April Holland

English 2

Professor Goeller

July 27, 2019

Effects of Technology on Children

Have you ever sat at a restaurant or any where out in public and noticed that once a child

starts causing a fuss their parents hand them a phone or tablet? Or have you noticed how angry a

child can get if their parents refuse to allow them to play with their phones or tablets? All of

these happen too frequently. Society these days have becoming immensely reliant on the use of

their phones or tablets or other technological devices to keep them entertained. This reliance on

technology has even begun to trickle down and effect how we’ve been raising our children.

While technology can be important to a growing child, to much exposure can lead to harmful

effects to their physical and mental wellbeing.

In my day life I work as a hair stylist and I see this type of behavior almost every day.

The moment that the parents set their child down they immediately hand over a phone or tablet

to try and keep them still. It is always so baffling to me that the parents never seem to wait to see

how their children reacts or if there are any other ways that they could keep their little one’s in

line. I have even seen parents get frustrated at me when their phones don’t do the trick or if I

start getting annoyed when they constantly have me stop so that they can grab the phone to

change a video or put on a different game. They barely even help when it comes to positioning

the phone, so we can get to a different spot on their head, just being happy that the phone is

keeping their kid quiet.

 There are even times when a parent sets their kids down and then go out and just play on

their phone, ignoring how their kid is acting. I’ve had a child in my chair that wouldn’t stop

moving and when I looked over to their parents I could see that their full attention was on their

phone. No matter how much I’d try to subtlety get their attention they paid me no mind.

Technology dependence and addiction is a learned behavior and trickles down from parents.

Even though addiction is a strong word, there are people in professional field of

psychology that believes that that is what is going on. Susan Ladika, a freelance writer, touched

on many good points on this in her article “Technology Addiction”. There are many great points

in her article regarding how the addiction can affect a person’s life, how it can be addictive, and

how the companies behind some of the more popular apps or websites might be making their

interfaces in a way that plays a role in allowing the addictive behaviors.

Technology addiction can have a great adverse effect on one’s life way past their youth.

There are many different stories out there that talk about how people have wasted major parts of

their lives through gaming. It is the urge of doing one more match, one more level, or one more

try at that difficult boss fight. I’ve even seen this happen in my own life many a times, not with

me personally but with my fiancé and their friends. There have been multiple times where we

wound up staying later than intended at a friend’s house because of how they get caught up in

wanting to play one more round of the game that they were playing. I have also used it as a

procrastination device when it comes to homework. My focus constantly shifts from the task that

I should be doing towards the game that I am most recently obsessed with at the time.

Ladika talks about a male by the name of Charles Bracke, a gamer whose addiction to

gaming had caused him to lose his chances at three different colleges, a girl friend, and a job as a

real estate agent. He had only gotten help after his parents surprised him with a visit and noticed
that his life and gotten so messed up. Through the use of a rehab center called reSTART, he was

able to get his life back in order, gaining a job at Costco as a merchandiser and is going back to

school for accounting (Ladika).

Now with a known rehab center there shouldn’t be a discussion on if it is or isn’t an

addiction, but there is. Robert Lustig, a professor of pediatric endocrinology from the University

of California, has said that ‘Technology, like other ‘rewards’ can over-release dopamine,

overexcite and kill neurons, leading to addiction.’ He also continues to say that while it is not

technically a drug, it might as well be as it gives the same type of results (Ladika). Though other

organizations like APA have not recognized it as its own addictive disorder but says that it needs

to be studied further.

The biggest issue with all of this is if the companies themselves make their products or

services addictive. Take Youtube for instance, the interface allows for one to easily go from one

video to the next, that you can easily lose track of time. Or another would be Facebook, with

their massive amounts of users and the different types of media that it can support. I have

constantly found myself lost in the different stories that are available through different blogs that

post directly to the website. I also always lose myself in different quizzes that are also available.

For both websites it’s the constant stimulus from being able to quickly gain something new to

either read or watch that makes it so easy to just lose yourself in their sphere.

Other than addiction, what other effects can technology have on little ones? Are there any

physical side effects or is it all mental based? Those were some of the most important things that

I was concerned about when I started to think about this topic. As all of these can have permeant

ramifications on the future of children.

 Through my research I found that there were many negative effects to children’s physical

being. The biggest thing is the effect that electronic devices have on children’s weight. Thanks to

the constant temptation that electronic devices creates, children have more desire to stay inside.

This creates a lack of physical exercise which, combined with a bad diet filled with snacks, leads

to a higher percentage of obesity in children. In fact, child obesity rates have risen drastically

over the past decades, as in 2012 the rate measured to be 18 percent which is an 11-point

difference from the obesity rate from 1980 (Patel).

Other than just the lack of exercise children is losing out on different benefits that one

gains from being outside. One valuable thing that kids are losing out on is natural sunlight.

Sunlight has a lot of positive effects on the body. Without sunlight one’s skin start to become

unhealthy. You also reduce your chances of fighting infections. This is all prevented thanks to

the natural vitamin D that one gets from the sun. Another thing that sunlight helps with is the

production of melatonin. Melatonin is important in keeping your sleep cycle regular. So, without

going outside frequently you massively effect the overall health of your body because you don’t

get enough sunlight.

