How Technology Affects the Growth of Children in Grade School Robert Pulley

Abstract It is thought that too much exposure to electronic devices is causing negative effects on the development, growth and health of children. Their development is very important in how they establish habits for the rest of their lives. The habits children learn at young ages will stick with them for the rest of their lives, impacting the way they learn. Constant exposure to portable technology platforms is thought to create distractions in children at young ages. There has been an increase in the number of technological platforms that are portable, distracting children from tasks they are supposed to be completing. Constant distraction at young ages can create the habit of getting distracted for the rest of their lives, and can develop into developmental delays. Developmental delays inhibit children from learning as quickly as the other children in society, putting them at a disadvantage. The increase in portable technological devises is causing an increase in developmental delays and learning disabilities in children.

Technology and the Development of Developmental Delays in Children Introduction Technology has had a growing impact in our community. There has been more exposure with the advancements, and technology has been replacing more traditional items, in a workplace, at home, and even in schools. Adults are not the only ones being exposed to this change. Children are being forced to learn the new ways of technology, without any prior knowledge of the effects it can have on the body and mind. Children are learning with the new technology; however the curriculums remain constant to the old tradition ways of learning. With the new technology more information is readily available at any time of need. Simple searches can find millions of online documents in a fraction of a second. Along with new technology improving the accessibility of information, it is not always used as a tool and more of an entertainment aspect. Fun, entertaining things can become distracting to users, and at grade school levels, constant distraction can result in a habit that the child is forced to deal with for the rest of their life. In addition to more information being readily available, less emphasis has been placed upon people memorizing things, and having to learn things. The increase in portable technological devises is causing an increase in developmental delays and learning disabilities in children. Outdated Methods of Learning Technology has been changing, but the methods we use to teach technology in the classrooms have remained constant. We have built up reliance on technology to remember things for us. We have become used to technology virtually holding our memory where it can be accessed at any time. For example, a habit that has been learned with memory includes phone numbers. In today’s society, people cannot tell you the phone number of even their best friend. It is no different in the classrooms. Students are taught to do math equations with calculators, where they can simply type in equations and the final product is spit out. Some students have no idea however how the calculator got the answer; they have just been taught a series of steps of buttons to push to let them achieve the end product. Students have no idea how to do the math problems by hand without the assistance of a calculator. This is how the real world is for the most part: we have constant access to calculators and various pieces of technology to help them find the end result they are looking for. But in classrooms, some teachers have gone down the route of teaching solely with calculators and others teaching solely without calculators. In reality, both should be taught because they may be taught by calculator one year, and then next the teachers expect them to know how to do equations by hand and not allow calculators. In society it is best for students to learn both methods. It is the same with other forms of technology. Young kids should be taught how to use the various forms of technology, but not be saturated in it to the point of dependence. Health Risks It is no doubt that with the advancement of technology, and its appearances everywhere, that people have become more dependent on it. But it has come to the point where people do not know what to do if they don’t have it at their fingertips. But with this constant exposure, it can distract them from things they should be doing. At young ages while kids are learning to make habits that they will keep for the rest of their lives it is essential to teach them how to balance the technology in their lives. Since it is new to our generation, the methods to balance them have not been fully analyzed and experts are not realizing until now that the constant exposure might be a part of a bigger problem. With the increase in technology, there have also been increases in problems effecting children in greater number than there used to. For instance, the rate of children with add is on the rise at exponential numbers. An example of this is students doing homework in today’s society. They are constantly being distracted by a ding from a text message of a chirp from a tweet. They are training their brains to become ADD. They are training their brains to only focus on one thing for a matter of seconds and to then be distracted by whatever around them that can grab their attention. With younger and younger kids being exposed to the new technology, it leaves a larger amount of time for the bad habits to be trained into their brains. The greatest problem contributing to this is cell phones. Constant quick messages and quick distractions are what train the brain to become ADD. As stated in MOBILES EVERYWHERE, teens were the first ones to us SMS for social aspects. Teens are the largest group to buy and use cell phones, so they will be tailored to their needs. This has included the camera, video messaging, and mp3 functions. More and more is added to cell phones to make everything they need in the same place, but that has been taking them away from the real world distracting them from what is going on for greater amounts of time. Other things such as video games require time and are not as detrimental to the development. In Roberts article, he discusses how cell phones have been reinforcing negative tendencies, not only in ADD, but sleeping problems. In addition to ADD sleeping problems has also been on the rise. Kids are staying up later on social media, playing games, messaging or doing other such things when they should be sleeping. This can cause sleep deprivation and can cause students to perform poorly in their classes. In