Interviews on Digital Use

  TEAM 1: INTERVIEW WITH A DOCTOR

Interviewer: Hello Dr. Brain. Welcome to our interview. Thanks for accepting our offer.

Dr. Brain: It’s my pleasure Mrs. İnterviewer. 

Interviewer: Today we are going to talk about the effects of Technology on humans with Prof. Dr. Adam Brain. If you are ready, let’s start! I have a few questions about it. Firstly, What can you say about the general effects of Technology on humans?

Dr. Brain: Technology has two sides. These sides are cons and pros. These sides are very different. These effects also change for adults and children. 

Interviewer: Okay. So What can you say about the effects of Technology on children? 

Dr. Brain: Especially, Technology has bigger effects on children than adults as you can see. Children’s behavior is changing with only parents’ but also with the internet. 

For example, they watch a movie then they start copying the behaviors of movie characters. They are affected by what they watch. Online games are also effective in their behavior and nowadays they start to meet their game needs from online games. We can see that the number of children who spend time in the parks has reduced. Maybe this can be considered as cons, but the children who are more interested in technology have better grades than other children. This can be counted as a pro.

Interviewer: What about physical issues? 

Dr. Brain: It causes obesity especially in children during the growing process. They may eat much while playing computer games. Secondly, it causes physical problems such as neckache, backache, or poor physical posture. In addition to this ıf a person has heavy screen time eye problems can occur. Also, it may cause headaches. Unfortunately, these problems are increasing day by day.

Interviewer:Can we say the same things for adults? 

Dr. Brain: We can’t say exactly the same thing. The effects of technology on the behavior of adults are less effective than its effects on the behavior of children. Technology is effective in adults’ time management and thinking. Time management makes their work-life easier, but they become lazy in their normal lives and change their minds because of the idea of surfing on the internet. 

Interviewer: What should we do to reduce our internet usage time? 

Dr.Adam:We can find hobbies for example reading a book, making pictures, planting more trees(It’s also good for the earth), doing sports, etc. 

Interviewer:Thanks for answering my questions. 

Dr.Adam: You are welcome.

TEAM 2: INTERVIEW WITH A POLICEMAN

Interviewer: We are here today with a police officer named Adrian. Hi Adrian, welcome, and thank you for accepting our interview offer.

Police Officer: Hi, I am glad to be here, it is a pleasure to meet you.

Interviewer: We are here to talk about cyberbullying. We hope you can share your experiences with us. First of all, what is cyberbullying?

Police Officer: Cyberbullying is the most common type of bullying nowadays. With the development of technology and social media; people (mostly teenagers) are getting hate from the internet and this is what we call cyberbullying.

Interviewer: How is it possible to get bullied through the internet?

Police Officer: It is quite simple actually. By sharing something on the internet we basically make ourselves accessible to strangers. And that gives people the freedom to share their hateful comments.

Interviewer: It is quite a hard process to go through, how can we prevent it from happening?

Police Officer: You are right, It is hard but it is avoidable. We should think twice before we share about ourselves on the internet. Because once we share something we can’t delete it, no matter what it stays on the internet.

Interviewer: Thank you for sharing your wise advice with us, we are grateful to have you here. Thank you for your kindness.

Police Officer: No problem, it is our job to raise awareness.

TEAM 3: INTERVIEW WITH A SCHOOL COUNSELOR

Intervıewer: Hello!Thank you for coming to see us for your interview. Today we will talk about safe internet usage problems. This is also a problem in the schools.

School Counselor: Of course. It is also a problem for us and our parents.

Interviewer: What kind of problems do you often encounter in schools?

School Counselor: Excessive use of the internet, game addiction, cyberbullying, fake accounts are some of them. For example, some students get their friends’ passwords from school and access their information.

Interviewer: What makes a password strong due to you?

Counselor: A strong password includes a seemingly random string of letters, numbers, and symbols. It should never include personal information such as your birth date, address. The longer your password is, the harder it is to decipher. 

Interviewer: What are the examples of cyberbullying that students show?

Counselor: Do not disturb with a private number. Making insulting/sexual content/threatening conversations in online games, in the chat room. Sending insulting/sexual content/threatening messages to someone via e-mail etc.

Interviewer: What are the essential elements of cyber safety? What should parents, school social workers, teachers, and other school personnel do at the individual and community levels to help ensure children’s safety online?

