Digital technology use among children has increased rapidly over the past few years, leading to serious concerns of how the hours spent on digitally-arbitrated interests may impact the children either in positive or negative ways. Certainly, digital technology presents various potential values to early childhood students enabling them to link to their fellows or reach out to educational materials or entertainment. Meanwhile, there are genuine concerns around which children relate with digitally, if they undergo cyber-bullying or contact content suitable for their age, or be it screen-based interaction may influence their well-being as well as social development. Despite the fact that adults also greatly use digital technology, worries tend to focus on the children’s use due to the several cognitive, social, emotional, and biological developments that symbolize this particular life period. They tend to experience significant growth phases, such as setting formation and creating healthy relationships while engrossed in the digital age.
Recent studies have indicated that children today spend more time with their digital devices including cell phones and computers than they do with their peers, which have often resulted in them missing out on crucial social experiences. However, others argue that the impacts are insignificant as they still manage to relate like before only that the venues for social interaction that is changed (O'Keeffe & Clarke-Pearson, 2011). Since contact and friendships with mates are key for the improvement of life-long public abilities, there are questions of whether children’s social abilities could by some means be changed or adversely influenced when numerically interceded. This leads to an improved societal interest that children may miss out in vital life stages as they spend long hours on the screens. In this context, the digital age has presented new challenges for parents who experience the demanding duty of achieving an equilibrium between tolerating liberated consideration and giving suitable restrictions and supervision.
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Background
The reviewed information indicates that reasonable use of digital technology proved to be important for children’s psychological health, while failure to use or extreme use can present a slight negative effect. In the debatably healthiest review to date, it was established that these positive and negative influences were so minimal and not as significant as other aspects identified to be of value to children’s emotional wellness (Burger, 2010). This is as per the results from a meta-analysis of a group of both children and adults, where an insignificant negative impact of the use of digital technology on well-being was stated. In this respect, several other scholars indicate that to develop children psychological wellness, it is more imperative to emphasize on other aspects such as socio-economic status, societal dynamics, and overall family functioning, while also confirming that children use the internet in reasonable extents.
Positive findings are mostly realized from the usage of digital technology in regards to children’s social interactions to a point that consensus may be attained. Children’s social interactions are facilitated via digital technology which they employ to enrich their prevailing relationships and remain in touch with friends, while those who limited social investment from the start may utilize it to counteract for this and shape progressive relationships (Blackwell, Lauricella, Wartella, 2013). While former studies revealed signs of certain adverse effects, these appear to have greatly been reduced, because the leader of a child’s social sphere is present online. Nevertheless, research in this field from time to time attempts to evaluate children’s time use properly, as it is challenging to establish when one is socializing online and for what time, provided that majority of the children have near continuous access. As a result, further studies are recommended to assess the potentially damaging impacts of impassively browsing social networking platforms, since this might turn children resentful of other individual’s prudently constructed online personalities, possibly resulting to feelings of insufficiency.
Screen time is sometimes linked to a decline in physical activity. However, this relationship is as well regarded not to be directly due to the fact that decreasing screen time will not certainly encourage kids to set more time on physical activity. It has been indicated that already dormant children may expend long hours handling digital technology, which could enlighten why some studies have established a negative relationship between physical activity and screen time (Heckman, 2007). While improved evaluates of screen time and time use, in general, are needed to improve studies in this field, it would be useful in the future to focus on whether or not decline in screen time result to raises in bodily exercise. If this is not the case, as indicated by some studies, it would be useful inquiring how children can be inspired to set much time on the physical activity, regardless of the hours they use on online technology.
