My 15-year old sister was just telling me about how her freshman class was issued Chromebooks for the academic year. My 11-year old brother knows more about computers and research than how to master Type-2-Learn. Even my 7-year old brother now has access to i-Pads in his classroom. For those of you that don’t have younger siblings, just take a second to think that through. This trend isn’t unheard of in schools today, but the use of technology such as tablets and laptops is becoming increasingly more popular in the K-12 setting today.
It’s funny how the term ‘screen time’ only referred to time watching the television when we were kids. How times have changed. Since the days of Clifford the Big Red Dog, technology has developed at an exponential rate. Laptops, tablets, and smartphones have emerged as seemingly essential household items to the average American family. I actually have to stop and think about how many of each of these items exists in my home. With increased accessibility to these technologies, don’t we have to step back and question ourselves? If 10-year-olds t
oday are carrying around phones of their own, what is it going to look like when our generation has 10-year-old kids? Doesn’t this dramatic change in technology use seem like it could take a dangerous turn? Or has it already?
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the average time an American child spends looking at a screen each day has risen from five hours to seven and a half hours over the span of only 17 years. This increase is tremendous, and a study was conducted to understand what implications these numbers have on the youth of today. Research has shown that some of the negative impacts of technology on children include depression, anxiety, or aggression.
In this study, researchers recruited 615 parents to learn more about the technology habits of their children and the potentially negative implications. The children studied ranged in age from 3 years to 17 years and were split up evenly into three groups: young childhood (3-7 years), middle childhood (8-12 years), and adolescents (13-17 years). After responding to a set of questions about their technology-related parenting strategies, parents were also asked about how much screen time they allowed their children. Finally, parents were asked about the internal and external problems of their children. Over the course of this study, researchers discovered that internalizing and externalizing behaviors positively correlated with the about of screen time they were allowed by their parents. The results differed slightly between the three age groups, but overall the study found that the more time spent on screened devices, the more behavioral problems arose.
There are a number of other factors or confounding variables that could play into the results of this study. Some of these include the views of the parents on technology use, the amount the parents use technology themselves, and several other demographic factors. The study took many of these demographic factors into account including marital status, parental age, parental education, household income, and demographic information regarding the child being studied.
I don’t believe that technology is a bad thing, rather I believe that any good thing used out of moderation can easily become bad. Laptops, tablets, and other forms of modern technology can absolutely promote learning, especially in children. However, when a third-grader spends more hours in a day staring at a bright screen rather than playing outside, I think a line can be drawn and a conclusion can be made that technology can only be beneficial to a certain degree.
I was a day camp counselor this summer. There was a policy in effect at the camp, and it was made a “No Phone Zone.” At my week-long staff training event, we were actually asked to read multiple articles that suggested screen time, especially under the age of about two, was detrimental to the health of children. It was said to have slowed brain development among other things. The directors of the camp were very serious about this policy and no camper or counselor was allowed to be seen with technology on grounds unless it was an emergency. This Huffington Post Article by Cris Rowan explores some of the physical and mental health problems associated with technology use in young children.
Screen time is a huge debate in the human development world (I’m an hdfs major) even though most research shows screen time negatively affects development. Nowadays we give babies and toddlers ipads and let them watch tv instead of interactively playing with or teaching them. How often do you walk into a restaurant and see a toddler being entertained at the table by an ipad. It’s sad to see when the screen time recommended for children under 2 is 0. I know people disagree on the issue, but personally and when I go into a career in my field I’ll definitely discourage screen time.