Technology has been an extremely influential medium in our lives. It has ingrained itself deeply into our countries, politics, social life, and our new generations. Ionel Pintilii takes on the topic of the influence of technology and the internet on a child’s life in his article “Pleading Against Excess of Internet Utilization in Children and Young Ones”. Pintilii addresses that the addiction to the internet has become a way of living for us (84) while also adding that technology is “restricting considerably our ability to observe and of being observed and understood by those around us and by ourselves, finally, of having a normal behavior” (84). Pintilii then also talks about how on the internet friendly relations and flirtations are idealized more than in real life, additionally adding that such inclines us to even neglect those who are closest to us and relationships that we already cherish for one in the virtual world that seems more promising (85). Another point that is also made is that book reading in the curricula has become obsolete because of the simplicity of finding abstracts and commentaries with a simple command in a search engine. (Pintilii 85). Lastly, Pintillii addresses the major danger of the internet being pedophilia and child pornography. Pintillii adds to the view of this danger that “The most dangerous aspect of the messages with sexual connotation is that they may have serious consequences, such as harassment on the Internet or blackmailing with the content of the messages, which may be accessed by cybernetic offenders” (qtd, Patriciu et al., 1999) by then pointing out how children and teenagers become easy victims simply because they lack discernment, especially in younger ages where they can not appreciate the potential of such images, legally and emotionally, and how it affects their lives and family (86).
The internet may indeed have potential bad influences on a child or adolescent’s life, however, it too is also extremely influential in a good way towards their growth. One of the main concerns over the internet’s influence on a child is the effect on their social life. One may think that social media and mobile phones are cutting relationships in the real world and have “the child neglect already established relationships” (Pintilli 85). The latter however is not true, because social media has become a new way for children to connect and keep relationships with other people that they already know (Hatch 11). Hatch wrote an article titled “Determining the effects of Technology on children” where she examines the con and pros of technology and how it affected children. Hatch describes that this new form of communication mirrors children’s social lives outside of the internet (11). As an adolescent who is approaching adulthood soon and has had connections in social media, I can say that technology has not drawn us farther from our loved ones but much rather it has brought us closer. Not only have my relationships been strengthened but new ones have also sprung up and been reinforced too. Technology has broken the restriction of global positioning allowing anyone and everyone from wherever and whenever to connect with others from distant countries. The innovation of technology has broken the communication barrier helping distant relatives connect easily, especially those who are deployed in the military. Hatch also points out how technology has influenced children in low-income households to indirectly practice technical skills and that whether the child realizes it or not they are developing skills such as online communication, high-speed typing, and searching (11-12). Because of this indirect practice within social media, low-income household children gain the opportunity to make a better future for themselves.
When it comes to the matter of education and how can the implementation of technology ensure that the student is learning and acquiring academic knowledge, it can be slightly difficult to produce positive results because students can easily search for answers in Google. Pintillii has stated previously that reading books in the curricula has become obsolete because of search engines such as Google (85) and it has become true to a certain extent. The thing about Google is that it can not provide exact answers that a student is looking for, thus making the student have to think and read. In situations such as math, one can easily get the answer to an equation; at times however the answers provided do not help depending on the context of the assignment. A student may have to evaluate a short story, book, or poem over its meaning and relates to their thoughts or beliefs. An example would be the book Fahrenheit 451 in which the student would have to read and evaluate its meaning. The student may easily be able to Google the book’s meaning and its concept, but when the question is how does the book affects their beliefs and how they view things Google can not answer this; the student would have to read the book to understand it well. In Holy Carrell Moore’s article ‘Look what I made!’, an article where Moore talks about the creative use that technology has and how it can help, she uses the example of a prekindergarten classroom where a boy drew something that was prompted by an open-ended app. This sparked his classmate’s interest thus then his classmate referenced from his car drawing and both then eventually referenced from each other. This started the growth of their relationship from an interest (23-24). Technology when managed correctly can be used academically very well and increase a student’s academic understanding.
Finally, the biggest drawback of the use of technology is the risk that it imposes such as blackmailing, child pornography trafficking, harassment, human trafficking, and assault. Like how Pintilii stated before how direct messages involving sexual connotation can lead to one of the risks as stated before because children lack discernment towards the importance of such connotations (86). There are however ways to avoid these risks or at least reduce the chance of encountering them. Technology should not be disregarded simply because of the risk that it imposes because the matter of the fact is that technology has ingrained itself into our society making it is nearly impossible to get anywhere without technology. If a parent wanted to exclude technology from their child’s life then they would have to move and isolate themselves from society; it just is simply hard to not have technology in one’s life (Hatch 31). However, parents can impose methods to protect their children and teach them the risk of the internet. A good way is to advise the child over the risks and slightly be involved in their internet life. Moderation and a slight mix of parental control help a long way to ensuring that children are not being affected by the risk of the internet. As an adolescent, I say a slight inclusion of parental controls because from experience it is a bit annoying which leads me to think that parental controls should not be used except for its website filter to target mainly pornographic websites.
In essence, technology should not be disregarded from a child’s life simply because it is hard to do so and all the benefits that come from it. Yes, there are several problems with technology such as blackmailing, child pornography trafficking, and human trafficking but several of these problems exist because we do not understand how to properly handle them. Despite the risk, technology is here to stay and benefits children in their social life as it prepares them for adulthood, their education opening more opportunities for them, and it can all be done by proper management and parenting. By implementing simple parenting methods children can still be exposed to technology moderately benefiting their lives.
Works Cited
Hatch, Kristina E. “‘Determining the Effects of Technology on Children’ by Kristina E. Hatch.” DigitalCommons@URI, http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/srhonorsprog/260. Accessed 5 Oct. 2020.
Hatch in her article gives readers a look at the pros and cons of technology on children and how technology can be properly introduced into their lives instead of restricting or denying them the use of technology (31). “According to an
article in the Los Angeles Times discussing social media in the lives of children, technology may act as a way for children to develop and sustain emotional bonds with peers, as well as carve their own identity.”(10) “Whether children realize it or not, communicating with and navigating through social media sites is exposing them to an array of skills, such as online communication, high-speed typing, and searching.”(12)
Moore, Holly Carrell. “‘Look What I Made!’: Open-Ended Apps That Spark Creativity.” YC Young Children, vol. 72, no. 5, 2017, pp. 21–27. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/90015851. Accessed 8 Oct. 2020.
In Moore’s journal, she talks about how technology and the effect it has on children’s creativity, how children can expand their imagination to the digital world effortlessly, and share it with others building positive criticism and collaborative teamwork while all developing relationships through certain interests.
Pintilii, Ionel. “Pleading Against Excess of Internet Utilization in Children and Young Ones.” International Journal of Communication Research, vol. 7, no. 2, 2017, pp. 84-87.
The author makes the point first to parents, then children, and adolescents that the usage of the internet is toxic, harmful and causes behavioral changes (84) by giving examples of the several situations that minors can be included in such as conversations with sexual connotations especially ones with predators (86), and idealized online relationships (85).
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