Category: Children and Technology

In recent years, the amount of people who own a mobile phone has skyrocketed, with 95% of households owning at least one since 2015, and a further 70% of children aged 5-16 having their own personal mobile phone. These statistics show a massive number of children from a young age being exposed to and having access to different forms of social media on a vast range of devices. This causes a plethora of young children to be vulnerable and easy targets of cyberbullying, predators, hackers, and many more malicious acts online. Therefore, given the overwhelming evidence that social media has negative effects on children, in my opinion, young children should not use social media.

Young children use social media on a day-to-day basis. This has a risk of kids being exposed to unsuitable comments online. This can ‘brainwash’ kids into thinking these disgusting remarks are normal and okay to say from an exceptionally youthful age. A recent study of 12- to 15-year-olds showed that 1 in 3 of them had encountered sexist, racist, or other discriminatory statements online, while another study of 11- to 16-year-olds showed that 56% of them had seen explicit material online. Seeing these types of inappropriate content from an incredibly young age may influence their still-developing minds into thinking this is okay. In turn, this may cause them to repeat some of these racist, sexist, and discriminatory words in real life and online, offending those targeted without realizing its impact, which is simply not acceptable.

More and more children are using mobile phones and social media each year, this in turn shows an increase in bullying online. A recent study carried out in Wales in 2020 showed that 1 in 5 of 10-15-year-olds experienced at least 1 type of cyberbullying during the year, and 72% of them said that they had some of this harassment carry over into school time. This a big problem as it can have a massive effect on children’s mental health. Which can affect their schoolwork, social life, and home life. Also, this may cause them to lash out at people who are trying to help them and who have done nothing wrong. Therefore, it is unacceptable that there is not enough support and help for young people who are struggling with their mental health, and there should be facilities put in place to help young people at school or online to overcome these depressing situations. There are many things you can do to help your child deal with cyberbullying. One expert advises to help your child “Don’t keep quiet – if you voice yourself you take away from the power of the bullies”. This is one of the multiple ways that you can help save your children from the grasp of cyberbullying.

Hackers and scammers have been around for a long time, and with kids now using technology from such an early age, it has become even easier to steal all kinds of information from unaware and easily manipulated children. With hacks and scams becoming smarter and harder to detect, it is now even more important to inform your kids about the dangers of the Internet and the disguised malicious acts to look out for. Apps and games on many devices that young people use include manipulative tricks to trap children into buying their online items in exchange for money. A recent study was done on the 135 most popular apps for kids. They found these games routinely engage in several manipulative advertising practices, like forcing kids to watch ads or make in-app purchases to advance in the game. This shows the sketchy acts that these companies participate in. Therefore, I think that there should be a law to prevent the immense amount of advertisement these games show to children.

Children are exposed to advertising every day online, whether it is on social media or websites. Sometimes these adverts can be very misleading and lying to you about their service or product. This can affect young children’s minds and thoughts on different things being advertised to them. Advertisers spend billions of dollars per year making their products and adverts eye-catching on TV, the Internet, apps, and many more to lure kids into wanting these products and influencing their parents to buy them for them. Advertisers can also track your searches across the Web to target you with adverts of products you have been looking at to make you more likely to buy from their shop. This can happen to kids as young as 13, recommending a product many times to kids to ‘brainwash’ them into buying the product. This is not acceptable as it is companies taking advantage of the children’s still developing minds to implant positive thoughts on these products into the children’s brains before they can create their own personal views on a product that the companies use for their own profit/benefit.

A relatively new phenomenon, TikTok has skyrocketed to become a big part of young children’s day-to-day lives. In succession, this has caused a mass amount of child predators and groomers to use this platform to target vulnerable and unsuspecting young kids to influence their thoughts and actions for the offender’s personal gain. Like any social media platform that has a direct message or commenting feature, there’s always the possibility that your child could be chatting with anyone, including strangers; these are an easy and dangerous way that people can infiltrate young people’s lives. Direct messaging on many social media, including TikTok, is a way for strangers to talk to your child and send photos, videos, and messages through this feature. This can lead to your children being manipulated by people online. Another route is the comments feature on TikTok, this can be a centralized place for a lot of hate and bullying on many TikTok videos, where anyone can put a message below your child’s TikTok videos, this can lead to a lot of hate and bullying for your children from sometimes hundreds of people with TikTok’s 1 billion active users, haters, and predators online can massively affect children while on social media and even going about their day to day lives. Parents or guardians can prevent this from happening by monitoring their children’s usage of the Internet and behavior to check for anything odd happening to their children. TikTok offers a way to turn off comments on videos and make your account private so people cannot reach your children or target them online. Parents or guardians can also educate themselves on children’s online safety and what signs to look out for, so they can tell if their child is being preyed on, cyberbullied, or groomed.

