Influence of Technology and Social Media on Children - Essay Example

Influence of technology & social media on children Affiliation: Introduction The children of the 19th and 20th Century were completely different from those of today. They were physically and mentally active, creative and very healthy compared to those of today. This is because the 21st Century is full of technology and social media where children spend all their time in whether in school or at home. This affects their sensorimotor as well as cognitive development, not to forget the negative effects on their health. The contemporary society is all digitalized and the children have also not been left behind either despite their age. The fact that the children are emulating what their parents are doing is affecting their childhood settings and growth patterns as well as development that a child is supposed to undergo. The changing nature of the influence of the chosen topic on children in society Technology and social media aid in quick learning as well as communication and increasing the social circle of children. Children are using technology to learn in schools as well as aiding them in visualization of the concepts much faster than was the case in the past (Walters, 2015). This is a change from learning in the past where children’s visualization largely depended on imagination, creativity and nature where they spent much of their time in. Children had healthy lives as they played frequently outside and the communication and social circles were formed face to face and not virtually hence allowing an aspect of emotions to guide their friendship and making it hard to just leave one friend and get another with the click of a mouse. Children in the past in the absence of technology and social media interacted more with their parents and did so without much distraction between the two parties. Parents got to nurture their children and have intimate conversations with them something that is no longer happening. Children no longer have time to interact with parents after school or even during weekends as they are cooped up in their rooms watching TV, playing games on their computers or phones or busy chatting with their friends on social media (Walters, 2015). These children do not therefore experience parental love and importance as much as was in the past and this is breaking up family communication and weakening their ties as well. Children’s health is also affected as they lack time for physical exercises through outdoor games. Relevant links that can be made between the topic and child development theory Children’s cognitive development according to cognitive psychologists is largely dependent on level and fast brain stimulation. Brain stimulation is assisted by nature through playing and large intake of oxygen and fresh air. The children in the past century therefore had a faster brain stimulation enabling their cognition to be faster as well. They developed speech and language early and were more creative than the children of today. Learning was easier and faster with higher brain stimulation and learning disabilities were a rare occurrence (Rowan, 2013). Cognitive development in today’s children is much slower and there are increases in learning disabilities based on the slow brain stimulation with the lack of enough or any outdoor games. Their attention span is also limited and they lack creativity ability seen in the past (Swanson, Harris & Graham, 2013). When it comes to sensorimotor development, the case is the same. Sensorimotor skills developments are aided by outside play, creativity and imagination as explained by Greenfield, (2015). The sensorimotor skills are developing very late in life and some children do not develop all the skills making them slow. When these children are slower than the rest, they isolate themselves by further delving into the technology world. This is the reasons the children regarded as “nerds” in the past were because they spent too much time in the library but the definition in today’s world is because they spend too much time on their computers. The social skills that aid in sensorimotor development continue to decrease with advancement in technology and the increase in different social media sites (Watt, 2010). Relevant links between your chosen topic and contemporary society’s views of the child The contemporary view of children is that they are mature and sophisticated juts like technology is. Parents therefore let the children make the decisions about their lives, rule themselves about almost everything and in the long run neglect them. They are too busy with their lives to think about that of children. To most parents, children are simply a convenience and a way to continue the lineage and get salary increases just as technology is convenient and facilitates in increasing sales and profits. Children are only highly protected when they are toddlers but once they learn to walk and talk and can be left behind, they are regarded as “adults” and left to make decision on their own. They are left to be reared by older siblings or grandparents as the parents move to another baby or concentrate with their careers (Trilling & Fadel, 2012). This is the exact thing with technology and social media. When it is relatively new in market, it is highly adopted and nurtured by people as well as heavily protected and dotted over. Once however it ages or regarded as redundant with new technology in the market, it is forgotten and left to others majorly those regarded as old fashioned to use it. The children therefore practically raise themselves and the results are what have been discussed throughout the essay which is not good results. Once technology is declared obsolete, people leave it alone to disintegrate or eventually destroy it. The impact of local, national and international policies on professional practice The policies being developed in many professions today require basic knowledge of computer, the use of social media in communicating as well as in depth knowledge with what people understand and relate better with and this is technology. Children of all ages and especially adolescents that are soon entering the professional world have to be highly informed on the different social media platforms, have many social media friends they can introduce concepts and products to as well as be versed in techno