Are Children Smarter or More Socialized Because of the Internet - Research Paper Example

Abstract This paper seeks to find out if the internet has caused children to become smarter. Its main aim is to establish the role that the internet has played in the socialization of children. 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 possible outcomes become established, and how the outcomes will become differentiated in the research. The data collection procedures have also been discussed, and survey method will get used in the research. 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 majority 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 the 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. Statement of purpose 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. This research is paramount to us because it will shed further light on how the children of today become socialized. Understanding the effect of the internet on children’s socialization helps to better prepare various families, organizations and schools because the internet gets integrated into the society. Research questions By the end of this research, we should answer the following questions; 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) Are today’s children better socialized because of their exposure to the internet? Literature review 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). The following sources can be used to establish whether or not children are smarter or better socialized because of the internet. Grossbart, S. (2002). Internet and Socialization. Socialization 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 with Media. Retrieved December 9, 2012, from How should parents be involved in the 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 Hypothesis A hypothesis for this research would be that children are not smart because of the internet, but because of the world that they live in (Tse, 1995). Majority of what children learn from the internet when they are not receiving guidance is unacceptable in the society. Another hypothesis can also be that children are smarter because of the internet. The internet equips them with a lot of information that is necessary to live in the society. This research will differentiate these two hypotheses by providing information on how the internet socializes children and whether it has made them smarter or not. Variables The dependent variable that will be measures to detect for change will be the behavior of children when exposed to different social situations. This behavior will be in terms of communication with other individuals, whether or not children express themselves openly without fear of getting criticized (Lewin, 2005). The behavior that will also become looked at will be the social skills of turn taking, cooperation and sharing. Self esteem and mental progress will also get analyzed. This research will look at the behavior that different groups of children will portray to clearly outline their socialization patterns (Grossbart, 2002). Independent variables will be that some children get exposed to the internet and acquire knowledge on a specific social skill like turn taking. Others will interact with children and other people in the society and find out more on the social skill. This gets tested against the dependent variable of behavior displayed before and after exposure. This is repeated for all the social skills that the research seeks to test. Data collection 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 observation of behavior that gets portrayed by the individuals. Information would be gathered on behavior patterns in different situations (Kendall, 2012). Information would get collected about the social skills that different children portray in different social setting. For example, information on turn taking, cooperation, language used when requesting for something, sharing skills, and mental progress. Survey method of data collection can become employed in the research because this research seeks to collect data on phenomena that can be directly observed. Information gathering becomes enhanced through interaction with interviewees (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. (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 establish if the internet is a freelance device that defies all rules of society. 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 for 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 get fully exposed to the internet and use it to gather knowledge on any question that they have in life (Lewin, 2005). This shall become 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 involved in the internet display better problem solving patterns due to the 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 This research will compare, analyze, and contrast the social activeness of children on individual tasks. This shows the effect of the internet on young children’s habits during a social and individual task. Social skills of children will get tested to find out whether or not children who are always in the internet are more socialized or smarter than children who are not. They survey will cover children from different backgrounds so as to make it as objective as possible. References Read More