Counselor:The essential elements that I think for cyber safety have to do fundamentally with knowing your device and how it’s connected and what it’s connected to.How do parents teach their kids about this and help them abide by good cyber safety practices since children will probably encounter people that 

 claim to be someone but are not actually the person they claim to be? Just as you and I grew up with stranger danger concepts, children today need to be instructed that strangers can be online as well. When you monitor a young child, you should actually sit down with them side-by-side and take an interest in the activities that they’re engaged in online. See what they’re doing.

Interviewer: What are the effects that different cyber safety threats have on an individual? School Counselor: It’s crime and abuse. So the effects of crime and abuse can be monetary or physical–damaged property, or physical harm to one’s person. They have to live in the real world and they have to walk to school and/or ride the bus. But then there’s no escape when they go home because they’re married to their devices and they can’t stay offline because it’s part of who they are, and so 

they’re online and then their profile gets trashed or some evidence is used on their profile to be gossiped about against them.  And this is why tragically we have so many suicides in our country of kids that have been cyberbullied.

Interviewer: Are some groups of children and adolescents more vulnerable to cyber safety issues? 

Counselor: Kids are vulnerable because they stand out. You can have the smartest kid in the class picked on because they’re the brain.

Interviewer: So, these problems should be overcome with the cooperation of school and family.Thank you for your explanations.

Counselor: You are welcome.

TEAM 4: INTERVIEW WITH A STUDENT

Student A: What do you think of digital devices?

Student B: Well, I think they are fundamental for our everyday life but we need to pay attention to the way we use them.

Student C: In my opinion, digital devices are very useful, but they create dependence so quickly so everyone who has one should know how to manage their usage.

Student A: Do you think the use of these devices has increased in recent years?

Student B: Yes, it has, especially because the average age when children get their first digital device is decreasing every day.

Student C: It surely has, because of Covid (more recently) and also because of the arrival of social media/ entertaining programs.

Student A: Do you think the abuse of devices has caused any harm to teenagers?

Student B: Of course, digital devices are positive if used in a good way, but they can be really dangerous and cause pain to those who care too much about others’ opinions

Student C: I don’t know if it can be called harm, but they have certainly influenced our emotions and approach to some things, for example, physical appearance, popularity, success.

Student A: What do you think could be done to limit the use of digital devices?

Student B: I think each family should take a break from devices every day, and use that moment to get together. Also, parents need to teach their children not to overuse their devices.

Student C: Everyone should be taught at school. We’re doing an eTwinning project about digital addiction and I’ve learned so much!

Student A: How about the future? Do you think the use of these devices will increase or decrease?

Francesca: I’m afraid the use of digital devices is going to increase: the more technology progresses, the more essential they become.

Student C: I’m not sure, it may be limited if we decide to choose human interaction.

Student A: Do you think you use them too much or do you think you can control the time you spend on your phone?

Student B: It depends. I usually keep an eye on the time but I could really do better than that. It is very difficult though. There are so many things you can do on your phone! And they’re fun!

Student C: I can manage the usage of digital devices because I use social media only to watch sports and sometimes to text my friends and I don’t even watch TV or have Netflix, so I don’t use them too much.

Student A: So that’s the end of our interview! Thank you all!

TEAM 5: INTERVIEW WITH A FAMILY MEMBER

Journalist Bessan: Hello Mr. Mousa, how are you?  You’re welcome.I am the journalist Bessan. I want to discuss with you the excessive use of the Internet by children.

Mr. Mousa: Thanks so much for the invitation, it’s my pleasure. Children’s use of the Internet has increased after the last technological revolution in the era of communications.  Where children have become addicted to social networks and digital games.  

Journalist Bessan: What are the effects of this excessive use?  

Mr. Mousa: Its negative effects are many, the most important of which are eye diseases in children, and it causes autism, introversion, isolation, and social distancing, and affects the psyche of children because of sometimes inappropriate content in addition to images of predators and scenes of violence.  

Exposure to interaction and communication with strangers, and the sharing of personal information such as telephone and residential addresses, which causes problems.  Wasting time browsing websites and lowering their productivity.  

Journalist Bessan: Thank you, dear sir. I want you to give me some advice to reduce this problem. 

Mr. Mousa: sit with the children, talk to them, and play with them with hand games, away from electronic games, take the children for a walk to the parks, and set temporary hours for the use of children.  For phones, 

Journalist Bessan: Thank you, sir, for this interview, and thank you for your precious time.