Impact of Screens and Television on Children - Research Paper Example

Impact of Screens and Television on Children by Introduction Technologies have become inevitable part of our lives and the lives of younger generation. The question of the influence of children exposure to the screen has always been disputable since the invention of the screen media. Technologies are still changing and evolving, and it is impossible to assume that kids can be developing without screen media whether it is Television, computers, tablets or smart phones. And today imagining a two-year old toddler watching his favorite cartoons on iPad is as simple as picturing him playing with his favorite teddy-bear. And though many parents do not feel disturbed regarding this issue, pedestrians claim that the impact of screens can be really damaging for children`s psyche. Generally, children`s behaviour, sleeping patterns, academic performance, the level of aggression, and physical health are affected by enormous time over the screen. However in this paper I am going to prove that the time spent by children in front of screens and the quality of the media products consumed play a decisive role for the overall effect. Impacts One of the major negative consequences of the time spent in front of screens is the influence on brain development. Despite the fact that scientists learn more and more how exactly child`s brain is changing there is still no clear picture of the impact of external factors on its work. The plasticity, flexibility, and weak connections between neurons make it possible to influence and reshape child`s brain. Neuroscientists claim that long and repetitive stimulation influence emotional and cognitive development of kids in different ways. First it is possible to speak of establishing of certain “habits of mind” by recurrent activities. Second, lack of certain stimuli also results in the mode of brain work. Children from the early age need directed communication with close people, diverse and intensive linguistic environment, stimulating physical interaction, and relevant to their age academic opportunities to develop normally. At the same time lack of these stimuli and passivity deprive children of valuable resources (Healy, 2011). As a result children will further feel difficulties with engaging into normal social activities, playing, and using their cognitive abilities on the full capacity. However, if parents can keep balance between these activities and control children`s time spent with screen media it is possible to keep balance. Many experts claim that excess of Television and other screen media influence negatively imagination of children because of excessive stimulation of visual centers leaves other different parts of the cerebrum inactive for a long time (Television, Computers, and Brain Development). That is why the centers responsible for imagination are not utilized properly which is really harmful for children because this is one of the major tools of learning for them. Children`s personalities shape in every day games when they fantasize, imagine the whole worlds and realities and act as if they are parts of them. Any content from the media deprives them of this possibility, and simple games with peers and toys can look less attractive to the children absorbed by TV screens. Moreover, some experts say that children as they are prone to take everything for granted, in many cases cannot differentiate between real world and the Television (Children, Adolescence, and Television, 2001). The reason is it is still impossible to define exactly how media influence children and as they still believe in their fairy tales, it is impossible to exclude that the virtual reality (TV shows, games, cartoons, and series) may seem to them as veritable as real life. It is dangerous from the perspective of the messages that children perceive from the screen. New research states that having TV on during long period of time may disable teenagers` and younger kids` natural development by diminishing the dialogue between them and parents or influencing its quality in a negative way. A group of American researches followed more than 300 children between two months and four years during a two-year period of time to find out the impact of Television on linguistic capacities. The experiment revealed that the dialogues were substantially reduced and even the quantity of words in the conversation was minimized when the Television was working (Murphy, 2009). Taking into account the fact that parent-child conversation is a primary source of kids` linguistic development as children learn how to build conversation, master and enlarge vocabulary in the dialogue with adults. This study proves indirectly harmful influence of Television on such an important cognitive operation as speaking. However, the fact that complete isolation of children from screen media is idealistic and may also be useless. Another negative outcome of excessive time spent in front of screens is problem with attention in children and teenagers. Saturated with visual images from the TV or computer children are unable to concentrate and some scientists even connect ADHD to the excessive amount of time spent in front of Television and computer. The creators of programs for children use special features to capture kid`s attention such as rapid pace of shots, fast zooms and pans, bright ad saturated colors, fast movements in peripheral visual field, unexpected noises. These methods used primarily by advertising were proved to be perfect for attracting children`s attention involuntarily. However, viewing all this on the screen regularly make children use their own brain during playing, studying, ad communicating. Most parents whose children were diagnosed with attention deficit disorder pointed to the alleviation of the symptoms after reducing time I front of screens for children (Healy, 2011). Attention serves as a basis for many