Some may argue that social media is an effective way for a child to easily communicate with friends and family members. There are many other sources to communicate with friends and family online via the use of messaging services such as WhatsApp and the messaging built into many phones, FaceTime and Skype are extremely useful for people who want to talk to friends and family face to face which allows away to still be able to see others online. Social media offers a lot of privacy settings within their apps to avoid strangers talking to your children online by making accounts private, so you have to accept who you want to see your posts online and blocking meaning that it stops someone you do not want your child talking to from reaching them. This point is invalid as there are a lot of diverse ways to communicate with friends and family while avoiding the use of social media, and there are many ways to just allow your children to talk to certain people on social media with the use of privacy settings built into these apps.

To sum up, there is an overwhelming body of evidence that suggests the negative impact of social media on children. This still reaffirms that they should not use social media until they reach the recommended and appropriate age to understand all the risks and dangers of social media and the Internet in general.

Technology has become an essential part of society in the 21st century, used by all ages, and for all purposes. A survey by ABS in 2018 found that 87% of Australians (>15 years of age) are Internet users, with the highest proportion of Internet users, 98%, being those aged between 15-17. Moreover, ABS also reports that around 97% of households with persons under the age of 15 has access to the Internet. Around 91% of Australians use laptops, computers, and smartphones. The average Australian spends an average of nearly 7 hours each day on these devices (Ernst & Young, Australia, 2017). It can be assumed that technology is integral in our society today, and for the next generations to come.

Over the past few decades, the use of technology has also been on a rise in the educational system. Devices such as computers and laptops have been embedded in high schools through government-led programs such as the Digital Education Revolution (DER) reform package 2008–13 and school ‘Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) programs’. This was implemented in an effort to increase information and communication technology literacy for teachers and students in a rising digital world (Australian National Audit Office, 2011). Primary schools have also begun to integrate technology as a part of their learning from kindergarten onwards, under the newly implemented science and technology syllabus (NESA, 2017). Technology has become such a vital component of Australian schools today and is so often used with children, hence, it is critical to acknowledge and identify any effects it has on children’s cognition.

There is a wide variety of technology used in our digital world today, such as computers, phones, television, gaming devices and reading tools. All these devices, depending on content, attentional needs and other factors will have different neuropsychological impacts, that is behavioral and cognitive changes, in children.

This paper will look at the effects the use of technology has on brain structures, and the cognitive and behavioral implications it may have on children.

Changes to Brain Functioning and Structures

Brain functions often change according to the behaviors and experiences of an individual (Hiscock, 1998). The use of technology has been seen to alter brain structures and functioning, especially in children, as it is the formative years of development of their brains (Bavelier, Green, & Dye, 2010).

Gray Matter

Gray matter is the collection of neuronal cell bodies in the brain. There is some correlation between gray matter volume (GMV) and cognition, as proposed by the research, showing that a reduction in GMV, as a result of normal ageing, had a causal relationship with a decline in cognitive processes (Ramanoël et al., 2018).

Research has found that the excessive use of technology results in gray matter atrophy (loss of tissue volume) in various parts of the brain, specifically, in areas of the brain which are involved in higher order processing and functioning (Wang et al., 2015). This study assessed adolescents with Internet Gaming Addiction (IAD), used the Internet for ~7 hours per day, and presented that the reduction of GMV can be associated with their impaired cognitive ability, measured by the Stroop Color and Word Test, in comparison to healthy adolescents, who used the Internet for ~2-3 hours per day. Other areas of the brain were also discovered to have been smaller in GMV, such as the insula, which is known to be involved in emotional control, social interactions and empathy (Uddin, Nomi, Hébert-Seropian, Ghaziri, & Boucher, 2017).

