Introduction
The human race has witnessed rapid development in technology, which has brought a revolution in how things happen. Unlike a few decades ago where most of the functions were manual, the modern world is automated and no one is immune to this technological advancement (Prout, 2005). With a touch of a button or a click on the mouse one can get so much work done in such a short time or even be exposed to endless and unlimited digitized information. Just like adults, children cannot escape the reality that the world is and will continue to witness greater technological advancements. This form of technology offers a completely new opportunity to explore the world in a faster manner meaning that children get ahead of themselves than their parents or grandparents did. Modern children have a chance of participating in creating and consuming technological information and applications, which allows for accelerated cognitive development (Prout, 2005). Governments around the world have realized the importance of digitized technologies and have gone to great lengths to ensure that the education systems incorporate them. While digitized technologies offer children a platform to have enriched cognitive development, it may as well impede it. The reason for this proposition is the fact that children are more likely to encounter content that is not age-appropriate as the digital space lacks filters. Anyone is free to open social media accounts, post information on websites, and even get into any digital platform of choice. At this point then, one cannot help but wonder whether digitized technologies help or harm children’s development.
Role of Digitized Technologies in Aiding Child’s Development
Modern technologies are crucial as they have the ability to increase cognitive skills in children who interact with them on day-to-day basis. According to Sigdel (2017), children who have access to quality digital education in their earliest years are more likely to have more year of education later on in life. In particular, this group of children is more likely to complete college as opposed to their counterparts who did not get a chance to acquire digitally supported education. The reason for this proposition is the fact that digitized technologies in education create a room for personal initiative in learning. Children do not have to wait for the teacher to tell them to learn, as they are aware that they can get endless and relevant educational content on the digital space (Paciga, & Donohue, 2017). The ability of children to determine their own reading patterns is a right step towards cognitive and emotional development. Children who decide what they want to learn even without the directions or influence of the teachers are independent. Apart from independence, children that interact with digitized technologies are able to form their own identities, have a high sense of self, and develop other personal strengths (Blake, Winsor & Allen, 2014). This transitions crucial in the life of a child as these are the personal skills that he or she will use while growing up and into adult life.
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Children are attracted to computers and any other digitized technologies as they are laden with compelling graphics and sounds. The nature of digitized technologies helps teachers and educators gain the attention of children which is critical in the teaching and learning processes (Knezek & Christensen, 2007). Apart from their appealing nature, digitized technologies allow for all kind of educational application such as MyTalk, iCommunicate, and EasyLexia among others (Cristia et al., 2012). These applications are quite interactive as compared to the teachers, which make learning so much easier and fun. An education system, which integrates these types of digital educational applications, is sure to enhance the learning process. In particular, these applications help children to enhance their recognition, communication, literacy, and interpretation skills. These skills are associated with cognitive development as the children learn to reach deep into their minds and retrieve what they already learned. Additionally, children experience social development owing to these technologies as they are in a better position to communicate with others as they make the right interpretations of the subject matter. This proposition cannot be truer when one considers that children with dyslexia have exhibited longer concentration spans as they focus on the screens (Skiada, Soroniati, Gardeli, & Zissis, 2014). This enhanced concentration has helped such children to learn how to solve mathematical problems as well as recognize objects. In this case, one can then conclude that digital technologies are crucial in enhancing cognitive development in all children with differentiated learning abilities.
Children stand to gain a lot from digitized technologies when it comes to their mental and social development. Children who consume content from digitized technologies in the form of smartphones, laptops, and tablets have a chance to develop problem-solving, critical thinking, and creative thinking skills. According to Clements and Sarama (2003), these technologies are quite complex when one focuses on the applications, commands, and software that make these technologies work. Be as complex they are, children can be able to crack them up in time, which is good for cognitive development. Their complexity does not hamper the children from using them but rather challenges them to find their way out of the learning process. This kind of challenges makes the child comes back to these technologies hoping that in time, they will be able to understand how they work. According to Zosh et al. (2016), in time, these children get their way around these technologies, which then contribute to a rapid and unprecedented cognitive development. To these children, nothing can stand in their way of getting the best that these forms of technologies have to offer. With time, children become masters of these technologies and they can harness to make their lives easier and meaningful.
