Sunday, December 6, 2015

Exposure to Too Much Technology Puts Children at Risk of Losing Interpersonal Relationships and Creativity

By Occupying Their Time With Entertainment Technology, Children Are Losing a Significant Amount of Interpersonal Interactions.            

According to The Future of Children journal by Princeton University, more than 20% of children between the ages of 8 and 18 report having a computer in their bedroom. This early relationship between children and technology has raised many concerns. Many studies have shown that the result of children interacting with technology too frequently is children losing creativity and the ability to determine the emotions of other people.

It is during the childhood years that people start building the foundation of their social skills. Because personal interactions are crucial in gaining social competence, there have been many concerns about children forming  electronic friendships ” with computers and other entertainment technologies. Creating “electronic friendships” arguably rob “children of time for other social activities” and interfere “with the development and maintenance of friendships”.


  According to Jacquelyn Gross, a graduate research assistant in developmental psychology at the University of Maryland, children need interpersonal interaction in order to learn. For example, when learning a new language, it is most effective to teach children through personal lessons rather than lessons on a television. Being highly social beings, children who play more with technology are at risk of not receiving the necessary social skills.

Technological activity in children has increased greatly overtime, and is continuing to increase at a rapid rate. According to a study in 1999, parents reported that their "children between ages 2 and 17 with access to home computers and video games spent an average of 4 hours 48 minutes per day with screen time”. Screen time is comprised of time spent watching TV, playing games consoles, using a mobile, computer or tablet. Another national survey also reported that children of ages 2 to 18 has an average screen time of 4 hours and 19 minutes per day, excluding computer use for schoolwork.


The time spent with technologically showed vary greatly by age; children between the ages 2 and 7 spent about 2 to 3 hours per day in front of a screen while children between the ages 8 and 13 spent nearly 6 hours per day in front of a screen. This increasing amount of time spent between children and entertainment technology decreases the amount of time children spend on organized sports and other social activities. As a result, the physical and social well being of children is degraded.

This hypothesis has been further supported by a study published in the journal, Computers in Human Behavior. The results of this study found that sixth-graders who went five days without exposure to technology were significantly better at reading human emotions than kids who had regular access to phones, televisions and computers.


Children growing up now in this day of age will never have known of a time without the Internet. This impressive fact undoubtedly creates a difference in how the future generations are raised and therefore, how they will behave socially.

Over The Past Decade, Researchers Have Found The Creativity of Children Decreased Significantly.

Child development relies highly on play. It has been known for decades through theories and research that children “learn though direct play and hands-on experiences with people, with materials, and in nature”. As Gross claims, using technology hinders children's abilities to create their own content and therefore hinders their chances to get creative. By finding entertainment through technology rather than finding entertainment through their own imagination, they have no reasons to get creative.


The crucial development of children through their first hand experiences is tampered with by their increasing interaction with technology. The market is currently flooding with electronic games for young children considering that “72% of iTunes’ top-selling “education” apps are designed for preschoolers and elementary school children”.

Creativity in children is created when they physically manipulate objects and exercise all their senses. Interaction with the 3-dimensional world is needed to maximize children’s learning and brain development. When children are constantly limited to the 2-dimensional worlds on their screens, they are lacking the needed resources to expand their creativity.

As a result of the increasing technological activity in children, there has been a significant decrease in creativity amount children, particularly from kindergarten through sixth grade. The researchers who reached these findings have been tracking the creativity of children for 50 years and explain that the decline is due to children’s decline in play.

As other researchers are finding that children’s creativity have dropped significantly, Kyung Hee Kim, a creativity researcher at the College of William and Mary, believes that the drop in creativity is associated with kids being reliant on electronic entertainment. Kim’s study tested back to the 1970’s and up to 2010.

He found that since 1990, children’s ability to create unique and unusual ideas has abated. He also found that children have been losing sense of humor, imagination, and ability to elaborate on ideas. Kim, who analyzed test scores of 300,000 adults and children, found that Americans' scores on measures of idea quality fell 3.7% from 1990 to 2008. Their scores on idea quantity fell 7% during the same period.

By becoming a less creative population, we are becoming less capable of solving big problems, developing breakthrough products and creating artistic works. To stop the decline in creativity for future generations to come, we must not only teach them to rely less on technology but also ourselves.  


