Over the years, technology and social networking sites (SNS) have become an everyday thing for just about everyone. The world is texting, emailing, tweeting, snapchatting, facebooking, etc. It has become particularly popular in the United States. Although people from all age ranges use technology and SNS, it is heavily prevalent in adolescents. This stems from the fact that these websites and cellphones have existed for the majority of this generation’s lives. It’s all about being in on what is popular and new. Researchers in the field of child development conclude that an adolescent’s excessive use of technology and social networking sites is toxic to the development of their impressionable minds, can distract from physical interaction, and can interfere with other more beneficial activities for the child’s mind and body but if parents choose to monitor and help direct their kids a healthy amount then technology can be helpful. 

Technology is defined as “machinery and equipment developed from the application of scientific knowledge.” Dating back to 1876 when the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell, people practiced updating and modifying the idea of the phone constantly. Then with the implementation of the internet, people have created websites to make friends and chat online. In 1997, Six Degrees was created. This was the first known social networking site. Overtime, technology and SNS have become more complex to fit the needs of the ever-changing population and culture. Most people have one or more of each of these online networking sites. Those that were twenty or older when the majority of these technological advances came out, such as the iPhone in 2007 followed by its many series and the SNS and its many versions, didn’t completely latch onto the idea because that they had already lived some or most of their lives without all of it. It was those that were just being born or very young when it was created that completely absorbed the technology with their malleable minds because they didn’t know anything else.

Children are impressionable. Any parent should know that at certain ages they specifically have to watch what they say around them because they will only end up mirroring the good or bad behavior.

“Our children are mirrors, reflecting images of what happens around them. In addition to sharing genetic similarities with parents, they reflect the gestures, language, and interests of the adults in their lives. You’ll notice your child holding a crayon just like Dad holds his pen, or using a phrase Grandma says often. The behavior and habits children are exposed to at an early age can become behaviors and habits they carry into adulthood.” (Children Reflect Parental Behavior, 2011).

 In the Future of Children there are many different sections about how children are and how they are affected. Specifically, in the section titled “The Development of Children Ages 6 to 14” Jacquelynne Eccles talks about how within this age range, kids are constantly changing and taking in every aspect of the world around them. They are the most vulnerable during this time as well. Eccles states:

The years between 6 and 14--middle childhood and early adolescence—are a time of important development advances that establish children’s sense of identity…. children make strides toward adulthood by becoming competent, independent, self-aware, and involved in the world beyond their families.

 With these ideas one can understand that within this time period, parents should be highly attentive to their children. Making sure everything in their life is beneficial to their development and limiting the technology that could inhibit their development mentally and physically.

During this time, they should interact with other children their age in person and not through SNS. In an article in the Huffington Post, Katherine Bindley talks about this idea and how it has made the children’s social skills of today subpar. 

“It’s true many of us don’t exercise our face-to-face socialization muscles as frequently as we did before the age of smartphones. Now we have an escape route, a Blackberry or iPhone, available any time a stranger (gasp!) starts up an elevator conversation. But adults at least have experience talking to strangers when forced to. The muscles are there, and we generally don’t worry they’ll atrophy all together.” (Bindley, 2011). 

Interactions in real life are completely different over a simple chat room. It’s easier to hide behind a computer screen than it would be to walk up and start a conversation with someone in public. Their inability to create and keep a conversation through face to face interactions could hurt them in the future when it comes to interviews for school or in the work place. Bindley used information from Melissa Ortega, a child psychologist at New York’s Child Mind Institute.

“And despite the rise of digital communication, Ortega said, adolescents will need to converse. “I can’t imagine these kids sitting down in an interview and having a reciprocal conversation easily,” she said. “They haven’t had these years of learning about awkward pauses. Being able to tolerate the discomfort is not something they’re going to be used to, unless their parents make it a priority.” (Bindley, 2011)

 One can understand that their ability to only create a conversation through technology will only hinder them in the long run. Technology should not become something they depend on, because that safety net won’t be applicable to every situation.

Not only is this medium harmful to the development of their minds, it is also harmful in the way it can be used. In Health Effects of Media on Children and Adolescents, Victor C. Strasburger, Amy B. Jordan and Ed Donnerstein address all sides to this. They admit there are many different ways the internet can be used in negative connotation like to download violent videos, send sexual text messages or explicit self-photographs to their friends, buy cigarettes and beer on the internet, and post enticing profiles on MySpace.com. Although MySpace is a thing of the past, it can still be related back to Twitter or Facebook. Along with these ways of using the internet and forms of technology, teens use it “as a mechanism for bullying and harassing” (Strasburger, 2010). 

As said before, it is much easier to say certain things to someone when hiding behind a screen. Teens will abuse this anonymity to bash their peers. Although it may seem like an outrageous concept, it happens every day. Other kids are sitting on their computers trying to tear others down and those that are the targets will end up lashing out whether it’s on themselves or others. It’s a vicious cycle. No one should have to be exposed to that but especially not the children who are already so young and sensitive.

Since the shift to heavy technology use, there has also been a shift in what kids aspire to be. Yalda Uhls, MBA, PhD, author and child psychological researcher worked with CBC News to uncover what the differences were and why. She sat down with kids who admitted to being involved in things like Instagram and Facebook and asked them a few questions about what’s important to them and what they get out of social media and the technology they own. Uhls said that before technology and social media, children wanted to be a working part of society. Now, for them it’s all about the money they hope to make and “fame”. These kids are taking what they constantly see around them and applying it to their own lives. On Instagram they base their own happiness off of how many likes they get, on Youtube they don’t see their creations as a job “well done” unless it has a high number of views, etc. Children and teens are now letting things like simple numbers decide their happiness.

