The Effects of Technology on American Youth: Rewarding Or Risky

Abstract

In the world today, youth are becoming increasingly attached to their cellular devices. This attachment often leads to dangerous consequences. The world’s youth has lost an enormous amount of social skills because every type of communication can be done through the phone, either sent by text or email. Children today have higher and more significant rates of depression, self esteem issues, a decrease in social skills and anger issues. Although technology may have numerous positive effects that allow children to study and learn at an early age and do work electronically, those cons end up outweighing the pros. As violence rates rise and mental health for children worsens, kids still continue to overuse their phones, computers, and tablets. Children are being bullied on and off the web, with almost nothing to be done to stop this fast growing epidemic. Although technology is good for children in many ways, youth still continue to struggle with its many negative effects. Children are being held back because they are so attached to speaking through devices that they do not know how to handle themselves in society. The act of speaking between two or more people is becoming a lost art. There are so many advantages to the use of technology, but also a plethora of disadvantages, and children are not paying enough attention to them. Are the advantages really worth the disadvantages?

Introduction

In today’s society youth have become more and more dependant on technology and social media. Every behavior is done to live up to someone they admire, often that they follow through social media. This form of communication is an extremely easy way to socialize with people, but the more socializing on social media platforms, the less there is in the real world. Kids have lost the ability to hold a conversation without having a phone in hand. It has become so important to post “good” things so that you look as good as your friends, but it’s causing self-esteem issues and even anxiety. Body image issues, anxiety, depression and more are fast growing issues with the help of social media. These losses from technology in schools have begun to outweigh the positives, largely attributed to the excessive overuse of these medias.

The Overuse of Technology in Modern Youth

The use of technology is causing a decrease in face to face interaction, and is causing forms of depression and a need for instant gratification. This is because children ages 10+ spend up to 7 hours a day using technology. This typically leads to a loss of social skills. The rates of technology use have gone up because, “A report by Common Sense Media shows in 2011, 10 percent of kids under age 2 used a mobile device and now in 2017, 38 percent of children under 2 have used a mobile device.” The rates are rising because children are receiving tablets and phones extremely early in life. As kids continue to grow up on electronic devices, they start to lose the ability to interact with people around them. Society’s youth are losing socialization skills because they can just grab their phone to communicate; “there is a significant issue, not so much for the younger kids, but for teenagers. Children are picking up the phone to text or Snapchat instead of picking up the phone and speaking to someone.” (French, 2017). Because of the overuse of technology and mobile devices, today’s youth are at a disadvantage because of their lack of communication skills. They spend so much time on electronic devices and electronically talking to people that they cannot speak to someone in person. Speaking through technology creates a barrier for communication. Children are becoming more and more antisocial because they are losing social skills, allowing for the loss of clear communicative skills. Because so many youth are attached to technology, they can become alone and sad: “teens who spend more time than average on screen activities are more likely to be unhappy”. Teens nowadays are so attached to their phones that they are losing valuable skills, which can possibly cause depression. Even more children are becoming depressed because of phone usage. Teens have become too reliant on technology, and do not know how to communicate without the help of it, because everything can be done of phones, tablets, computers, and more. The world itself is not based on technology and texting, so without the capability to communicate verbally without a phone, the real world will be harder to live in. Communication skills are dire for a functional society.

Youth’s Mental Health

The expanding amount of technology is proving to be more damaging to teens mental health, leading to a widespread mental health crisis. Kids today are starting to develop self esteem issues, eating disorders, and anxiety because of and the need to please their ‘followers”. The kids in today's society are struck with anxiety and depression because of the negativity they see in the world around them on all of the social media platforms. Between shootings, black lives matter, and more this leads them to feel that the world is falling apart, and in a way turning evil. But, social media platforms, although they show all of the negativity going on in the world, it does allow for new friendships between new people. Through technological advances, many children have found friends around the world and have become closer with friends they already have. According to Price-Mitchell (2012), “Young people report they feel closer with friends because of technology and are able to connect with a wide variety of people with common interest.” With access to social media, young people today have a wider range to find more people their age who have similar interests. By constantly being on media platforms, children expose themselves to not only their friends and family, but also predators and bullies, because it is easier to hide behind a screen now. This makes finding personal information about youth easier for bullies and predators. By being exposed to the people on the internet they are exposed to negativity and possible harm.

The Monitoring the future study stated, “Teens who spend more time than average on screen activities are more likely to be unhappy, and those who spend more time than average on non screen activities are more likely to be happy. Eighth-graders who spend 10 or more hours a week on social media are 56 percent more likely to say they’re unhappy than those who devote less time to social media” (Orem, 2017).

Kids who are not given electronic devices or do not overuse them happier in the end than the other children who excessively use technology. As the rate of technology went up the rate of suicide also rose. For the first time in many years it even exceeded the amount of teen homicide, meaning that more kids are choosing to kill themselves and less are being killed by others, or choosing to kill others.