addition, the two biggest social networks have a blue theme. The color blue inhibits melatonin; the chemical produced by our bodies to let us sleep, from being made. So in addition to not getting enough sleep, it takes away from our bodies being able to stay asleep and get as well of a goods nights rest as opposed to not using social media before bed. Because the technology is readily available at any time, it has been reinforcing negative tendencies of sleep deprivation and distraction. A less directly linked problem that has been showing up more in teens with the increase in technology is depression. This goes hand in hand with more screen time and less face time. With kids’ lives being absorbed into the screens, they don’t have the best social skills. They are forced to hide behind a screen and don’t make friends as well and can feel isolated. This can cause them to rely on the electronics too much which makes them do the same thing an this results in a spiral effect that can be hard for kids to get out of. Kids have been spending more and more time with their cell phones, which takes away the time they can be actually talking to people. In todays society most people would agree that it is easier to tell someone something by text than in person and the reason is because of too much reliance on the technology. We haven’t developed social skills as well which makes us tend to do things such as texting people things we should tell them in person because it takes away the emotion that would be needed in a actual conversation. In texts it can be replaced with a simple lol. Another health risk is obesity. With more kids focusing on the new forms of technology, less are going out and getting the exercise they need. With the rise in various electronic devices, more kids are turning to this to fulfill their entertainment instead of going outside and being healthy. With the food industry going in the direction it is, children need to go out and get exercise. As stated in PAMF health, “For many kids, screen time takes the place of physical play,” Dr. Ferrara says. “It can also inhibit smaller children’s ability to participate in imaginative and interactive play.” This is a vital part in development in children. Without it, imagination aspects in development will be inhibited. Time Management Cell phones have been a large distraction for kids and continue to be a growing problem. Because we are so dependent on them we are constantly looking to see of we have nay new messages or such and it requires what were suppose to be doing to take much more time than it should. As a result, we develop poor concentration habits, and the ADD brought on from the constant distraction also affects this. The new technology is distracting kids from what they should be doing, causing them to send more time trying to do what they are doing, and as a result can get less sleep which will effect their academic performance. Overall the cell phones and with the increasing technology to make them have more, is taking peoples attention away from what they should be doing, and it shows. Things that should take people short amounts of time are gradually taking longer. As stated in 5 Ways to Reboot Yourself, while doing work is not the only time you can be distracted. Many people do not turn off their phones while sleeping or going to bed, so they constantly have dinging from notifications keeping them from getting the sleep they need. They can either ignore the dinging in which it is still disrupting their sleep or they can look or answer, which is disrupting their sleep even more. This can cause sleep disorders and for sleeping hours in teens to start to roll. This will greatly impact student’s academic performance. Moderation Everything is ok in moderation. Only when things become saturated in our lives do they start to cause problems. On Harris’ article on too much Internet activity, it is believed that teens can get memory problems, concentration issues as well as problems with decision making skills and goal setting abilities (Harris, 2011). Too much internet can cause a reliance which can form into a addiction, and although it does not provide your brain with the same chemicals that are released in an addiction, it has the same effect of reliance and the feeling that it is needed. With the plethora of electronic devices available to the youth, it is important that time is balanced. Some suggestions from PAMF Health is to limit screen time, and keep media out of the bedrooms. Not online does this enforce media restrictions, it prevents kids from bullying or tolerating being bullied because an adult will be there to see it. Technology has come great distances in the past years, but just because there is new technology does not mean it is necessarily safe or going to have no effect on people. And since it has been shown to have effects on people, it is important that we pay attention to the amount of technology children use since these years are when they form habits and learn skills they will keep with them for the rest of their lives. Conclusion The capabilities of technology have been rapidly increasing. Although we have let this technology into our homes, and our families interact with it daily, the final result is not known. We have not had this technology in the past, so we do not know how exactly it will affect us. We try to make more things to make our lives easier, to free up our time doing other things or to make us more connected. But at what point will it actually be more work than ease? With all the options on things we have started to create more work for ourselves. The only thing we have found from more interconnected technology is that we are isolating ourselves. We are spending more of our life on screen time than face time. We have gotten to the point where our social skills are lacking and can cause greater problems such as permanent mental problems. When kids are learning skills, having them focusing on a screen rather than being social is not going to be the best thing for them. Technology is hurting social skills of the kids and training their brains to be constantly distracted by their environments. Cell phones are training teens to be distracted by a ding every few minutes, which will cause them to be distracted in any environment and not fully focus on the work at hand that they should be focusing on. Technology has negative effects, but it can have positive effects if utilized correctly. Moderation needs to be applied to tech kids how to use technology, while not saturating their lives in it, creating a dependence that will effect their mental well being.

References
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