On the other hand, another study looking at the impact of video games on plasticity in the hippocampus discovered that both increases and reductions in gray matter within the hippocampus can occur in the brains of individuals who engage in video games (West et al., 2017). This is thought to be dependent on the navigation strategies used by the individual and the genre of the game (West et al., 2017).

Additionally, a study with ~25-year-old participants, found that using more than one technology at once, may result in gray matter atrophy in the anterior cingulate gyrus (Loh, Kanai, & Watanabe, 2014), an area of the brain that is involved in the self-regulation of emotions as well as cognition (Stevens, Hurley, Taber, & Hayman, 2011). Loh et al. 2014 study identified that individuals who would often media multitask have poorer cognitive control performance and socio-emotional deficits in comparison to their control group, presumably due to the changes in their brain structure.

Hence, studies have shown that the excessive use of technology in adolescents results in gray matter atrophy in various parts of the brain, particularly areas that are involved in behavior and cognition, including the insula and AAC. However, as of now, there is inconclusive literature on the effect of video games on gray matter due to its wide range of effects and large determinants such as individual differences.

White Matter

White matter (WM) structures act as the communication system of the brain by carrying nerve impulses from one neuron to another (Seikel, King & Drumright, 2010). Adolescents with IAD was found to have lower fractional anisotropy in major white matter pathways than normal Internet users, as examined through diffuser tensor imaging (Lin et al., 2012). These major white matter pathways included the orbito-frontal WM, cingulum, commissural fibers of the corpus callosum, internal and external capsule and more. Such areas are linked to emotional processing, executive attention and decision making (Lin et al., 2012). It was concluded that these WM deficits are correlated with behavioral changes in individuals, including those examined in a study identifying an increase in emotional stability in excessive internet users (Yang, Choe, Baity, Lee & Cho, 2005).

Effects on Cognitive Neuropsychology

Cognitive neuropsychology encompasses many aspects including learning and memory, attention, visuo-spatial memory, behavior and information processing. However, there are many factors in our world which may alter these cognitive abilities.

‘Technology’ in itself is a very broad topic. Many factors should be considered when contemplating the cognitive neuropsychological impacts technology use has on children such as context, cognitive functions being used, and the type of technology used (Lodge & Harrison, 2019). The effect on brain structures and functioning has been discussed generally with the use of Internet and technology. As we look at neuropsychological effects, we will focus on one aspect of technology, that is the use of technology for games.

Games

A meta-analysis summarizing literature on the effect of playing action video games on children’s cognition has found that the general agreement among research is that individuals who play action video games show better cognitive abilities than those who play little to no video games (Bediou, Adams, Mayer, Tipton, Green, & Bavelier, 2018).

Attention

Attention is the ability to filter specific stimuli, and is a complex concept which is also involved in learning and memory. The process in which attention is attained can rely on an individual’s interest, where they are looking, modality of input and output etc. (Styles, 2006). Technology demands attention from us whether it is for the use of social media or games. But how does it actually effect a child’s attention?

Green and Bavelier (2003) posed the question of whether action video games influences attention for individuals aged between 18-23 years old. They found that individuals who played action video games had increased ability to ignore distracting stimuli (selective attention), better visual spatial attention and enhanced ability to attend more than one task at once (divided attention), in comparison to non-gamers (Green & Bavelier, 2003). This study monitored their experimental group through placing a minimum standard on the hours of gameplay per week as well as providing a number of specific games to play over a 6-month period, increasing reliability to their study. However, this study does not use assessments with psychometric properties, hence does not take into consideration internal differences of each individual involved which may potentially cause the differences in attentional abilities.

Moreover, a study by Trisolini, Petilli and Daini (2018) found that adolescents, with an average age of 15, who played action video games, had poorer performance on sustained attention tasks, the ability to maintain attention over an extended period of time, in comparison to non-gamers. There are limitations to this study, including the lack of consideration of factors in their experimental group which may affect attention, such as age, gender, demographics and intrinsic capacities (Tremolada, Taverna & Bonichini, 2019).