The Increase of Anger in Youth

Technology, such as videos games, have brought up aggressiveness in today’s youth. As kids play more aggressive and murderous games, their aggression may also become worse. For example, the shooter at Sandy Hook elementary was an avid video game player, “The shooter, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, spent most of his time playing both violent and non-video games alone in his home.” (Puiu, 2018) People have suspected that this may have been a reason as to why he attacked the school. Because of statistics like these california made a law that has an eighteen and up limit on violent games. Kids who are younger and in a more sensitive stage of socialization are affected differently and possibly more negatively than older children. This also may lead to them becoming violent and rash. Violent video games may also lead to asocial behavior in children, leading them to avoid social interactions damaging social skills. This may cause the child to become a target for bullying. These violent games could also lead to children becoming a bully, which is the opposite for some kids. Although not every child becomes extremely violent or asocial after playing violent video games, however this could lead to negative behavior no matter the age group they are in.

The Increase of Learning for Children

Although technology has many negative effects on teens, it does indeed have many positive effects of very young children because of the learnings tools and websites set up for ages pre-k. Studies have shown that when young children watch educational television shows and play educational games they are positively affected and are more prepared for the start of their education in a school. One example of a television show would be the well known show Sesame Street: “The show is famous for its catchy songs and clever plots embedded with educational messages, teaching children the alphabet, the importance of sharing, how to cope with grief, and countless other social messages”. This show prepares children for preschool, before they start their schooling journey. By starting to learn by watching a televised show that is engaging for children, they all have an advantage and head start in school. Because how important Sesame Street is to youth they started the Sesame Workshop which allows the viewer, through media, to listen on the radio, read books, watch the televised show, and go to live shows to to show the importance of educational messages. They provide the viewers educational objectives that have a positive impact. Technology can also be a helpful educational tool for teenagers. In the past schools did not have the technological advances that society now has, provided for academics. Information was mainly to be found in library books, written media, and encyclopedias. Today, schools incorporate ipads, chromebooks, smart boards, televisions and more into their curriculum on a regular basis. Children are buying online books, writing essays on mobile devices, and finding information in a faster and more efficient way. In schools technology can be used in an effective and smart proactive way, “With smart gadgets like the iPad, iPhone, Galaxy tablets, etc., users can easily have access to a vast amount of information wherever they are through the use of the internet on these devices” (Ramey, 2012). This is a reason why many teachers add it into their curriculums. Children use technology on such a regular basis at home, in school, and everywhere imaginable to find new information. Based on the fact that teachers and schools have begun to use that to their advantage: new networks allow for sharing of lesson plans coursework. It also allows easy access for students to submit their work. This gives students a larger access to new advanced information and knowledge. Teachers use technology so the students can submit their homework, essays etc. online. This is an extremely helpful tool for students turning in and teachers grading processes. With the use of technology teachers also have the ability to check plagiarism when turned in electronically, keeping students from harming their knowledge and learning. Many children and teachers use technology to their advantage, but for teachers it is used in a more proactive way. This allows schools to benefit from the new and improved use of technology in society today.

Problems in Academics Rise

The overuse of technology has raised a concern for academic difficulties. This is because the more television youth watches the less school work or reading they want to do. Why read a book when you can watch the movie? As television became more and more popular psychologist became nervous: “As recently as 1950, when television was becoming a popular form of entertainment, media psychologists became concerned about children and their enthusiasm of television viewing and the impact, if any, on their reading skills”. Kids are becoming too attached to viewing television and are starting to lose reading skills. In addition to watching an excessive amount of television kids may also become asocial, similar to playing video games too often. Children start to avoid social interactions, and slowly start to become much more obsessed with their television or even their mobile devices. By being attached to these electronics they lose the interest in books and in reading. This intune may cause children to lose reading capabilities, and most likely reading comprehension along with it.

Conclusion

Children today are becoming far too attached to mobile devices, leading to atrocious consequences. Although with the technological advances in society today some things in life may be made more accessible, but most are made more strenuous in the long run.

References

1. How Does Technology Affect Teen Health and Well-Being? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nais.org/learn/independent-ideas/september-2017/how-does-technology-affect-teen-health-and-well-being/
2. Technology may have negative social effect on kids. (2017, April 12). Retrieved from https://universe.byu.edu/2017/04/12/technology-may-have-negative-social-effect-on-kids/
3. Strasburger, V. C., Jordan, A. B., & Donnerstein, E. (2010, April 01). Health Effects of Media on Children and Adolescents. Retrieved from http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/125/4/756
4. How-Media-Can-Affect-Children's-Health. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/pages/How-Media-Can-Affect-Children's-Health.aspx
5. Ben-Joseph, E. P. (Ed.). (2016, December). How Media Use Affects Your Child (for Parents). Retrieved from https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/tv-affects-child.html
6. The Impact Of Media – Good, Bad Or Somewhere In Between. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://careersinpsychology.org/impact-media/
7. Unite For Sight. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.uniteforsight.org/global-health-university/sesame-street
8. Pellissier, H. (n.d.). Effects of social media on a child's brain. Retrieved from https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/child-brain-development-and-social-media
9. Pellissier, H. (n.d.). Effects of social media on a child's brain. Retrieved from https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/child-brain-development-and-social-media