Technology and Education #1 – Social Skills Development

Hello everyone! For my civic issues blog, I am going to write a series about the increase in the use of technology in education and, more specifically, some of the significant impacts and tradeoffs regarding physical and emotional health, children’s social development and learning, and lack of access to technology for educational purposes. In this first blog post, I would like to tackle the issue of the effect that an increase in technological communication has on the development of social skills, especially in young children.

In the past several years, the use of technology in education has grown tremendously, in terms of online learning platforms, student-teacher communication, peer communication, note-taking, and digital assignment submission, and much more. Just in the past few years the use of technology for educational purposes has expanded rapidly, amplified especially by needs surrounding the Covid-19 outbreak and remote learning. The question is, what kind of impact is this fundamental change having on children and the “normal” development of social and communicative skills? Many research studies have been conducted to address this very topic.

It has long been held as a common and scientifically proven belief that face-to-face interactions form healthy social skills. Body language such as facial expressions, posture, eye contact, positioning, and tone of voice are all important aspects of verbal communication. They help to accurately convey the speaker’s intent as well as form deeper emotional connections between people. The problem with the immense increase in technological communication rather than face-to-face communication today is that, for the most part, it lacks most of these important cues. For example, text messages convey only the base layer of communication – words. Without the facial expression, tone, and inflection to accompany the message, the words are left entirely up to the receiver’s interpretation. This could lead to potentially tragic miscommunications between individuals that do not reflect the speaker’s true intent.

According to a 2010 study cited in an article on the website, “Junior Learning,” texting has become the primary form of communication for teens and pre-teens. Fast forward 12 years to today, where the age of children communicating via text messages and other online platforms is becoming younger and younger. It is no wonder that this is affecting children’s social development; during these crucial years where children learn how to interact with others and form meaningful relationships, they often lack opportunities to develop social skills. This is only exacerbated when, in the classroom, teachers utilize online platforms for communication between students or between teachers and students. For example, many online learning platforms utilize a “discussion post” function to replace in-class discussion. Rather than sharing meaningful conversation about a specific topic or presenting ideas to a class face-to-face, students now turn to typing their ideas into a class forum and “responding” to others via a post online. This almost destroys the ability to convey ideas accurately, deliberate on topics meaningfully, and receive instant feedback or opposing points of view, all important aspects of conversation.

Another issue regarding the increase in educational technology and social development is the impact of feelings of social disconnection on children and adolescents. In a classroom even 10 or 20 years ago, students were always interacting with each other, whether by working together in groups, playing games on the playground, eating and laughing together at lunch, riding the bus together, or just being around each other day-to-day. However, today, even though students are still physically sitting in the classroom and the lunchroom together, they are not as present as they once were. Groups share a google doc to work on their parts of a project separately, kids play games on iPads at recess, listen to music or scroll through social media on the bus, and are constantly distracted checking their various devices throughout the school day. This can produce feelings of loneliness and isolation for many students, as they are more focused on what’s on the screen rather than what is going on around them. According to “Qustodio,” studies show that teens who report the highest amount of screen time tend to have the highest rates of loneliness and depression. When children and teens are not as engaged with their peers around them, they are not forming as strong of friendships and relationships, which can lead to the development of other mental and emotional issues.

Not only does the increase in technological communication affect the forming of relationships and verbal communication, but it also has an impact on the development of other social skills, especially in small children. The less time spent interacting with others, the less toddlers and very young children learn about how to interact effectively with others. In particular, studies show that more screen time can lead to more disruptive behavior, such as bullying, bossiness, or impoliteness. This makes sense, as children who spend less time interacting with not only other children, but parents, teachers, and other figures of authority in their lives learn less about the proper ways to treat others. This can form bad social habits from a young age and just lead to more disruption and disorder in the classroom.

Verbal communication cues, relationships, and social skills are only a few social skills on which the stark rise in technology in education is having a negative impact. As the use of the internet and electronic devices continue to grow and develop in today’s society, we must be wary of the effects it can have on children’s development. In the educational setting in particular, teachers and schools must find ways to continue engaging their students in face-to-face conversations and connections, paying more attention to real-life than what’s behind the screen. Although the global pandemic has largely caused a shift to remote and online educational models, we must find a way to not make those impacts a “new normal;” it is more important now than ever to instill good communication and social skills in the next generation.

Sources:

The Impact of Technology on Social Skills – Junior Learning USA

How does technology affect children’s social development? | Qustodio

10-apps-for-parents-to-monitor-kids-mobile-use_feature.jpg (1200×797) (familyeducation.com)

Handheldlifhack.jpg (1600×1200) (lifehack.org)

phone_mobile_education_school_kids_learning.jpg (1000×500) (mytechdecisions.com)