Modern technologies are continuously undergoing changes, which have allowed for an increase in content that is availed to the users. For instance, take the case of social media platforms, which have millions of videos, information, and pictures on several subjects. The wide array of content allows children to gather insurmountable knowledge, which applies, to all aspects of a child’s life. A child who has a keen interest in geography will get enough information to spark its curiosity further. This form of curiosity that arises from digitized technologies is an important aspect of a child’s cognitive development. Apart from the internet based, technologies, children tend to spend most of their time in front of the television watching age-appropriate shows (Knezek & Christensen, 2007). These shows help the children to have an escalated view of their world as narrated by their favorite characteristics. The children do not just get entertained but they stand a chance to improve their expressive language skills and vocabulary. A study by Bavelier, Green, and Dye (2010) established that two-year-olds who constantly watch ‘Dora the Explorer’ reported increased vocabulary and language skills. Their favorite character Dora acts as the children role model as most of the children would like to be just like her. From this example, it is evident that digitized technologies push children to become the best they can be.
Digitized technologies play a significant role in aiding the emotional and social development of children. Unlike in the past where children remained confined to their homes and school something that reduced their circle of interactions, digitized technologies have opened a completely new world of possibilities. A child from America has an opportunity of making friends with another child from Asia, Europe, or Africa by simply logging onto a social media website of choice. This form of opportunity is priceless considering the child gets to understand the world in a new light, which helps the child to form independent views and perspectives. The ability to form independent views based on personal interactions is an important aspect of a child’s social development (Plowman, 2015). Apart from helping children in their social development owing to such interactions, digitized technologies help children to develop cognitively as they are able to understand their world better. The children will know where they stand and what they can do to create a better world for oncoming generations. Interaction with the outside world makes the children active participants something that heightens their emotional and cognitive development. In addition to this, it would true to assume that children with a wider global perspective thanks to digitized technologies are in a position to undergo meaningful social development. Even if these children were to move out of their counties or localities, they would be able to cope with the changes in the destination locality and country.
Role of Digitized Technologies in Harming Child’s Development
Digitized technologies have the ability to open up a completely different world not only for children but for adults as well. While digitized technologies are so fruitful, they may be the reason why children are not developing into what is expected. Digital technologies have no limit on the content that is available for its viewers something that creates a risky situation. If digital technologies have to benefit the child, parents, teachers, and other responsible adults have to be around to guide the children. In particular, most of the content is unfiltered meaning that children have access to all forms of content most of which are not age-appropriate. According to Canadian Paediatric Society, Digital Health Task Force (2017), even the content that passes itself up as age-appropriate is not always beneficial to the child. At this point, it is important to reiterate that children are impressionable and are likely to take everything they see as the truth while this may not always be the case. Most of the so-called age-appropriate content may have episodes of violence, discrimination, pornography, or gender-based stereotypes (Livingstone & Smith, 2014).Take the instance of many of Disney’s fairy tales, which features female characters including princesses. While the princesses or the female characters appear to be famous in their societies they represent weaker beings as they have to rely on male characters to accomplish their missions. These stereotypes pass down to the children who will develop socially knowing that women ought to be lesser beings. It would be difficult to get rid of these kinds of images even when they grow up.
The content in digital technologies such as internet-enabled smartphones and tablets, DVDs and televisions are very appealing thanks to camera tricks and bright color and sounds. It is for this reason that children may remain glued to the screens for hours on end. Once a child gets an attachment to the screens, they experience an interruption in their social lives. The children who used to play outside with their friends keep a distance from them as they find new digital friends. The children, who used to help around the house and thus develop socially, become passive consumers of digital technologies. According to Moser et al. (2015), this form of addiction slowly isolates the child from the real world and its realities. Instead, these children live in a utopian and a surreal world where they think that anything and everything is possible. For instance, they believe in the existence of super-beings that cannot die no matter how many times they face danger. Technically, what these technologies do is to alienate children both socially and emotionally from their world (Rowan, 2010). When these children get out into the real world, they seem to have lost touch with the world and this makes it difficult for them to cope. It is possible for these children to lag behind their peers in social and educational tasks.