higher cognitive operations such as memory, thinking, speaking and it is really crucial for child`s normal development. Many games and activities are directed o enhancing child`s attention while at the same time Television can make their influence futile. That is why it is extremely important for parents to track how much time a child spends in front of the screen ad what kind of information he/she is consuming. Emotional development is also a complicated process during which children learn to recognize emotions, assess them, and response adequately, and for a normal adults this abilities transform into what is called empathy. Television makes children consume large amount of information in a short period of time speeding up the decision-making processes. Some scientists claim that unexpectedly it is emotional skills that “suffer”” from this TV consumption. It is connected to the fact that for recognizing and evaluating emotions people need some time that would help them to see nuances while media with its intensity teaches children and teenagers neglect that time. As adolescent mind is still plastic and flexible the behavior becomes persistent. Computer also plays negative role in educating children of normal emphatic behavior. Thus, when using the Internet the children in the experiment showed now stimulation in the area responsible for emotional feedback even in the situations when these emotions would be normal (Small, 2009). Therefore modern media leave people with less space and time for making weighed and right emotional decisions. It is supposed that to choose between several alternatives of emotional response people need to asses critically non-verbal situation. Modern media is characterized by rapid and parallel information absorption which reduces potential ability of people to process information. Taking decisions and processing information too fast deprives children of experiencing a full range of emotions and understand other people in a right way. Spending too much time in front of the screen also affects children`s behaviour in a negative way-increasing the level of aggression, promoting wrong lifestyle, and influencing the academic level in a negative way. Academic performance is that aspect of children`s life that suffers as well. As a result of enormous exposure to the screen media, children younger than 3 have “deleterious effects” with calculation abilities, analytical skills later in life. The study of American researches demonstrated the connection between bad performance during further 20 years in children. The scientists also concluded that the relationships between screen media consumption and worsening of academic performance are in a “dose-response” effect. It means that the more time children spend in front of the screen the lower the chances of the academic success (Hancox, 2005). At the same time the value of educational level of Television was absolutely minimal, and even several hours spent in front of the screen diminished children`s analytical skills and academic performance as a result. However, some experts claim that little amount of Television can have positive effects on children, in the recent studies experts do not support this idea. It is also not surprising that spending hours in front of the screen influences negatively children`s physical health. Scientists prove that excessive TV products consumption not only leads to sedentary way of life but actually disrupts normal eating habits in children. Despite simple substituting any physical activity with repeated sedentary activity, Television has been found to impact negatively the whole metabolism. Compared to other activities, such as reading, writing, and driving a car watching TV has the worst effect on metabolism. Scientists claim that it is possible to connect such diseases as obesity and diabetes with prolonged sedentary activity (Cooper, 2006). Moreover, Television watching stimulates children to eat more even if they do not feel hunger. This effect is not simply explained by advertisement of food but also by external cues that our brain interprets as stimuli to appetite increase. Therefore our body responds physiologically on the stimuli from the screen and starts salivating even if we stop watching TV that is why it is possible to conclude that watching TV too much breaks up normal and natural mechanism that regulates appetite (Temple et al., 2007). This is exceptionally negative for children because they only start learning how to recognize hunger and how to interpret signals of their body. Parents need to keep constant control of children because they still do not understand what products are harmful for them and what are not that is why children are the most vulnerable part of the auditory ad marketing specialist take advantage of them. Moreover, substituting normal physical activity with Television watching creates a problem of extra weight for children. Television and obesity are connected even more directly. Scientists claim that the time spent I front of the screen is proportional to the excessive weight in children. Moreover, those kids who have TV in their own room are also mostly have problems with overeating and gain extra weight easily. It is also worth noticing that such habits remain in children for a long time and easily become adults` habits. There is some evidence that the habit of watching TV for a long time can forecast obesity in adulthood. There are also studies that aimed to reduce the body mass index with the help of reducing of TV consumption among kids. The success of this observation made U.S. Task Force on Community Preventive Services recommend programs implementation of weight reduction with the help of TV limitation among children (Television Watching and Sit Time, 2010). Therefore obesity is almost always a predictable result for children who spend too much time (more than 2-3 hours daily) because of sedentary activity and because