How would you as an educator, tutor or parent advise a student who is constantly consuming technology? When do you take it away?

At the risk of sounding like a Luddite, I am getting to the stage where I almost "hate" many facets of modern technology!! For years I have watched with dismay as our youngsters (and some not so young) have let technology, in one form or another, take over their lives. The internet and social media outlets such as "Facebook", wonderful inventions that can, if not harnessed properly, turn out to be quite dangerous. Many of todays children are obssesed with computers and video games to the point where they are almost living in a virtual world, their communication skills limited to "screen talk" and texting rather than the spoken word. There have been many occasions where I have had to counsel youngsters who have got themselves into trouble by blurting out things on "facebook" that they would never say directly to a person's face!! Unfortunately in this highly "enlightened", "liberal" world that we live in trying to "remove" mobile phones, computers and other technological paraphenalia will have the "human rights police" descending on you in force!! But there again I'm old, what do I know!!

As someone who works a lot with computers because of my area of expertise, i have noticed that i tend to use my computer more when i have more free time. For example, if i have a whole day of, i would just waste time watching movies and playing games. But, when i have lots of other activities, i don't even feel the need to stay on the computer. So, make sure that the child has plenty of other activities, like learning a new sport, how to play an instrument, friends over to play with, a book to read, chores to do, learning how to make a simple recipe, taking care of some plants, making new decorations for the house, learning all the countries in the world etc. This way, the child will forget that he or she hasn't used the computer and will learn new information or acquire a new skill.