Overall, both these studies suggest that there are several areas of attention which are affected by the use of gaming technology in adolescents, in specific, action video games. To increase reliability and validity to these studies, factors affecting attention should be taken into consideration when choosing an experimental and control group. An increase in similarity to these factors may allow for greater accuracy to test results.

Learning and Memory

Learning and memory are cognitive functions which are closely related. Learning is the ability to gain new knowledge through study, experience or teaching (Barron et al., 2015). There are many things that can affect our learning including quality and quantity of instruction, individual characteristics or even home environment (Wang, Haertel, & Walberg, 1990). Memory, on the other hand, is the ability to retain new learnt information and can be subdivided into two categories, short-term (working) memory and long-term memory (Rose, Myerson, Roediger, & Hale, S. 2010). Short-term (working) memory is the ability to store information temporarily and to manipulate and use that information (Rose et al., 2010). Long-term memory is a record of information or past events which are stored for an extended period of time, in which some things may be lost while others remain (Rose et al., 2010).

A meta-analysis comparing the benefits of computer gaming and traditional teaching methods found that there are overall higher cognitive gains and better attitudes towards learning with games (Vogel et al., 2006). This supports the theory that enhancing attitudes and motivation allows for better learning outcomes (Baltra, Cassidy, Prensky, as cited in Vogel et al., 2006, p. 237). Hence, the engaging, interactive and motivating nature of games (Hromek, Roffey, & Hromek, 2009) may be the reason for increased learning efficiency for students. Another study found that there is a correlation with increased attentional abilities of video game players and their learning (Bavelier, Green, Pouget, & Schrater, 2012). This study found that video games may support learning by generalizing attentional skills gained from within a game to the real world (Bavelier, Green, Pouget, & Schrater, 2012).

There are a few factors which may assist the generalization of learning (Deveau, Jaeggi, Zordan, Phung & Seitz, 2015). This includes using motivational tasks (Shibata et al, as cited by Deveau et al., 2015, p. 2) with consistent reinforcements and feedbacks (Seitz and Wataname, as cited by Deveau et al., 2015, p. 2), which is the nature of most video games. Therefore, these studies suggest that learning may be enhanced with the use of video games by increasing motivation and supporting better attitudes towards learning.

Conclusion

There is definitely an impact on children’s attention, and learning and memory. Many studies have been used to research the impact of technology, in particular video games, on these 3 aspects of cognitive skills in children. The research completed reveals that there are two different impacts according to the extent of gameplay, in moderation or to the point of addiction and excessive gaming. The studies used in this paper agree that there are positive impacts on all 3 aspects of cognitive skills when games are played in moderation. Where excessive gaming and internet addiction forms, this leads to a different conclusion. The research done concludes that excessive gaming or addiction may potentially lead to negative impacts on overall cognitive skills of children, as suggested by the brain structure and functional changes which occur, as discussed in the paper.

In recent years, people have observed the advancements in technology and both its positive and negative effects on its consumers, specifically children. For example, electronic devices such as smartphones and tablets have become indispensable for many children today. Although some programs, applications, and games installed in these electronic devices might bring educational value to kids and help them to open up their intelligence, parents should limit their children’s time on electronic devices because too much time on these devices could be detrimental to their children’s physical health, social skills, and the quality of school work.

