Technology and Its Negative Effects on Children

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Technology and Its Negative Effects on Children

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Class XXXX, Section XXXX, Fall 2012


Technology and Its Negative Effects on Children

Physical life. Todays technologies allow round-the-clock media access, which

has become a significant part of childrens everyday activities. The amount of time

children spend with entertainment media like watching TV or playing video games has

risen dramatically, as the vast majority of teens spend hours sitting around playing video

games all day rather than being physically active. According to a study by Kaiser Family

foundation, today, children aged 8-18 spend an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes out of

a typical day using entertainment media; that makes more than 53 hours a week (News

Release, January 2010).This causes obesity problems, which, in their turn, can lead to

issues in social life. According to WHO, in 2010 the number of overweight children

under the age of five, was over 42 million globally (WHO, Childhood overweight and

obesity). Moreover, media and information technologies can make children lazy. Internet

can provide children with instant access to information, which absolves them of the need

to do research. Doing homework becomes googling, with no brain activity and

creativeness. Due to advanced communication technologies, children tend to expect

immediate responses, having no patience whatsoever.

Social Life. The social effect can get even more severe, taking into consideration

the level of violence children see in video games and on TV. This may provoke physical

aggression in children. Media infuses childrens values with bad role images, often

heralding negative characters and violent actions. Technological addiction can cause the

screen-violence to transfer into real life. The negative effect of violent computer games

on children is well-documented (Lin & Atkin, 2006). Moreover, tech addiction also


indirectly leads to law-breaking like illegal downloading. As technologies affect the free

time of the children, media activities take the time that could otherwise have been spend

with family. The meaningful parent-kid communication becomes scarce, to some extent

alienating family members. Virtually socializing erases the distinction between online

friends and real friends; an online meeting goes for a Friday night party. Technologies

like social media can cause child abuse; according to the 2009 annual Intelligence Report

by Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, 22% of all online abuse reported in

2008-2009 took place in a social networking environment, compared with 11.4% the

previous year. The growth rate has gained speed by 2012 (Fisher, 2009).

Academic life. Instead of going into extracurricular activities and sports, children

hurry home to play video games or socialize online. Children tend to multitask a lot,

often texting, communicating on social media and watching TV at once. This makes it

harder for them to focus on academic activities. Studies by Dr. Rosen at California State

University showed that the majority of teens aged 16-18 perform an average of 7 tasks, at

one time like texting, communicating on Facebook, playing games and more, with TV

on. Sometimes they use mobile phones to text or connect to social media during class

time. This makes them miss out important points.


References

Daily Media Use Among Children and Teens Up Dramatically From Five Years Ago.

January 20, 2010. Retrieved from http://www.kff.org/entmedia/entmedia012010nr.cfm

Fisher,Tia. CEOP reports Increase in Child Abuse from Social Networking Sites. 26

October, 2009. http://www.emoderation.com/ceop-reports-increase-in-child-abuse-from-

social-networking-sites

Lin, C. A. & Atkin D. J. Communication Technology and Social Change: Theory and

Implications. Routledge, 2006

The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies by Their 20s. The New York Times - Breaking

News, World News & Multimedia. Web. 21 Mar. 2010. Retrieved from

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/weekinreview/10stone.html?scp=1&sq=technology

%20children&st=cse.

World Health Organization (WHO). Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and

Health. Childhood overweight and obesity. Retrieved from

http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/childhood/en/

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Technology and Its Negative Effects on Children