of advertising. Marketing specialist know that children are the most easily reachable auditory that is why fast food producers for examples reach children aggressively form the TV screens. Therefore, even video games and computers are not as dangerous for kids as Television. Another negative impact of Television on children is deprivation of normal amount of sleep. Experimental studies show that changes in sleeping patterns are inevitably connected to excessive exposure of children to Television. The study that involved pre-school kids revealed that those children who watched TV more than 2 hours a day experienced sleeping disorders and disturbances during sleep more often. Even those who watched Television passively demonstrated serious problems with sleeping (Paavonen, 2006). Researches claim that generation of kids who are familiar with screen media experience difficulties with sleeping more often than previous generations, and it is impossible not to agree with this statement. Children nowadays can spend hours staying up late and watching their favorite cartoons, films on TV while it is extremely important for them to keep the balance between work and rest. Television and time spent in from of any screen media also affects children`s vision so that researches observe problems among those kids who spent excessive amount of time in front of the screen (Seema et al., 2010). Moreover, the distance between the screen and the viewer plays a crucial role, and as children are unable to control it themselves such maladaptive behavior can bring a serious harm to their health. Counterargument Though the most damage from the screen media consumption by kids seems to be connected to the time period and the quality of products consumed. It is impossible to make children stop watching TV because such extreme measures will also negatively affect their development. At the same time controlled amount of time spent in front of the screen can be beneficial. It will allow children socializing better with their peers and find common topics easily. Educational programs produced specifically for children enhance learning abilities, improve attention and serve as a good method of entertainment. If the time in front of the screen does not exceed 2 hours a day ( starting from at least 3 years old) and parents control the content which children consume excluding those promoting violence, marginal behavior, and advertisement. Conclusion Therefore, the problem of the screen media influence on children is extremely urgent today with appearance of more and more devices. However, many children and their parents still prefer Television as a basic form of entertainment while Television is not always the best choice for kids. Television, if it is not measured and controlled by parents can impact negatively children`s psychological, emotional, and even physical development. Television and screen media deprive children of necessary amount of linguistic interaction with their caregivers and substitutes children`s natural imagination. For the kids such imbalance can be really harmful because their brain is still plastic they learn wrong behavior patterns really fast forming stable unhealthy habits. Moreover, children who watch too much Television or consume too much content from the Internet have problems with attention and can even develop ADHD. Emotional development is also affected by Television consumption because fast decision-making pushes children to similar actions in real life depriving them from natural non-verbal dialogue. Time spent in front of the screen is also attributed to violent behavior and problems in education. As for the physical adverse consequences it is necessary to mention problems with excessive weight and sleeping disorders. Therefore, it is necessary to control and limit the time in front of the screen for children and teenagers not to disrupt their normal natural development. It is parents` primary responsibility to find equal kinds of entertainment for children and stimulate their with physical activity. Choosing appropriate to age developing programs for a relevant amount of time is nevertheless logical and necessary. References Children, Adolescence, and Television. (2001). American Academy of Pediatrics. Retrieved from: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/107/2/423.full Cooper, T. (2006). An assessment of obese and non-obese girls’ metabolic rate during television viewing, reading, and resting. Eating Behaviors, 7 (2), 105-114. Hancox, R. (2005). Association of television viewing during childhood with poor educational achievement’, Archives of Pediatric Medicine, 159. Healy, J. (2011). Understanding TVs effects on the developing brain, Brainy Child. Retrieved from: http://www.brainy-child.com/article/tvonbrain.shtml Murphy, K. (2009). Is TV delaying child`s development?, BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8078763.stm Paavonen, E. (2006) TV exposure associated with sleep disturbances in 5-to 6-year-old children, Journal of Sleep Research, 15. Seema, S., Minakshi, K., Manish, G. (2010). Effect Of Television Watching On Vision Of School Children In Rural Haryana.. The Internet Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2 (1). Small, G. (2009. Your brain on Google: Patterns of cerebral activation during Internet searching, American Journal of Genetic Psychiatry, 17 (2). Television, Computers, and Brain Development. (2009). Speechgoals Organization. Retrieved from: http://speechgoals.com/?page_id=10 Television Watching and Sit Time. (2010). Harvard School of Public Health. Retrieved from: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-source/obesity-causes/television-and-sedentary-behavior-and-obesity/ Temple, G., Giacomeli, A., Kent, K., Roemmich, J. (2007). Television watching increases motivated responding for food and energy intake in children, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 85 (2). Read More