Reacting to the concern of the increased digital technology use among children, researchers have discovered how the time children spend exhausting digital technology influences their lives through various areas (Blackwell, Lauricella, Wartella, 2014). During the course of the past twenty years, private research examinations have revealed that improved use of digital technology might present some damaging effects on children’s general health, ranging from public health problems to physical health including obesity and depression respectively. Notably, teachers, parents as well as other individuals concerned with children’s well-being and health increasingly pay attention to children who spend more hours on digital technology. On the other hand, these parties seem to be confused by the absence consensus on whether or not this is good for the children. This misunderstanding is clear not only amid parents in developed countries but also in emerging nations where children are gradually getting access to digital technology. For instance, research statistics obtained from the Swedish Media Convention reveal how parents with easy access to digital technology contemplate digital gaming a major asset in their kid’s lives, presenting them with several chances to gain, although all the same they regard online gaming as one of their chief foundations of anxiety, frightened that children may perhaps use a lot of time playing.
The analysis has studied data on the effect of time spent on digital technology use by children’s health through three various scopes including social, psychological and physical. The literature review established less provision for the shift hypothesis, which suggests that the damage created by internet use is relative to exposure (Burnett & Cathy, 2010). Even though time used on digital technology does, to some point, consume time away from other events, which in certain conditions such as times of huge amounts of school assignment can be challenging, contemporary information does not indicate in case this pose have any significant or wide-ranging influence on early childhood students in the health scopes examined here. While many studies have been done, the majority undergo conceptual, theoretical or procedural restrictions, which results in unreliable findings in regard to giving concrete data of the effect. The information foundation is inadequate and to this extent inappropriate for sustaining procedure or involvements. As a result, recommendations including adjustment on evaluations of children digital engagement are poised to expand the quality and consistency of studies and discussion in this subject.
Purpose Statement
The purpose of this review is to study data on the effect of time spent on internet use by children’s health through three various scopes including social, psychological and physical. The literature evaluation established less provision for the shift hypothesis, which suggests that the damage created by internet use is relative to exposure. Even though time used on internet technology does, to some point, consume time far from other events, which in certain conditions such as times of huge amounts of class assignment can be challenging, contemporary information does not indicate in case this will have present any significant or wide-ranging influence on early childhood students in the health scopes examined here. According to van Deursen, van Dijk and Peter (2015), while many types of research have been done, the majority undergo conceptual, theoretical or procedural restrictions, which results in unreliable findings in regard to giving concrete data of the effect.
Research Question
The leading research question presented in this review is: How does the time spent by early childhood students on digital technology influence their well-being?
Since children’s well-being is a complicated notion without commonly accepted dimension, one collective method to hypothesizing early childhood well-being is to deliberate it as a multi-dimensional model, ranging from social, physical and psychological, dimensions. The research question is further broken down into capacities including;
i.) How does digital technology affect early childhood students’ social interactions?
ii.) How does digital technology affect early childhood students’ psychological wellness?
iii.) How does digital technology influence early childhood students’ involvement in physical activities?
Even though early childhood student well-being with respect to digital technology has been investigated through various individual and actual measures, any positions to child well-being in this article denote the self-reported, individual well-being if not specified otherwise.
Research Hypothesis
Studies on much time usage and indulgence contend with definitely diverse problems, but researchers usually merge them. Whereas both subjects emphasize to some extent on the relationship between time use and negative results for the early childhood children, the addiction perception is driven by the fundamental hypothesis that extreme consumption of digital technology may be triggered by an addictive condition, instead of being motivated by attraction or involvement (Robins, Dautenhahn, Te Boekhorst, & Billard, 2005). Similarly, the addiction perception assumes a binary method where a child either develops an addictive condition or not and where the existence of disorder constantly results in damaging consequences. In contrast, the evaluation of time use suggests the time early childhood students devote to digital technology on a range where certain damaging effects can cohabit with advantages. That researchers merge these perceptions have resulted in theoretical works in this area of studies and in the communal address, which has been acknowledged and debated by the various population of scholars in recent decades.
