Childhood Problems Caused By the Digital
Digital technology’s integration into the daily lives of children and its influence on their cognitive, emotional, and social development continues to increase day by day. What are the true risks of too much screen time for children?
Developmental/Behavioral Risks
The overuse of digital technology causes children to use their time inefficiently. It has been associated with lack of attention, aggressive behaviors, physical inactivity, obesity, and sleep problems in preschool and school-age children. Technology offers many opportunities for children to play, explore, and learn. But its overuse in early childhood has been found to be related to cognitive, language, and social/emotional delays. Although it provides many positive benefits for learning, it can also have several negative effects on child development and quality of life.
Thinking
Technology also has profound impacts on the way children think. Since technology is full of stimuli and requires paying attention to many different things at once, children who play many video games or spend most of their time online tend to have less of an ability to focus than kids who use technology minimally. It can also affect the way kids process information — when kids are exposed to high levels of technology, they tend to think through things only superficially and don’t develop the ability to think critically or be creative when learning new concepts.
Emotions and Interaction
Technology changes the way kids socialize and interact with others, which can have huge impacts on their mental and emotional well-being. It has now become common knowledge that high levels of social media use, in both kids and adults, can lower self-esteem and create negative moods. Because of screen-time children’s frequency of interacting with their peers is lowered. This makes it more difficult for them to pick up on social cues and develop meaningful relationships with others — something that can have serious negative consequences as they grow and develop.
Physical Inactivity and Obesity
One of the biggest differences in the way that children live today is that they don’t get as much exercise as they used to. This is because technology such as computers and smartphones encourages them to be sedentary when they get home from school, as opposed to going outside and playing with other kids. The rate of obesity in children has tripled in the last 20 years. For healthy development of children, 3–4 hours of daily physical activity and social interaction are needed. The excessive use of social media during the pre-school period is associated with low, but significant increases in Body Mass Index, laying the groundwork for weight gain in later childhood. Overuse of technology is then linked to a lifetime of obesity and cardiovascular risk.
Sleep Quality Problems
Keeping a television, computer, or mobile phone in the bedroom during early childhood is associated with less sleep. Children who sleep with mobile devices in their bedrooms are at increased risk of having sleep disturbances. Screens from devices such as tablets and smartphones emit harmful blue light that can cause headaches and irritated eyes. Furthermore, sleep is also disturbed by a harmful blue light when children are exposed to screen time in the evening due to the suppression of the hormone melatonin which regulates the sleep-wake cycle. This makes it difficult for a child’s body to effectively prepare to get ready for a good nights sleep.
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