Speaking of sleep phones have another impact on it other

than just keeping you from getting the vitamin D from the sun.

The blue light that phones emit are very harmful to one’s

body. This harmful blue light can cause headaches, eye strain

and irritated eyes for children (Patel). It also causes the

suppression of melatonin that, as I talked about before, throws off one’s natural ability to fall

asleep. All of this makes children have major problems with the preparations of falling asleep,

causing the rest of their health to deteriorate. I have come to realize this all to personally as I
constantly have a problem with going to bed at night. Constantly I find myself reaching towards

my phone when it’s time to sleep or pulling out my laptop when I wind up not being able to

sleep.

Which this can also lead to very dangerous situations out in public. As people aren’t

paying attention where they’re walking or use their phone while driving. I personally do use my

phone to listen to music while driving, I do my best to fight the temptation to not pick up my

phone to answer a quick text. This can be incredibly dangerous as such distractions can lead to

deadly consequences and accidents. As a young girl in California by the name of Cali learned

when she was struck by a car and killed that was being driven by a young driver that was texting

while driving (Yan).

Another thing that I know is a problem with me is that I’ve lost a massive ability to focus

when I have my phone available. I constantly have the issue that no matter what I’m in the

middle of doing, whether it being doing homework or even watching tv I go back to my phone. I

also constantly find myself getting distracted while on my phone, losing concentration of what I

was trying to do. This brings a new concern to my mind, does constant use of electronics have an

effect on children’s attention spans.

With the constant media stimuli do children find it difficult to focus on reading one

article? Does their attention bounce around in more fragmented thoughts? And even if they are

focusing are they even retaining anything that they read on the web? Those are all important

questions, as all of those factors effect how kids function while learning.

From my research it does seem like there is a connection between the two. As it seems

technology conditions the brain to pay attention to information very differently than reading

(Taylor). With book reading one can easier lose their selves in what is written on the pages.
Unlike on the internet where one constantly has their attention being pulled away from what they

are reading by flashy adds and hyperlinks. As Nicholas Carr says book reading is like scuba

diving and internet reading is like jet skiing (Taylor).

Now with memorizing information the internet and how easily available it is through

smart phones is a massive hinderance. After all, when the information is just a simple search

away why does one need to remember information that they learned. Yet this type of scenario is

terrible for kids still in school, as you can’t use phones or the like on tests. The ability to

memorize things is incredibly important. Memorization is also an important skill to have as you

grow into an adult.

Over in Canada researchers analyzed lifestyle data from questionnaires taken by 4520 Us

children from the ages of 8 to 11, all performing a variety of standard cognition tests. Through

these surveys they had realized that the children that had met their predetermined guidelines for

limiting screen time performed 4.5 per cent higher than that of the children that met none of the

guidelines (Coghlan). Now while these have a slight variable in that children filled out these

questionnaires themselves and the questionnaires didn’t show how the children used their screen

time, like if it was for trivial reasons or for educational ones, it still shows that too much screen

time can only hurt the child in the long time.

Now this shouldn’t mean that you should completely cut off your children from

electronics. After all you don’t want your child to be technologically dumb. With our society

heading towards a new technology era, it is immensely difficult to keep such items out of the

hands of our youth. Another thing with technology is that with all of its current advances it has

been a major help in a lot of people’s lives.

 Another good way that technology helps young people is that there are plenty of apps that

help keep you on top of chronic illnesses. I have personally seen multiple apps that help put you

in contact with therapists and help you remember if you’ve taken your pills and if you haven’t.

One specific app that is out can help one who has diabetes to keep track on if their blood sugar is

too high or too low, as both can be dangerous to one’s life. A good example of this is with Blake,

a California boy with Type 1 diabetes, who uses his iPhone’s app Health to instantaneously

monitor his blood sugar levels together this is doctor (Yan).

One such way is that since everything is connected it is much easier to keep in contact

with someone who lives a far distance away from you. As a minor example my older brother and

his family currently lives out in California while I live in Ohio, so I barely get the opportunity to

see him or even talk to him. Thanks to being Facebook friends with my sister-in-law I am able to

constantly see updates on how their family is doing and seeing recent pictures of their three kids.

It is also a good way to remember how old and what grade they are in. I’ve even been able to use

it to get present ideas for my friends on there for birthdays and Christmas. My fiancé’s family

even uses Facebook to do their gift exchange as everyone lives all over the country.

Still there are even more harmful effects to the constant use of social media. The different

types of people that you find on social media cites can be incredibly harmful to one’s self-

esteem. Internet bullies and the constant appearance of trolls can lead to cyber-bullying, hacking

to retrieve personal information, and even harassment. While I have never been personally

attacked online I have seen it happen to a few of my friends. Some social media cites that I use

allow an anonymous feature that can lead to harmful messages from a faceless person.