Exposure to digital technologies’ content has the potential of hampering children’s psychosocial development for children aged two years and above. Several studies have been conducted to establish how long a child should sit in front of the television screen before presenting an impaired psychosocial development. According to Hamilton et al. (2016), infants who are younger, than 12 months should limit their screen time to less than 2 hours per day. Children who are exposed to more than two hours a day of television present significant language acquisition delays. The reason this is the case is the fact that it is easier to learn language actively while speaking to real people than while passively listening to television characters. For children who are between one and five years, seven hours of television per day is way beyond the accepted limit. According to Lauricella, Wartella, and Rideout (2015), children from this category who spend more than seven hours per day glued to the television are likely to present slowed language acquisition and use. Moreover, these children are more likely to have shortened attention spans and overall execution of age-appropriate tasks. The same is the case with e-books, which have become the modern norm as they have replaced the traditional storybooks. While e-books are the way to go, they work the same very as prolonged screen time as they come in the way of attention spans. According to Radesky, Schumacher, and Zuckerman (2015), e-books have animation and sound effects, which interfere with event sequencing and story comprehension. Instead of concentrating on the story, most children will shift their attention to the sound effects and animations.
Digital technologies have become the major marketing avenues for organizations, which want their products or services known to target customers in the recent past. While most of the marketing messages target the adults considering that they have the purchasing power and make purchasing decision children, see them too. On closer look, one would realize that most of these advertisements are food-related and the advertised foods are not healthy options (Garriguet et al., 2016). Imagine a scenario where the target audience is presented with unhealthy food options, which pass as healthy and appealing. It is most likely that children will refuse to take the healthy options at home such vegetables and fruits and instead desire to have the options that they saw on television or the internet. These advertisements allow for distorted physical development in the name of obesity. According to Vanderloo (2014), these advertisements encourage snacking which is known to increase the overall food intake. Apart from the food-related commercials, digital technologies contribute to ill health considering it allows children to live sedentary lives. A study conducted by Hingle and Kunkel (2012), revealed that 50 percent of children who spent only one hour of television were likely to be overweight. The reason for becoming overweight is that watching television is a passive activity, which allows for a build-up of body fat.
Recommendations
Digital technologies are here to stay and for this reason, it is important for concerned stakeholders to ensure that they improve the psychosocial development of children. In particular, it is important to harness the benefits that are associated with these technologies considering that they have the capability of harming children’s development. One way of ensuring that these technologies support children psychosocial development is by limiting the number of hours a child sits in front of the television screen or plays video games (Gentile et al., 2014). Moreover, it is important to use all the available filters as well as request more filters to ensure that children only interact with digital content that is age-appropriate. In this regard, it is important for parents, teachers, and guardians to be present during the viewing of the programs to monitor what the children are watching (Nathanson & Fries, 2014). In particular, the elders should be there to help the children to differentiate between what is real and what is not. The concerned parties should encourage children to spend most of their time in active play as opposed to spending time on digital technologies. Quality family time and active play a significant role in the development of essential life skills such as creative thinking, language, and self-regulation. However, to achieve these goals parents should minimize their own screen time and thus set a good precedent for the children to follow.
Conclusion
Modern technologies have brought a revolution in how the target audience creates passes and receive information. In particular, these technologies help individuals to access and send tons of information all in shortened periods. Children are part of this advancement as they are one of the largest segments that consume information that is associated with these technologies. Television screens, computer monitors, smartphones, and video games become part of children’s lives from the time they are born. Digital technologies help children to be in touch with many aspects of the world, which is crucial in their cognitive and social development. While digital technologies are capable of changing how people view their world and help children develop socially and cognitively, they are capable of harming them. Children who spend most of their time glued to the screen become passive which denies them the chance to participate in active play. In particular, it is possible that these children will fail to develop crucial life skills as they find themselves living in a utopian world offered by the screens. For this reason, it is important to harness the benefits that are associated with digital technologies while ensuring they do not corrupt the children when they are still young. Parents, teachers, and guardians should monitor children to ensure that they do not witness violent, stereotyped, pornographic, and graphic content. In this way, digital technologies will help in improve children’s psychosocial development and create a better version of the human race.
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