how despite the frequently changing technology. When it comes to international professional practice, technology is being used to communicate with sales personnel in different countries, link up buyers to the sellers among other business and professional activities. All the travelling that was required to move to international markets as well as manage international employees in multinational companies is made easier with technological innovations and development such as video conferencing and telemarketing among many others. If the employees or potential employees are not well versed with the technological world, they will not only be unable to fit in the professions but they will not even be able to get employment. The government and private sector with the influx of technology is the one even encouraging the children to adopt more technology (Watt, 2010). New technological products that make working from anywhere easier are being developed on a daily basis and all these is aided by the shifting policies in the local, national as well as professional practice. The role of childhood settings and how practice can be adapted to meet the needs of children in contemporary society Children need time to play outside, ride bicycles, fly kites and planes, play ball games, swim in the pools and beach among other games children used to play prior to this digital century (Rowan, 2013). All this is however curtailed by technology influx and needs to resume if children’s growth and development is important to parents, teachers and government in general. Certain decisions and practices need to be made and implemented and children made to adopt them to bring back the childhood in them. Parents need to limit the amount of technological devices available to children as well as put time line of when they can engage in watching TV, playing internet games and social media as well (Trilling & Fadel, 2012). Government should ensure that schools have outdoor games for all as a mandatory policy and not just for those who want to do it. This will stimulate their brain, increase their attention span and give teachers an easier time teaching these children. Field trips should be encouraged more as a way to learn while in the process enjoying walking, face to face communication and getting fresh air while still learning. It is will encourage creativity, imagination and more visualization without having to use computer software and aided special effects. These efforts and adaptation changes however need to be unanimous if any effects are to be observed. France is a perfect example of the government taking charge to change the childhood settings as it banned all baby TV to avoid too much TV consumption in children (Rowan, 2013). The impact this change has on childhood settings The changes in the growth and development of a child brought about by the increase in technology and social media are affecting the children more positively than negative. As mentioned earlier, the most negative impact is in the health of the children. With the lack of time to engage in outdoor games to stimulate their brain development and sensorimotor development, the children will become much more lazy in class, have their attention span reduced, lack creativity in anything they do and often having to rely on technology to boost their imagination, creativity and ability to visualize (Swanson, Harris & Graham, 2013). They are highly prone to physical illnesses such as obesity and cardiovascular illnesses as well as diabetes. All this is because they do not have time to exercise as all they do is communicate on social media, play internet games and watch TV and movies. Their parents are also consuming in the same technology and social media in addition to their professional lives and hence the family majorly eats take outs which is not necessarily healthy food such as pizza. It is the unhealthy food intake at meal times and the regular snacking on unhealthy food while engrossed in technology without exercising that brings in the physical diseases (Duggan, Watkins & Walker, 2008). The children’s social lives are limited to virtual friends and cyber bullies as they lack time to interact with other normal children outside of the technological world. All these are changing the child and limiting their childish behaviors that have been known to be characteristic of children before they hit young adulthood stage. Conclusion As the society keeps on consuming more and more technology, the children are being affected by it more than the adults and the effects of these are more negative especially towards their health be it physical, psychological or even cognitive skills are becoming more pronounced. Technology may be aiding in their learning in school as well as visualization and making them spent time more responsibly without indulges in social evils but this is not without paying the high price of bringing up unimaginative and slow to creativity children with more learning disabilities and highly prone to physical illnesses like obesity than was the case in the past (Duggan, Watkins & Walker, 2008). Limit to the age of first technological initiation should be increased and not lowed as is the present case and more monitoring to limit much technological consumption is necessary for the children. Reference Duggan, C., Watkins, J. & Walker, A. (2008). Nutrition in Pediatrics: Basic Science, Clinical Applications. New York: PMPH-USA. Greenfield, S. (2015). Mind Change: How Digital Technologies Are Leaving Their Mark on Our Brains. New York: Random House. Rowan, C. (2013, May 29). The Impact of Technology on the Developing Child. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cris- rowan/technology-children-negative-impact_b_3343245.html Swanson, L., Harris, K. & Graham, S. (2013). Handbook of Learning Disabilities. London: Guilford Press. Trilling, B. & Fadel, C. (2012). 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Walters, J. (2015, February 2). Tablets and smartphones may affect social and emotional development, scientists speculate. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/01/toddler-brains-research- smartphones-damage-social-development Watt, H. (2010). How Does the Use of Modern Communication Technology Influence Language and Literacy Development? A Review. Contemporary Issues in Communication Science and Disorders, 37: 141-148. Read More