Parenting children of today’s generation comes with a unique set of challenges due to the many recent advancements in technology. It’s important for parents to be mindful of how their children use technology and the potential effects—both positive and negative.
Negative
Impacts
Technology can negatively affect children’s developing
social skills, and relationships.
• Social skills: With the
increased use of technology, children might not be developing their social
skills. This can lead to more children being socially awkward, withdrawn, shy,
or intimidated by social situations. They might not know how to engage with
other children or adults. Developing social skills takes practice, and if
technology is often in the way, there are fewer opportunities for kids to
develop these skills.
• Relationships: Children might get
used to being alone and lose the desire to engage with their parents or even
friends, outside of the internet. Often the virtual reality of their devices is
more appealing and entertaining than the physical reality.
Positive
Impacts
There are also many
ways in which technology can positively impact our lives and those of our
children—it all depends on how the technology is being used.
• Organization: Technology
can be beneficial to organization and planning. For example, families can keep
an online calendar to make it easier to stay updated on each other’s schedules.
Group text messaging is also convenient for streamlining communication and
keeping everyone in the loop.
• Research and critical thinking:
The internet provide access to a great deal of information and resources to
help children learn about different topics. This is helpful for school projects
or for researching areas of interest.
Good information! Referring to another blog post I read about smartphones, I think technology is great and bad at the same time. This blog outlines it pretty much. Socializing has become large scale but I feel it's missing that element that you get with face to face interaction. So many people do get enveloped in technology such as using my laptop for homework or playing videos etc. We no longer spend quality time with our loved ones and not reach for our smartphones to check an app. It's quite sad when we take step back and allow ourselves to reflect on the times where we had that meaningful interactions without technology. So technology definitely has its positives but we need to come up with a happy medium.
ReplyDeleteYour post is definitely my post! Both the negative impact and positive impact is how I feel about technology. I don't want to say that I was always against technology for kids, but I didn't like always seeing other kids and their parents or guardians glued to their phones or tablets. I am a first-time single mom, and it's hard to keep your child entertained these days! Even for myself, when I spend time with my daughter and have meals with her as a family, I will put away my phone, but tend to reach for it just because I'm bored. The parents should be responsible for changing the negative impact, and that is what I plan to do with my daughter.
ReplyDeleteAeysha,
ReplyDeleteGreat topic! I think people tend to sit their kids in front on something to get them chill out. At a point they become dependent on the devices and causes problems in the long run.