There are also plenty of websites that are easy to stumble upon that aren’t appropriate for

children to stumble upon. This leads to children being exposed to more mature content and even
thinking that it is ok for them to post mature content of their own. One girl, 14 from Maghreb,

says that she takes explicit photos but doesn’t care since the people that see’s them aren’t from

the same country usually (Casado, Miguel Angel, et al). Though this type of attention, if found

by their peers, can lead to teasing and constant bullying. As another girl from Maghreb says that

after another girl sent a boy a picture showing lot of cleavage her schoolmates started teasing her

about it (Casado, Miguel Angel, et al).

With all these problems it tends to lead parents to stricken down on their children about

where and when they can access the internet. This can lead to oppressive parenting and cause

more children to try to go towards these harmful websites and rebel. Then you have children’s

whose parents aren’t as adept as their children or other parents don’t tend to know how to

properly educate their children on the dangers that one can find out on the web. So, the children

don’t have the proper education to attempt to subdue the negative situations that they might

stumble on to.

Though some of these websites that they stumble upon might not be bad. They can help

lead to a child finding new hobbies and interests. I have had this happen to me a multiple of

times. Through websites I was able to make even more friends that I care about dearly and I

grew more knowledge of my favorite hobby. The internet can help you find so much new

information that can be used to further my interest in sewing. For those that take great interest in

things like cooking or if someone needs to figure out how to fix something then it is easiest to go

to the internet. As there are so many different websites that one can use to find tutorials and even

more helpful videos if you need to see it being done in action.

But what can one do if they already have a child that relies too much on technology?

How can they try to limit their use without causing tension? Almost all of this can be headed by
starting with a talk with your child. Figure out what they are using their time on the internet for.

Is it something that you can turn into a more physical activity? How about finding something to

make them socialize more?

Based on how they answer your questions it’ll be easier for you as a parent to implement

a plan. Signing them up for a sport could or setting up a play date, or even just allowing them to

go out and meeting up with their friends (Patel).

Melanie Pinola of the New York Times has a great article about how to keep your

children’s time interacting with technology limited. She suggests a multitude of brilliant ideas.

One being that of setting tech-free times and spaces. You can do this by establishing rules for

when the family should not be on their devices, like meals and before bed. Spaces can follow the

same rule as with times, so no phones or the likes in the bedrooms or at the dining table. As long

as everyone, including the adults, follow these rules it’ll be easier for your children to get into

that such habit. This will also allow for good quality family time for everyone to discuss their

problems and how their days had gone.

Another tip that she has is one that can be seen more a way to make sure that your

children are using apps and games that are more a teaching aid and appropriate. Doing this best

will be through making it a family bonding time. Allowing for the increased family time will

help your children gain more during their developmental stage and will help your children learn

to give and take (Pinola).

I actually see this very frequently with some of my friends that have children and even

with my Brother’s kids. My sister-in-law limits her children’s uses of tablet and will only allow

the little ones to use the tablets if it’s something that can help them learn. When my Brother’s

family is in town I even try to limit my time on my phone, computer, and any other video game
consoles so that I can spend more time with them all. I find it a lovely time that I always treasure

and makes it so that I can’t wait to see them all again.

While technology can be important to a growing child, too much exposure can lead to

harmful effects to their physical and mental wellbeing. The physical strain on their eyes from the

blue light of the device or the other negative effects on one body can be seen as a huge negative

against the use of constant technology. Then there is also the fear that one’s child can get

addicted to their use of technology. Yet all of that can only be helped with a limitation of

technology as completely cutting it out will cause equal negative drawbacks in their development

as the current society is heading towards a more technology driven one.

 Worked Cited

Casado, Miguel Angel, et al. "Immigrant Children and the Internet in Spain: Uses, Opportunities,

and Risks." Media and Communication, vol. 7, no. 1, 2019, p. 56+. Opposing Viewpoints

in Context,

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&sid=OVIC&xid=bf8b66d7. Accessed 20 June 2019.

Coghlan, Andy. “Can Too Much Screen Time Harm Children?” New Scientist, vol. 240, no.

3198, Oct. 2018, p. 27. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/S0262-4079(18)31801-3

Ladika, Susan. "Technology Addiction." CQ Researcher, 20 Apr. 2018, pp. 341-64,

library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2018042000.

Patel, Dhruvin. “How Technology Impacts Children's Development - Thrive Global.” Medium,

Thrive Global, 2 Mar. 2018, medium.com/thrive-global/will-technology-ruin-your-

childrens-development-663351c76974.

Pinola, Melanie. "Here to Help." New York Times, 7 Jan. 2019, p. A3(L). Opposing Viewpoints

in Context,

http://link.galegroup.com.sinclair.ohionet.org/apps/doc/A568528703/OVIC?u=dayt30401

&sid=OVIC&xid=0865597f. Accessed 20 June 2019.

Taylor, Jim. “How Technology Is Changing the Way Children Think and Focus.” Psychology

Today, Sussex Publishers, 4 Dec. 2012, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-power-

prime/201212/how-technology-is-changing-the-way-children-think-and-focus.

Yan, Zheng. “Child and Adolescent Use of Mobile Phones: An Unparalleled Complex

Developmental Phenomenon.” Child Development, vol. 89, no. 1, Jan. 2018, pp. 5–

16. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/cdev.12821.