Our Future Generations: Is Technology a Risk?
Living in the 21st century where technology is being used everywhere, parents start to wonder how technology will affect their kids. There are many options when it comes to technology. We can watch television, play computer games, surf the world wide web, and so much more. Technology is now a necessity that we cannot live without because there is no viable replacement for what technology offers us. In addition, there are many ways that technology can be good for children. They can develop social skills, learn self-control, hand-eye coordination, and is also resourceful in such a way that can be used later in life (DigiParentHood). While giving children technology can be beneficial as it is a secondary source to studying and learning, without proper advisement and limitations to technology usage for children, it can also lead to issues such as delayed development (Rowan). Delayed development is when a child does not meet their development milestone at a certain age (University of Michigan). With such potential negative side effects of using technology so much, parents are becoming anxious and concerned, asking questions such as “what is my child watching?” and “what is my child searching up online?” (National Consumers League). Also, parents are becoming scared because they don’t know what to do in today’s generation and are looking for answers. However, despite all the differing opinions on technology and its effect on our developing children, it is not entirely a bad thing to have around if we can properly monitor the child’s technology usage.
What Happens When Children Use Technology?
In Cris Rowan’s article, “10 Reasons Why Handheld Devices Should Be Banned for Children Under the Age of 12,” she talks about different negative effects on what technology does to a child. Some negative effects include addiction, delayed development and sleep deprivation. However, all of these effects are equal; none of them are worse than the other. For example, if your child gets addicted to technology they will start to sleep late and procrastinate school work in which they will start doing worse in school and this will lead to delayed development and sleep deprivation. In another article, “Will Technology Ruin Your Children’s Development,” written by Dhruvin Patel says that, “Although technology does provide many positive benefits for learning, it also can have several negative effects on child development and quality of life.” Patel’s first point is that one of the big differences about how children live today is that they do not get as much exercise as they used to because of technology which leads to child obesity to increase. The last point he makes is that technology can have an impact in children’s mental and emotional health by the way they socialize and interact with others. For example, getting cyber-bullied through social media because of how you look or something you did can lower your self-esteem and make you belittle yourself. Patel also says that, “[Children] have a difficult time developing emotions the same way other kids would if they spend too much of their time with technology and not enough time being engaged while in the presence of others.” It can be scary with all these negative effects that technology can put on a child, however, it does not mean parents should stop their kids from using technology at all costs. It just means that there are precautions parents need to take before giving their children technology.
In the youtube video above called, “How Technology Affects Kids’ Social Emotional Learning,” which was uploaded on December 4th, 2014 is about a panel conversation where Jim Steyer, CEO of Common Sense Media and a child advocate, Sherry Turkle, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology for Social Studies of Science and Technology, and Katie Couric, an author and journalists, talks about technology’s impact on children. They said that using technology inappropriately get in the way of people’s emotion which is strongly needed for children when growing up. Also, just because you know the problem is does not mean it will fix by itself. You have to go out of your way and try to find ways to fix it. Parents should go out and do things to help their kids grow up with technology such as talk to other concerned parents, talk to their kid’s school teachers, and have device free places since we live in a new generation where growing up is different (CommonSenseMedia).
In the article, “Melinda Gates: I spent my career in technology. I wasn’t prepared for its effect on my kids,” Melinda Gates, a business woman, philanthropist, and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, tells us about her experience seeing her kids grow up with technology. In Gates’ article, she starts off with an example by comparing her youngest daughter, who lived most of her life through social media, to her oldest daughter that lived through the flip phone era. She said that her youngest daughter would face challenges in high school unlike her oldest daughter because of social media. She also said, “Phones and apps aren’t good or bad by themselves, but they can exacerbate the difficulties of growing up.” What she means is that technology will slow down kids on “learning how to be kind, coping with feeling of exclusion, and taking advantage of freedom while exercising self-control” and if she had a chance to go back, she would have waited a while longer before giving her kids technology (Gates). But since she can’t go back in time, she uses these tips to get her kids engaged with the family: unplug, have tough conversations, advocate for your kids, learn about the issue, and make a plan. However, as an ex-Microsoft employee, she is fascinated by how the Internet allows kids to surf around and connect with one another, but “as a parent, [she] knows that [she] is responsible for making sure that [her] kids are ready for all that freedom — and that they know how to keep themselves safe.” As you can see, while technology is a problem, these authors acknowledged it as a problem and found ways to solve it and other parents need to do the same.
