Negative Effects of Technology on Adolescents

Introduction: Technology is a growing issue across the world causing a negative impact on adolescents. Technology is affecting socialization, health and overall education of youth. Throughout the year’s technology has drastically increased, and it is most commonly used by people ages 13-17. Background: Technology has caused a negative impact on youth socialization skills, as many people in their adolescence do not know how to properly socialize, and do nothing but stare at their phones. Secondly, technology is causing physical and mental health problems in teens because cyberbullying is a huge issue and can lead to depression and anxiety. Along with mental health physical health is an issue as well, because child obesity is increasing as children spend less time outside, and more time on technology. Lastly, Technology is affecting the education of youth and education systems. Children sit on phones in class and don’t pay attention leading to marks dropping and taking longer for people to graduate. Along with this, disorders such as ADD and ADHD are becoming very common things within children. “The CDC says that 11 percent of American children, ages 4 to 17, have the attention disorder.” Attention disorders are caused by a lack of focus due to staring at a screen all day. Or in other words, children are starting to get bored fast and loose focus on things that do not interest them. Thesis statement: Therefore, technology is a growing issue across the world causing a negative impact on adolescents. Technology is affecting socialization, health and overall education of youth. 

Technology is affecting children's social skills greatly. In today’s society, children don’t know basic social skills and don’t have manners. “Technology can affect children's social development by robbing them of empathy, compassion, and sensitivity to human relationships, affecting their focus and closeness with their family.” Instead of going out to socialize, children are talking to friends and family over the phone. Although connecting with people is much easier, at the same time humans are also losing connection because we are forgetting what it feels like to connect with a person in real life. Along with this, fear of meeting face to face with people is becoming a common issue as well. Adolescence in today’s society find it easier to say things over the phone, things they would never say in person. This like this can affect relationships with friends and family, and can also affect job opportunities because many children don’t have basic social skills anymore. Furthermore, adolescence is losing emotional connection and phones are taking away emotions. People care more about phones and social media rather than other people. Commentary: Technology should be bringing us closer together because its easier to connect, but our generation has taken it too far and we’ve taken the importance out of connection. 

Topic sentence: Technology is affecting not only social skills in adolescents but goes as far as affecting mental and physical health. Mental health in today’s society is more talked about and is very important among youth. Commentary: Physical health is just as important because technology is leading to obesity among adolescence “Current evidence suggests that screen media exposure leads to obesity in children and adolescents through increased eating while viewing; exposure to high-calorie, low-nutrient food and beverage marketing that influences children's preferences, purchase requests, consumption habits; and reduced sleep duration.” Social media is something that affects mental health in terms of cyberbullying which can lead to depression and anxiety,  but social media can also affect physical health as adolescence now have unrealistic body image in mind. Commentary: Unrealistic body image mostly occurs within youth girls because they see models on social media and think they need to look like that to be pretty. This can lead to anorexia and bulimia, which longterm effects physical health. Evidence & citing: “As many as 20 million American women and 10 million American men will experience an eating disorder at some point in their lifetime, and a large proportion of those affected are adolescents and teens.“  Young children don’t like to play outside anymore, which is leading to no physical activity because they like spending time on technology. Commentary: Additionally, something that many people don’t realize is that staring at phones and computers all day can affect one’s eyes. Evidence & citing: “Exposure to blue light during daytime hours helps maintain a healthful circadian rhythm. Too much exposure to blue light late at night (through smartphones, tablets, and computers) can disturb the wake and sleep cycle, leading to problems sleeping and daytime tiredness”. Things like “Just Dance” and “Wii Sports” are a few gaming systems which help kids have fun playing games, but also get them being active. Things like this should be used more frequently, but exercise is slowly becoming something kids don’t care about.   

Topic sentence: Lastly, technology is affecting the overall education of adolescence from the way they learn, and the way they focus. Education systems are having a hard time keeping up with this change in society, and are tiring to including online courses to regain the student’s interest. Students pay more attention to their phones in class which causes them not to focus on teachers and focus on what’s on their phone. Furthermore, students are not doing homework anymore because they are addicted to technology is loose interest very quickly when it comes to doing school work. Finally, websites online don’t always put out the right information, or in other words, not everything on social media is real. This is causing students and adolescents who use technology to get the wrong information and is making them believe facts that aren’t true.  “Teachers who were not involved in the surveys echoed their findings in interviews, saying they felt they had to work harder to capture and hold students’ attention.” (Richtel, 2012) Commentary: Therefore, teachers have seen a change in student engagement as well and it is becoming a growing issue as students would rather use their phones over listening to the teacher. 

Conclusion paragraph: In conclusion, technology is a growing issue across the world causing a negative impact on adolescents. Technology is affecting socialization, health and overall education of youth. People growing up in today’s society are very exposed to technology, which means when defining adolescent today, technology and social media is a big influencer. Adolescents in today’s world have lost social skills and humans are forgetting how to connect. Secondly, Mental and physical health is very delicate factors within social media and technology. Technology can lead to anxiety and depression, as well as anorexia and obesity. Lastly, children care less about leaning and more about phones and lose focus in class very quickly. Overall, Technology is only going to keep growing and it is very obvious that it is having a negative effect on the growing adolescents. Technology is out of control and a growing issue across the world causing a negative impact on adolescents.

References

1. ADHD Numbers: Facts, Statistics, and You. (2017, October 11). Retrieved December 4, 2019, from ADD Resource Center website: https://www.addrc.org/adhd-numbers-facts-statistics-and-you/
2. Blue Light and Your Eyes | Prevent Blindness. (2019). Retrieved December 8, 2019, from Preventblindness.org website: https://www.preventblindness.org/blue-light-and-your-eyes
3. How can technology affect children’s social development? | Children’s Health. (2019). Retrieved December 8, 2019, from Sharecare website: https://www.sharecare.com/health/kids-teens-health/how-technology-childrens-social-development
4. Robinson, T. N., Banda, J. A., Hale, L., Lu, A. S., Fleming-Milici, F., Calvert, S. L., & Wartella, E. (2017). Screen Media Exposure and Obesity in Children and Adolescents. Pediatrics, 140(Supplement 2), S97–S101. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-1758k
5. Tackett, B. (2017, April 8). Social Media and Body Image. Retrieved December 8, 2019, from Project Know website: https://www.projectknow.com/eating-disorders/and-social-media/
6. Technology Is Changing How Students Learn, Teachers Say. (2012, November 1). The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/education/technology-is-changing-how-students-learn-teachers-say.html