With Knowledge That Too Much Screen-Time Affects the Social Skills of Children, Teachers and Parents Must Monitor Their Children’s Use of Technology

Technology is not a completely negative item, but because excessive usage of media is correlated with negative behavioral issues such as decreasing interpersonal relationships and creativity, it is necessary to create a “media diet” for children.


Children's behavior relies greatly on the behavior they witness from other people and modeling is a powerful. Gross claims that if parents and teachers want to limit their children's use of technology, they are going to have to limit themselves from technology in front of their children. Parents and teachers need to spend more time personally interacting with their children instead of occupying them with technology in order to create necessary social skills for their children.

Face to face interaction was and continues to be crucial in our evolution as species. So making sure children, and even adults, have enough social interaction is pertinent in maintaining a society of competent social beings. Obviously by drastically reducing face-to-face interaction, our social skills get reduced as well.

Babies need face-to-face interaction and need to speak with parents when learning about human interaction.  The American Academy of Pediatrics has warned for decades that screen time needs to be limited for children. The AAP’s most recent prescription claimed that entertainment screen time “should be limited to two hours a day for children ages 3-18 and, for 2-year-olds and younger, none at all”.

According to Marjorie Hogan, co-author of the AAP policy, digital media is not completely harmful and can be quite beneficial when used appropriately. However, it is necessary “to teach children how to make good choices around it, how to limit it” so it is not replacing the other needed physical activities that play a crucial role in child development.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

One My Interview Videos

Jacquelyn Gross is a graduate research assistant at the University of Maryland, working on her
M.A and Ph.D in developmental psychology.


Sunday, November 29, 2015

Exposure to Too Much Technology Puts Children at Risk of Losing Interpersonal Relationships and Creativity



By Occupying Their Time With Entertainment Technology, Children Are Losing a Significant Amount of Interpersonal Interactions.

According to one study, more than 20% of children between the ages of 8 and 18 report having a computer in their bedroom. This early relationship between children and technology has raised many concerns. Many studies have shown that the result of children interacting with technology too frequently is children losing creativity, patience and the ability to determine the emotions of other people. 

It is during the childhood years that people start building the foundation of their social skills. Because personal interactions are crucial in gaining social competence, there have been many concerns about children forming  “electronic friendships” with computers and other entertainment technologies. Creating “electronic friendships” arguably rob “children of time for other social activities” and interfere “with the development and maintenance of friendships”. Under this subhead, I will further discuss different studies that have come to this conclusion and include their data/statistics. I will also include background information about why childhood years are critical to their development and long-term behavior. I learned about this information from my sociology class so I know I can find solid evidence to back up this idea.

Over The Past Decade, Researchers Have Found The Creativity of Children Decreased Significantly.

Researchers are finding that children’screativity have dropped significantly. Kyung Hee Kim, a creativity researcher at the College of William and Mary, believes that the drop in creativity is associated with kids being reliant on electronic entertainment. Kim’s study tested back to the 1970’s and up to 2010. He found that since 1990, children’s ability to create unique and unusual ideas has abated. He also found that children have been losing sense of humor, imagination, and ability to elaborate on ideas.

“Interview Video Here”
1. Studies have indicated that excessive use of technology has diminished the creativity in children. Why do you think this is so?
2. At what age do you believe exposure to entertainment technology is acceptable and why?
3. How do you think parents and teachers can separate children from technology when many parents and teachers themselves are consumed with technology?

Under this subhead, I will include more studies that show the correlation between diminishing creativity and excessive technology usage. I will also add more details about the statistics and data graphics.

With Knowledge That Too Much Screen-Time Affects the Social Skills of Children, Teachers and Parents Must Monitor Their Children’s Use of Technology

In this section, I will discuss how technology is not a completely negative item, but because excessive usage of media is correlated with obesity, lack of sleep, issues in school, aggression and other negative behavior issues, it is necessary to create a “media diet” for children. I will also discuss the necessary limitations needed to give children the right balance between personal interactions and technology use, according to some studies and pediatricians. The link I provided offers advice for both parents and pediatricians from the American Academy of Pediatrics.