What Can We Do?
While there are parents that won’t let their children use technology at all and other parents just don’t care, the best thing to do is to let your child use technology with proper guidance and management. In the article, “Children and Technology: How to Be a Cool, In-Control Parent,” Steve Spring talks about his own experience with his child using technology. When Spring gave her daughter, Sarah, an iPhone for her thirteenth birthday, her grades dropped instantly from A’s to F’s. So he did a little research in which he saw that Sarah used over 4000 text messages and used about 75% of their data plan in a single month. The first thing he did was take his daughter’s phone and restricted her access to social media and took her text messaging rights. However, he later acknowledged that his daughter would be exposed to technology no matter what so he researched and found different ways to handle the situation better. He used these tips that other parents can use: learn how to use parental control options on your child’s technology, work on creating some rules together with your child, talk to your child about the risks of using technology, and have your child give you access to their passwords and accounts so you can monitor what they’re doing (Spring). Doing this not only stops your child from abusing technology, but also allows them to become safe and connected with their generation. Also, the benefits that your child can get from technology is valuable. Having your child engaged in phone applications can improve their hand eye coordination. For example, having your child play a game that is highly focused on precision and speed. It can also boost your child’s self-esteem and competitiveness by having them learn from their mistakes through puzzle games. Lastly, letting them read through applications like eBooks or Kindle can improve their language skills (DigiParentHood). All of this will help your child’s brain develop and there are many other skills that technology can give that is important to have while they grow up.
What Are Some Alternatives?
Although technology is both harmful and useful to children, parents should encourage their kids to go outside and play with their friends. Also, children tend to be engaged in things that are fun. Parents should get their kids involved with sports, afterschool programs, or any other activities they want to do like swimming or martial arts. Parents should also be role models for their kids so they can follow their example (Nierenberg). This will not only help develop your child, but will also limit your child’s technology usage and have them wanting to go outside and do more physical activities. However, we do live in a world where technology exists and will continue to grow, so parents should just do whatever they feel is right for their child whether it is by doing nothing, limiting, or banning technology usage.
Works Cited
“10 Benefits of Exposing Young Children to Modern Technology.” DigiParenthood, 27 Aug. 2013, digiparenthood.wordpress.com/2013/08/23/10-benefits-of-exposing-young-children-to-modern-technology/.
CommonSenseMedia. “How Technology Affects Kids’ Social Emotional Learning.” YouTube, YouTube, 5 Dec. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=QteknfD5QfA.
Gates, Melinda. “Perspective | Melinda Gates: I spent my career in technology. I wasn’t prepared for its effect on my kids.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 24 Aug. 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2017/08/24/melinda-gates-i-spent-my-career-in-technology-i-wasnt-prepared-for-its-effect-on-my-kids/?utm_term=.1ca752732e60.
Nierenberg, Cari. “Go Outside and Play: Tips to Get Kids Moving.” LiveScience, Purch, 3 May2016, www.livescience.com/54631-tips-to-get-kids-active-outside.html.
“Parents: Take control over your children’s use of technology.” National Consumers League, www.nclnet.org/parental_controls_managing_children_s_wireless_usage.
Patel, Dhruvin. “How Technology Impacts Children’s Development — Thrive Global.” Thrive Global, Thrive Global, 4 Mar. 2017, journal.thriveglobal.com/will-technology-ruin-your-childrens-development-663351c76974.
Rowan, Cris. “10 Reasons Why Handheld Devices Should Be Banned for Children Under the Age of 12.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 6 Mar. 2014, www.huffingtonpost.com/cris-rowan/10-reasons-why-handheld-devices-should-be-banned_b_4899218.html.
Spring, Steve. “Children and Technology: How to Be a Cool, In-Control Parent.” A Fine Parent, 4 Dec. 2014, afineparent.com/be-positive/children-and-technology.html.
“University of Michigan Health System.” Developmental Delay: Your Child: University of Michigan Health System, www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/devdel.htm.
