Technology forms the centre of our lives today, especially for children. Rightly so, but it has its own share of risks and benefits. Boundaries on kids’ interaction with technology must be drawn. Balance is essential

Today’s generation is digital native. They are born in an era of technology and connectivity. However, the amount of time children spend on electronic gadgets and social media these days is becoming a cause of concern. It is not to sound alarmist. Of late, prominent shareholders of the Silicon Valley companies are asking these questions. The steady creeping of technology into our personal lives has stirred the debate globally, especially on the young and impressionable minds of the children. We cannot outsource the problem anymore.

Technology is hurting children in more subtle ways than one. There is a growing fear that this kind of prolonged usage and exposure at such young age is leading to self-focused aspirations, attention-mongering and craving for ‘likes’ — a culture perpetuated by social media, inaccurate ideas regarding self-image and fame. It is linked to an increase in distraction levels, learning impairment and decrease in writing skills among children.

Pediatric and mental health experts in the United States have called on Facebook to abandon the messaging service the company has introduced for children. There are groups that have sounded alarmed about an app, YouTube kids, a product aimed at children. The job of filtering and flagging the content is left to the discretion of the audience (read children).

Children have become a lucrative market for these powerful technology companies. What’s disturbing is that they are now targeting children as young as six years to condition them and build their addiction towards technology. They are getting children hooked to the devices way too early.

Social and psychological impacts on these impressionable minds will only appear over a longer time horizon. At times, it takes an entire generation to comprehend the deeper social and psychological ramification of technology addiction and the mindless and passive media consumption it fuels. While studying the effects of social media and technology on the society is still an emerging field, there are interesting parallels from several communications studies conducted globally on the impact of television on children.

While television entertains and informs, it is also known to leave behind many undesirable influences on children. The ‘pester power’ of children is a well-recognised and dominant force created by television. Television advertisements for junk food, fast foods and toys continue to influence young minds. Gender stereotypes portrayed in television programmes also distort their worldviews. While there is no denying the fact that there are general educational benefits of television too — they get to learn many aspects of life and the world they would not otherwise become aware of.

According to some research studies, reading a newspaper has a positive correlation with the academic skills of children, irrespective of their gender or socio-economic status but the same is not true when it comes to viewing television programmes. The depiction of on-screen violence and concepts of superheroes and crimes create impressions in the young minds.

For instance, the innocuous-looking cartoon shows and the perennial slugfest between Tom and Jerry sends a certain message. They get the idea that violence is a fun thing to indulge in and it is a doorway to power. There is enough evidence that suggests that children may become aggressive towards others and less insensitive to pain and suffering of others.

It cannot be denied that adults keep reminding themselves every now and then to ‘be here now’ as they struggle to keep their phones away. Imagine how big a deal it would be for children to cope up with this issue at their level, let alone consider it as a problem. The urge to check their phones aimlessly and many times as an escape route from boredom needs more parental and social interventions.

It is by now evident that there are several side-effects of technology and phones leading to addiction, dwindling face-to-face socialisation, endless distractions and deskilling. Deskilling because nowadays children find taking notes on paper antiquated. They believe that they don’t have to necessarily memorise information which they can find easily on Google. They do not have to dig for information anymore and it has made them accustomed to getting swift and easy answers.

Due to this, their learning is getting impaired in some way or the other. Therefore, mind-expanding critical thinking and enquiry increasingly becomes an outdated method of learning.

The need of the hour is to release them from the shackles of such passive media consumption habits and put them on a regime that is both balanced, more interpersonal and also intellectually stimulating.

Ongoing studies on technology-fueled media consumption habits and their effects suggest that we process information better when we take notes by hand.

Seemingly, writing and not typing helps one learn and retain information better. Likewise, people understand better when they read on paper than viewing on screen. For example, people struggle to remember story plots when they read on electronic gadgets rather than a printed book.

Perhaps we can’t be more grateful that in our times we didn’t have Facebook or any other social media; and other technologies. At least our parents had one thing less to worry about.

Ultimately, how much of it is necessary and how much is avoidable is an open question. Similarly, this is not to discount that technology is enabling children’s exposure to a vast array of information but not necessarily knowledge, which is essentially a mediated process of meaning-making and sense-making procedure.

We need to invent our own ways to persuade our children and negotiate — how much technology and social media is indeed required in our children’s lives.

(The writer is a communications and management professional with cross-sectoral experience)