Early exposure to technology is also harmful to a child’s mental development. Uhls also found that neuroscientists are seeing that certain parts of the brain are stimulated when using technology. The parts that aren’t stimulated are the areas that control actions such as day dreaming and thinking about one’s thoughts and feelings. Teenagers today do not day dream like they used to. These areas are very important for empathy. One kid even jokingly said that they only day dream for about, “30 seconds a day” because they are always on their phones. Scientists wonder if technology at such a young age is creating a generation that doesn’t care for others. In an article on Uknowkids, they also address, “that using media devise at any time during the day stimulates cortisol, the ‘stress’ hormone, and limits production of melatonin, the ‘sleep’ hormone.”

 Everyone knows that unless the parents take away their kids technology before they fall asleep, they are going to be up late googling, texting, etc. Tim Woda, an internet safety expert says that “experts recommend that no one uses screens within two hours of bedtime.” Minds of children are so fragile and they should be taken good care of. Even an excess amount of television can hinder a young mind. 

“Viewing (>2-3 hours/day) in early childhood has been linked with attention-deficit disorder (ADD) during the early school years.” (Strasburger, 2010). 

Even infants that are just being exposed to TV and not actively watching it have been found to possibly have a delay in their linguistic development, “There are now 7 studies that have documented the possibility of language delays among infants exposed to excessive television or videos and no studies indicate that such screen contributes positively to early infant development.” (Strasburger, 2010).

 Overall, the effects of technology seem to negatively affect young, developing minds.

Technology can not only harm the young minds of children but also serves as a distraction from more important day to day activities. Before the rush of technology kids would come home from school and play outside. They would spend their free time being creative and active. Nowadays, the internet is stopping them from expanding their minds and thinking of different ways to occupy their time. Strasburger also brings up the point that with technology comes laziness which could lead to other health problems, 

“Numerous American and international longitudinal studies (one of them as long as 26 years in duration) have shown that media use is contributing to the current epidemic of obesity worldwide.” (Strasburger, 2010).

 With the click of a button, people can do just about anything. They barely have to move a muscle. Over time it is just getting increasingly fast. Creators are constantly inventing the next sleekest, fastest item for everyone. That quality being implemented into people so young is unhealthy. Because of their minds being impressionable in nature, it will stay with them forever. When they try to go get a job, that quality will not only stand out but in a bad way and they will not get the job. Even if for some odd reason they can cover that up and get the job eventually it will wear on them and they will either quit or lose the job. With being lazy, kids are turning to books less because of the time and effort it ends up taking and the fact that there isn’t an actual image in front of their faces. Their creativity is slowly diminishing. Glenn Collins, a writer for the New York Times wrote about how kids are starting to read less and less and its becoming a concern for parents and educators. An event was held for students and their parents where reading was promoted.

“Not everyone came to savage the new information technologies, however. ‘Computers can be steppingstones to literacy,’ said Dr. Bernice E. Cullinan, president-elect of the International Reading Association. ‘To understand a computer video screen, or a computer magazine, you have to know how to read. But while computers are good for some things, there is no other medium that gives children such joy in reading as books.’” (Collins, 1983).

 At for first glance, one could read some of this article and apply it to today’s world. But looking at it again, one could notice that it was published in 1983. It’s interesting how problems like this are still here today in 2017. It presses the urgency anymore. Of course, everyone is still here and working to the best they can but one can only wonder if it could be better. 

It is true that not all use of technology is harmful to a child’s development. Some argue that without technology there would be less of a sense of connectedness throughout the world. That is not wrong but increased exposure at such a young age is harmful. In a text about child and family psychology written by Austen B. McGuire and Ric G. Steele, they talk about how technology has helped children who are in military families. Being in a military family means that the children could always be on the move and its never really the family’s decision. Being involved in technology and SNS is a way that those children can keep in touch with friends even when they move away. It can keep them from feeling lonely and make transitioning into a new area easier. Although this is a great use of technology, It’s usage still needs to be monitored because 

“Feeling connected through a SNSs (e.g., Facebook) has been associated with lower self-reported depression and anxiety, in addition to higher subjective well-being and self-esteem.” (McGuire, 2016)

 The dependency on technology isn’t a good thing either. It can be a great thing for kids to fall back on in certain situations like military families but only relying on it for happiness and a sense of security is unhealthy. On the Lehigh Valley Health Network website, they provided a few bullet points highlighting certain ways technology can help children learn.

 “Technology helps educate children in ways that are best suited to their personal learning styles. An estimated 60-80 percent of children are visual learners, and technology makes it easier to supplement verbal content like reading and lectures with pictures and graphs.” (Lehigh Valley Health Network).

Although that is a good point, not all children are visual learners. Also the more negative uses of technology come from things that couldn’t necessarily help in education such as a cellphone which serves as more of a distraction.

Technology has existed for decades and will continue to exist. In fact, it will most likely increase in its number of users. People from all ages use the newest gadgets and networking sites. Today, parents are letting their children get cellphones, watch television, and be on SNS at a younger age without truly grasping the effects its having on them. Heavy exposure to technology and social media on young malleable minds can in turn hinder the mental and physical growth of their child. In result, these parents should take into consideration what is going on and act on it. There should be multiple monitors on children’s usage to prevent them from harming themselves and others. Overall, technology can still be a part of everyone’s lives like it has been but in a smaller degree so that everyone can end up leading and healthier lifestyle.
