognitive overload. This, in turn, leads to kids that skip over important text details, and wind up skimming pages. So, kids don't really retain any real information. That's a big deal.
Kids Are Dumber Than Ever: How Long Is Long Enough?
That's the question that parents want to know. Unfortunately, there's no cut and dry answer to how long your kids should use the Internet. It's best to limit usage, though. Try to keep the connected time down to just under three hours per day. If your kid has homework that requires research, try to point out books instead of Wikipedia articles.
Also, give your kid a break. If your child has been studying and staring at a screen for hours, let them go outside for a little while, and then return to the homework — they'll retain more knowledge this way! Are kids really dumber? It all depends on how much time parents let kids spend online!
