Are Children More Socialized Because of The Internet - Research Paper Example

Are children more socialized because of the Internet? Abstract This paper seeks to establish whether or not children are more socialized because of the internet. Its main aim is to establish the role that the internet has played in the socialization of children, and whether children who are more exposed to the internet are more socialized and smarter than children who are expose to the internet. It clearly outlines the role that the fears that the society has had since the invention of computers and the internet, and tries to analyze what good it has brought with it so far. The purpose of this research gets clearly outlined in the beginning, which is to investigate the effects that the internet has on young children. The research questions have also been highlighted as to whether or not the internet makes children smarter, and if there is any difference in socialization between children who get exposed to the internet and those who do not. The data collection procedures have also been discussed, and survey method will get used in the research. This gets employed in the form of interviews and questionnaires. The research also talks about the findings and results and how these findings and results affect the hypothesis of the research. It ends with a conclusion that internet hinders socialization instead of promoting it. Introduction Computers have played a key role in every aspect of life ever since it came into existence in the late 20th century (Tse, 1995). Computers have rearranged and molded the way people live and interact. For a majority of the children especially teenagers, using the internet now include watching television and talking on the phone endlessly. This gets defined as typical behavior for them. More than three quarters of 12 to 17 year olds are always online (Grossbart, 2002). With advancement in technology, people questioned the harms and benefits. Many questioned the harms and benefits a computer would give a child. The fear that many had with computers was that children who relied on these machines would lose their individuality (Tse, 1995). There was also a belief that they would confuse their own cultural roots, and mistake actual reality with virtual reality. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effects that the internet has on young children (Grossbart, 2002). The information gathered from this study can with further research get used to develop more efficient and stronger computer, and socialization programs for young children. Socialization plays a vital role in a child’s life with the peers or even the family (Joan, 2008). Understanding the effect of the internet on children’s socialization helps to better prepare various families, organizations and schools because the internet is integrated into the society. The question in this research is that does exposure to the internet make children more socialized and smarter? Is there a distinct difference in socialization between children who get exposed to the internet and those who do not (Lewin, 2005)? Researchers were afraid that the internet would lead to loss of socialization among young children. For many, socialization means learning and adoption of behavior patterns around the surrounding patterns. Question is what effect has the internet had on children’s socialization skills? Does it make children lack physical feeling in the virtual world, self expression or does it hinder individuality (Mindshift, 2012). Scientists have still not reached a conclusion on the behavioral, emotional and cognitive influences that the interactive products on the internet have on children (Grossbart, 2002). A hypothesis for this research would be that children are not more socialized because of the internet. What they learn from the internet has no way of getting vetted before it gets sent out to the society and we cannot certify that children can learn the norms of society from the internet (Tse, 1995). Majority of what children learn from the internet when they are not receiving guidance is in the real sense not acceptable. Children are more informed because of the internet. The information can still get questioned because it can be either acceptable or not. This research will aim at finding out if, with online technologies, children have the opportunity for more communication with a vast variety of individuals (Lewin, 2005). This getss argued to give them freedom to express themselves more openly with similar minded people without fear of becoming criticized for who they are (Grossbart, 2002). Some surveys show an improvement in children’s social skills, self esteem and mental progress. It has even proven that having computers next to each other has promoted sharing of ideas among children which is a necessary skill required in socialization (Tse, 1995). Another hypothesis can also be that children are more socialized because of the internet. This research looks keenly at how the internet has helped children acquire the skills necessary to live in the society (Grossbart, 2002). It looks at the behavior that different groups of children will portray to clearly outline their socialization patterns. It will emphasize on the language of children, values, roles required for integration into a group or community, and social skills. This gets compared between children in high internet environments and those who are not exposed to the internet. Data To find out whether the internet has an effect on socialization, the kind of data that would become collected for the research would have to do directly with behavior that gets portrayed by the individuals. Information would be gathered on behavior patterns in different situations (Kendall, 2012). More theoretical perspectives on internet effects on children assume that internet acts as a source of socialization. Exact sources and processes underlying child socialization are highly unelaborated, and one has to look deeper by questioning further. Survey method of data collection can become employed in the research because this research seeks to collect data on phenomena that cannot be directly observed (Mindshift, 2012). Surveys become used extensively to analyze attitudes and characteristics of a variety of subjects. This data could be collected by use of questionnaires and interviews. Questions that test on social skills can get compiled to test the socialization of the different groups of children. Questions that test how much knowledge gets acquired from the internet as compared to the real world can become compiled in the questionnaire. The face to face interviews must be able to establish how much children learn from the internet world as compared to the world around them where they can play and physically discover the world around them (Lewin, 2005). A planned socialization activity can be organized by the researcher to test on whether intent knowledge can become regulated like the physical world knowledge. This will also find out if internet is just a freelance device that defies all rules and teaches children anything they wish to learn whether acceptable or not. The patterns that the data collection will be looking for are the patterns of behavior in social places (Tse, 1995). This means that observation must also be used as a method of data collection. This becomes recorded in the observation checklists. Findings and results In order to support the hypotheses in this research, it is vital to investigate the behavior of the children who have been fully exposed to the internet and use it to gather knowledge on any question that they have in life (Lewin, 2005). This shall then be compared to behavior of children who have fully acquired their social skills from the world around them away from the internet. This behavior shall become compared in terms of listening skills, turn taking skills, use of polite language, eye contact when speaking to another person and independence of the individuals when it come to problem solving. The research will be looking for consistency of problem solving behavior. Which children are independently able to always solve their own problems without always having to depend on an adult? The research seeks to establish whether it is the children who are consistently on the internet or those that have time to interact with their environment (Mindshift, 2012). The likely results would be that the children who interact more with the world as opposed to the internet would be better socialized. If children who are more in the internet display better problem solving patterns due to knowledge gathered from the internet, this would contradict or fail to support the hypothesis. This failure will support the second probable hypothesis which states that children are more socialized because of the internet. This is because; they have better communication skills, are more open minded, and they enjoy more freedom of exploration. Conclusion Comparing, analyzing, and contrasting the social activeness of children on individual tasks shows the effect of the internet on young children’s habits during a social and individualal task. Along with the computer, motivation to socialize in children is highly hindered. Although the internet does not entirely hinder children from socializing, they play a part in lack of conversing among children during and after exposure. References Grossbart, S. (2002). Internet and Socialization. Sovialization aspects of parents, children, and the internet , 66-70. Joan E. Grusec, P. D. (2008). Handbook of Socialization. New York: Guilford Press. Kendall, D. (2012). Sociology in Our Times. New York: Cengage Learning. Lewin, T. (2005). Socialization. Teenagers’ Internet Socializing Not a Bad Thing , 1-2. MindShift. (2012, April 25). Children in Media. Retrieved December 9, 2012, from How should parent be involved in children's online life?: http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/feature/children-and-social-media/ Tse, L. (1995). Language brokering among adolescents. Journal of behavioral sciences , 180- 193. Read More