Methods
While reacting to the key research question, a data-based literature evaluation was conducted by illustrating some of the core values of a methodical assessment, while still creating an opportunity for consideration and analysis. The review incorporated literature issued between 2005 and 2018. This time limit includes the phase when digital technology became accessible for daily consumption by children in Western cultures and consistent use developed into a habit. The search approach included three step-by-step methods including, a scholarly literature exploration for peer-reviewed periodical editorials via the records, Google Scholar, PubMed, and PsycINFO (van Deursen et al., 2015). The classification of three various professionals employed in the discipline succeeded by an email discussion to determine their understanding of and retrieval to additional literature, and references for further sources such as a snowballing method. Surfing the recommendation list of empirical articles established through the first and second procedures for extra relevant journals.
Search lines in regard to the three subjects of concern were employed in the catalog search. Search lines that were applied included, children internet use and well-being, early childhood student digital technology and wellbeing, digital media and childhood online technology and well-being or wellbeing or social* or physical* or interaction*, online media* or digital * and adolescent* or early childhood students and wellbeing or interaction* or bodily* or public* (Burnett & Cathy, 2010).
The findings for every exploration line were grouped by significance where there is potential, or else they were categorized by time and examined for significance to the three research sub-questions. Findings from the initial ten sheets of every search device were incorporated (Burger, 2010). If picked, the review was classified in terms of subjects such as physical activity, social interaction, and psychological wellness. Lateral reviews, first-hand reviews, and meta-analyses were involved. Non-experimental articles including literature reviews were omitted to prevent dependence on resultant information sources. Only studies of early childhood students aged between 0-18 inclusive were counted in the conclusive collection. Reviews that employed addiction dimensions or required a statistic for time spent on digital technology were left out.
An aggregate of 305 exclusive peer-reviewed periodical reviews was recognized in the literature exploration (Blackwell et al., 2013). Among them, 228 were omitted as they included the incorrect question or required statistics for time spent. Ten editorials were disqualified for being journals of the literature while forty-five editorials were omitted as they considered the adult group. An aggregate of near pieces was reserved in regard to the catalog examination, conforming to 6.7 percent of the complete number of articles obtained in the journal. While each attempt was completed to acquire an extensive range of material of potential significance to the study problems, it was predicted that realizing inclusive analysis would be improbable through catalog explorations only.
Analysis
A transverse study of early childhood students aged 13-18 indicated that while time spent on digital knowledge did decrease the number of hours youths spent relating to their guardians, it did not really cut the value of the guardian-child interaction. While time expended by means of a computer to study was connected to spending less time with families, better commitment to digital interaction turned to support friendships. The progressive connection among network contact and friendship characteristic or public investment has been created in different transverse studies both of adolescents, children and young adults. For instance, Robins et al., (2005) established that unreserved people were inclined to self-disclose and converse online more repeatedly compared to their introvert counterparts, which enhanced their onscreen friendships. Simply put, there are appropriate bases to trust that it is possible to discuss individual or subtle topics online, which would explain certain constructive relations kept between online interaction and social relationships. Related results as well developed from qualitative research.
References
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Blackwell, C.K., Lauricella, A.R., Wartella, E. (2014). Factors influencing digital technology use in early childhood education. Computers & Education , Volume 77, Pages 82-90
Burger, K. (2010). How does primary childhood care and learning influence cognitive development? A global review of the outcomes of early interventions for children from different collective families. Early Childhood Research Quarterly , 25 (2), 140-165.
Burnett, Cathy. (2010). Technology and literacy in early childhood educational settings: A review of research. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy . Volume: 10 issue: 3, page(s): 247-270
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O'Keeffe, G. S., & Clarke-Pearson, K. (2011). The influence of social broadcasting on kids, teenagers, and families. Pediatrics , 127 (4), 800-804.
Robins, B., Dautenhahn, K., Te Boekhorst, R., & Billard, A. (2005). Robotic assistants in therapy and learning of kids with autism: can a minor humanoid robot aid foster social relations abilities. Universal Access in the Data Society , 4 (2), 105-120.
van Deursen, A. J., van Dijk, J. A., & Peter, M. (2015). Increasing inequalities in what we do online: A longitudinal cross-sectional study of Internet actions between the Dutch people (2010 to 2013) over sex, stage, education, and revenue. Telematics and informatics , 32 (2), 259-272.
