The essay entails watching a full documentary concerning the aspect of children growing up with gadgets. It seeks to illustrate how technology impacts the social development of children. Based on the documentary, the paper illustrates how the observed impact of technology looks to some studied theories. Also, it analyses both positive and negative developmental consequences of such noted technology it has to the various studied approaches. Also, the essay focuses on implications as a result of online bullying and its impacts on the tween's development. More so, it explains how society should act to prevent online bullying.
How Might Technology, Including Social Media, Impact The Social Development Of Children And Tweens?
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Technology and social media have both positive and negative impacts the lives of children and tweens. They influence the social development of children and tweens in many ways. Technology and social media dramatically educate both children and tweens. In the event, they have an opportunity to obtain answers to any questions they seek to handle since technology provides answers to all questions at their fingerprints. More so, they are encouraging children to participate in doing research regardless of their age ("What Impact Will Growing Up With Technology Have On Today's Children?", 2016). As a result, they can synthesize their research and come up with suitable ideas that they can share with other peers across the world. They also engage and motivate children and tweens more powerfully. Such opportunities make children develop critical and creative thinking skills.
More so, technology and social media create outdoor experiences for children and tweens. For instance, technology offers more learning opportunities to many children who are exposed to gadgets at early stages. The aspect makes kids know the type of the world that is around them in broad perspectives (Greenfield, 2014). As a result, they develop a sense of caring what surrounds them and the entire world. Through technology, Emma gets an opportunity of seeing a waterfall at an early age which she had never seen.
What Might This Impact Look Like In Some Of The Various Theories We Have Studied So Far?
The impact of exposing tweens and children to technology may appear quite significant in some of the theories that have been studied so far. For example, it breaks the theory into configured combinations to replace the need of school curriculum (Allen et al., 2014). It also looks like an extended way of improving learning among the children. Its focus is to ensure children are well conversant with the modern world at their early stages. By so doing, the children will grow with better learning skills and abilities, and hence they will become innovative and more creative in the future.
What Are The Potential Positive And Negative Developmental Consequences Of This Type Of Technology For The Various Theories We Have Studied So Far?
Such kind of technology and social media improves and intensifies the practice of the already studied theories. Technology helps in establishing a constructivist and reform based methods to improve teaching and learning. More so, technology acquaints the theories with a clear understanding of how they should perceive the world today when it comes to education. For instance, social media is supporting the theories positively so that they can make a measurable difference in the achievements of children and tweens as much as learning is concerned (Allen et al., 2014). As a result, it is quite easy for children to perform subskills that require lower levels automatically. Some of the theories assert that children levels of thinking take place in four sequential stages. However, due to the emerging of technology, children are now thinking almost in the same way as adults since their early childhood.
Also, technology is expanding how theories define social developments of children. In today's world, children have improved social brains. It makes some of the theories to emerge more relevance in explaining the social development of the tweens and children (Allen et al., 2014). Technology brings the notion that the social development of a child is dependent on how children interact with social media to mediate their knowledge.
On the other hand, the potential negative impact of technology on the social development of children based on social cognition theory is quite significant. The perception predicts the fact that technologies are the key source of immorality among the kids. More so, they influence the language pattern of the child. For example, perceptual mechanisms such as auditory input make children develop language challenges especially when they interact with modern technologies (Salmela-Aro et al., 2017). The use of technology is such a manner hinders children from precipitating in outdoor games.
Discuss the Implications of Online Bullying, Including How This Specific Form of Bullying Impacts Tween Development in Ways Not Known to Previous Generations
Online bullying causes emotional and psychological distress among learners. As a result, the child experiences fear anxiety as well as low self-esteem. Sometimes, as the children strive to overcome online bullying, they find themselves at a position where they feel the society is against them. It also makes children feel as if they are vulnerable and powerless. For instance, the victims of online bullying at most times are not free, and hence they feel unsafe and unworthy to live (Slavtcheva-Petkova, Nash & Bulger, 2015). Most disappointing is that online bullying makes kids angry about everything that is happening to them. Therefore, they begin to plan for revenge which finally puts them into retaliation.
Online bullying has a lot of negative impacts on the development of tweens. Most of the bullied tweens develop negative physical and mental challenges. It also increases depression and increased loneliness among the kids (Patterson, Allan & Cross, 2017). At times, the bullied kid may develop eating and sleeping challenges. More so, they may lose interest in some of the activities they participated in creating their joy. Such problems may even persist until the child becomes an adult.
Online bullying also affects the academic performance of the kid in a negative way. It decreases tween's academic achievement as well as the general school participation. Some of them may decide to skip, miss and even drop out of the school. Others may choose to revenge by engaging themselves into extremely violent measures. There have been cases where bullied tweens are the main leaders when it comes to the burning of schools.
What Can We Do As A Society To Prevent Online Bullying?
Society can prevent online bullying in several ways. Among the key measures the society should take into action to overcome online bullying is to involve tweens in motivational talks. The conversation must involve some critical inquiries. For example, it should seek to understand whether the child is aware of online bullying, who is bullied, and what should they do immediately they are bullied (Canty et al., 2016). Another way society should observe to overcome online bullying is to ensure that all online activities are well monitored. Luckily enough, online services provide an opportunity where someone can see and save the bullying scenarios and use them as evidence. More so, the parents and children should merge to send a unified campaign against online bullying.
Conclusion
Technology including social media has a lot of impact on the social development of children and tweens. For example, technology enables children and tweens to increase their innovative, creativity and thinking skills. Additionally, technology has both positive and negative impacts in various theories that concern the social development of a child. Therefore, before exposing children to any form of technology, it is necessary to analyze the merits and demerits they have to the development of the child. To some point, technology is associated with online bullying to children. Such online bullying influences the development of tweens at substantial levels. Therefore, society needs to seek better ways that can prevent online bullying.
References
Allen, K. A., Ryan, T., Gray, D. L., McInerney, D. M., & Waters, L. (2014). Social media use and social connectedness in adolescents: The positives and the potential pitfalls. The Educational and Developmental Psychologist, 31(1), 18-31.
Canty, J., Stubbe, M., Steers, D., & Collings, S. (2016). The Trouble with Bullying–Deconstructing the Conventional Definition of Bullying for a Child ‐ centred Investigation into Children's Use of Social Media. Children & Society, 30(1), 48-58.
Greenfield, P. M. (2014). Mind and media: The effects of television, video games, and computers. Psychology Press.
Patterson, L. J., Allan, A., & Cross, D. (2017). Adolescent bystander behavior in the school and online environments and the implications for interventions targeting cyberbullying. Journal of school violence, 16(4), 361-375.
Salmela-Aro, K., Upadyaya, K., Hakkarainen, K., Lonka, K., & Alho, K. (2017). The dark side of internet use: two longitudinal studies of excessive internet use, depressive symptoms, school burnout and engagement among Finnish early and late adolescents. Journal of youth and adolescence, 46(2), 343-357.
Slavtcheva-Petkova, V., Nash, V. J., & Bulger, M. (2015). Evidence on the extent of harms experienced by children as a result of online risks: implications for policy and research. Information, Communication & Society, 18(1), 48-62.
What Impact Will Growing Up With Technology Have On Today's Children?. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHOsy6JgxL8
