ENC1101: Examining the Negative Impacts of Technology on Children

This essay, written for an ENC1101 course, explores the negative impacts of technology on children. It argues that parents should limit children's technology use due to its effects on their health, leading to issues like obesity and developmental challenges, addictive behaviors, and social lives. The essay cites studies on the correlation between screen time and obesity, the addictive nature of technology, and the impact on social skills and face-to-face communication. It also acknowledges some positive aspects of technology in social and behavioral contexts, but still emphasizes the importance of limiting screen time. The author uses various sources to support the arguments, presenting a comprehensive overview of the detrimental effects of technology on children.

Running head: CHILDREN AND TECHNOLOGY 1
Parents should limit the use of technology on children
Melissa Cabrera
ENC1101

CHILDREN AND TECHNOLOGY
“Technology shapes the growing mind. The younger the mind, the more malleable it is.
The younger the technology, the more unproven it is…” Jane Healy. In today’s world,
everything revolves around technology, even our lives. Children also use technology at
home, at school, everywhere, and it can be helpful for them, but dependency causes
problems. The excessive use of technology can have negative impacts on children’s lives.
Parents should limit the children’s use of technology because it can affect their health, lead
to addictive behaviors, and hinder their social life.
One of the negative impacts from overuse of technology are health issues, such as
obesity and developmental challenges. Many children spend a lot of hours sitting on a sofa
watching TV or playing videogames, instead of spending time outside running and burning
off calories and energy. According to Obesity Action Coalition, more than 9 million
adolescents (children and teens 6 to 19 years old) are affected by excess weight, because of
the lack of physical activity and technological advances that have led to a more sedentary
lifestyle. Also, when children are sitting on a sofa watching TV, they tend to snack. A study
published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology in 2014 monitored the
habits of 1,003 sixth-graders. The researchers found that kids who spent more time in front
of a screen -- whether it was a computer, TV or video game -- snacked more often and ate
fewer healthy snacks than children who used technology less frequently. Over time, the
combination of sedentary life and snacking will cause obesity in children, which is a big
health issue that can affect them forever.
Furthermore, the overuse of technology not only affect children’s physic health, it also
affects their development. According to British Columbia's Society of Occupational
Therapists (2009) says, “Children now rely on technology for the majority of their play,

CHILDREN AND TECHNOLOGY
grossly limiting necessary challenges to their bodies in order to achieve optimal sensory
and motor development…” Proper child development is only acquired if children have
human interaction. Children need to play outside with friends, experience new things and
know the world that surrounds them to gain skills that are necessary for living.
Another negative impact is related to children’s behaviors. Technology fulfills all kinds
of necessities which is good aspect, but the problem starts when people overuse it. The
excessive use of technology produces aggressive behaviors. Many children are addicted to
their phones, videogames, computers, etc. They prefer to stay at home playing video games
instead of spending time with their family or friends. But the addiction is not only with
technology, but also with substances like alcohol, drugs, etc. A preliminary study found
that a group of teens who "hyper-texted" were 40% more likely to have used cigarettes and
twice as likely to have used alcohol than students who were less frequent users of
technology (hazeldenbettyford.org). Moreover, the addiction to smartphones and tablets
can severely damage internal self-regulation mechanism of the young ones (medium.com).
Parents usually give children phones or tablets to calm them down. That's a big problem
because children will throw a tantrum if parents take these devices away from them, which
makes children dependent on these electronic devices to be calm.
The last negative impact is related to children’s social life. Technology gives the
opportunity to communicate worldwide, even with unknown people. Children use social
media technology to share moments or emotions. They prefer to express their emotions
through a computer because they won’t be judged. Because of this, children find it difficult
to express themselves in a face-to-face conversation, which makes them shy and leads to
social anxiety. For example, Stanford researchers found that girls ages 8 to 12 who spend a

CHILDREN AND TECHNOLOGY
lot of time on social media and attempt to multitask, report lower self-esteem and more
difficulty socializing compared to their less media-driven peers. Moreover, technology has
affected communication between parents and children. One study found that when the
working parent arrived home after work, his or her children were so immersed in
technology that the parent was greeted only 30 percent of the time and was totally ignored
50 percent of the time (psychologytoday.com). Children are so involved in the
technological world that they are always on their phones or tablets, ignoring what is
happening around them. They are losing the sense of being in physical contact with their
parents and sharing their feelings or stories, causing their relationship to weaken.
Even though, there are many problems in overusing technology, there are those who still
support the value of this technological world.
The frist positive effect of technology is on the children's social life; we admit that a kid
going out to play with other children of his age definitely improves his social life and we
cannot dispute the fact that we cannot find any substitute for actual interaction with a
human being, but every now and then meaningful computer programs that teaches social
skills such as group play and turn based task can really be beneficial to a kid's social life
(Tahir, 2015). It’s amazing how kids can find programs and friends online and connects
with immediately; it also helps them keep in touch with each other. Despite its advantages,
it is still important to note that technology impacts negatively in a kid's life and screen time
to the children should be limited at all cost and they should always be supervised when
using technology.
The second positive impact is on the children's behavior; technology has completely
changed everything from how we present ourselves to how children play and interact with

CHILDREN AND TECHNOLOGY
each other. It positively affects how a child feels and thinks. This can be accomplished by
the use of videos to teach the kids. A child who is learning colors can watch different types
of colours through an app then later answers questions that will be presented at the end of
the video, this motivates them to challenge themselves and learn willingly on their own
(Smith, 2015). Videos have also for a while now been used to model kid's behavior, the
video shows them how to respond to certain senarios in the community for instance when
addressing an older person, the kind of language to be used and how to share things equally
among themselves. When watching these videos, the children can get access to
pornographic videos or other adult shows that may be inappropriate for their age, therefore
technology in a kid's life should be highly discouraged despite its numerous advantages.
Children don’t have the capacity to comprehend what is good or wrong.
References

CHILDREN AND TECHNOLOGY
Hatch, K. (2011). Determining the Effects of Technology on Children. Retrieved from
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1212&context=srhonorsprog
IndiaNIC. (2016, December 16). 10 Reasons why you should NOT allow children to
(over)use technology. Retrieved from https://medium.com/indianic/10-reasons-why-
you-should-not-allow-children-to-over-use-technology-6f512a6f3e23
Is Technology Creating a Family Divide? (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-power-prime/201303/is-technology-
creating-family-divide
Obesity Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.obesityaction.org/get
educated/public-resources/obesity-statistics-fact-sheets/
Obesity in Children and Technology. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.livestrong.com/article/46320-obesity-children-technology/
Technology Addiction. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.hazeldenbettyford.org/articles/fcd/teen-technology-addiction
Technology and Deficits in Social Skills. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.digitalresponsibility.org/technology-and-deficits-in-social-skills
Smith, T. (2015). Children and Technology: Taking Time for Tech: Offering Support for
Students through Technology. Children and Libraries, 13(1), 34.
doi:10.5860/cal.13n1.34

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Tahir, R., & Arif, F. (2015). Mobile technology in children education: Analyzing parents'
attitude towards mobile technology for children. 2015 Science and Information
Conference (SAI). doi:10.1109/sai.2015.7237175

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