To start with children’s physical health. Children are affected strongly by their health, which causes so many negative results for themselves. The more they use these devices, the less physical activities they do. Furthermore, the more sedentary some children are, the more likely they are to snack more. Over time, these habits can lead to significant weight gain and cause them to lose their desire to step away from the screen and do any sort of activity. As a typical example, according to Meegan (as cited in Ebbeck et al., 2015), eight-year-old children who are being treated for headaches, neck and shoulder pain, and poor posture spend too much time on screen time using mobile phones (p. 128). Having too much screen time can also make children’s eyes are easy to get strained, causing them to suffer from eye diseases such as blurred vision, eye fatigue, eye dryness, or discomfort. To illustrate an example, as stated a in study by Rechichi et al. (as cited in Lissack, 2018), “Children who were playing video games more than 30 min almost every day experienced headaches and dizziness and eye strain. Transient diplopia and refractive errors (e.g., short-sightedness) appeared mostly in the dominant eye, eventually resulting in loss of fusion” (p. 152). Moreover, as reported by French et al. (as cited in Lissak, 2018), “Children who spend less time outdoors are at a greater risk of becoming myopic. Furthermore, the effect of time outdoors can reduce and largely negate, the causes of myopia development, such as in extensive near-work, i.e., screen viewing” (p. 152). These are the results of glaring, using poor lighting, and especially improper viewing settings that children do. While children are in their developmental stage both physically and mentally, which is essential to ensure children develop good health habits. Furthermore, allowing children to use electronic devices too often can negatively affect their sleeping. Especially when they use them right before going to sleep, exposure to a bright screen still stay in children’s brain even after they have stopped using the devices. As evidence for this, according to Cheung et al., Figueiro and Overington, Falbe et al., and Cajochen et al. (as cited in Lissak, 2018), “Evening and nighttime exposure to bright light and blue light emitted by self-luminous devices may suppress melatonin production, affect the timing of melatonin production and, consequently, cause circadian disruption” (p. 150). To clarify how blue light affects children’s sleeping quality, Yeager (2017) stated, “The normal blue light emissions from the computer screen also affected how much of a sleep-related hormone each volunteer made. Called melatonin (Mel-ah-TOE-nin), it tends to make people feel sleepy. Our bodies usually secrete it into the blood around 9 p.m. When our bodies make less melatonin, we may still feel too alert at bedtime to fall asleep when the body is tired” (para. 2). It is important that children get a full night’s sleep, otherwise, it can have a negative impact on their mental and physical health. Therefore, limiting the time of usage of the phone, tablet, TV, or computer can help prevent health problems from arising now and in the future.

In addition, using electronic devices too often can also cause a negative effect on their social skills. This can weaken the ability of children to operate their brains and result in behavioral issues in social settings. There are many symptoms such as “There are some hints for structural brain changes, which also may hurt one’s executive functions in planning and reasoning and increase risk for impulsivity leading to a person’s loss of control over Internet use” (Young & Abreu, 2017, para. 4). Children can become more and more passive in their classes and public in general, possibly even around people they should be comfortable with, such as family and friends. Accordingly, they find it difficult to get along with surrounding people. Besides, they also have difficulty developing emotions the same way as other kids would if they spend too much of their time on screens and not enough time being engaged in outside activities with the community. Over time, kids become isolated and feel extremely alone; for this reason, it is easy to suffer from some psychological issues. As stated by Healy (as cited in Ebbeck et al., 2015), some negative effects of using computers too often include irregular sleep patterns, behavioral issues, focus and attention problems, decreased academic performance, and a negative impact on socialization (p. 128). Moreover, the longer parents let their children use these devices, the more likely they are to abuse them and become addicted. Just like any other addiction out there, it can be really hard for individuals to cut back or want to cut back on their addiction. Young and Abreu (2017) both pointed out, “An addictive use of the Internet is linked to functional brain changes involving parts of the prefrontal cortex, accompanied by changes in other cortical (e.g., temporal) and subcortical (e.g., ventral striatum) regions” (para. 4). Therefore, trying to strip a child of screen time can make them become aggressive. The best solution due avoid this is to reduce their time before it is too late.

Along with unhealthy conditions and children’s social skills, using digital devices for a long period might affect the productivity of their school work negatively. This reason makes them have falling grades because too much screen time can make students feel lazy and make them lose their ability to initiate and take care of any responsibilities they may have. Thereby, they also become to neglect their responsibilities in school work, and their studying quality is declined naturally. Not only the downward academic performance in class but also losing the concentrative ability in their school work also create a lot of negative effects on children, which causes the inadequacy of sagacity for creativities individuals. According to Dunstan et al. (as cited in Frank et al., 2017), they are often left with hours of homework to complete after school, during which they will also be sitting consistently. These long periods of sitting in class may have not only a detrimental effect on students’ health but also their learning due to increased fatigue, loss of focus, and productivity (p. 476). Moreover, when kids are not on their electronic devices, all they are thinking about is getting back on them, what they are going to do when they get on them, and maybe even what they are missing when they are not currently on them. Owning to relying on their machines a lot, children apparently lose the independent working capability in not only the school but also the working environment in the future. Therefore, not only parents but also children need to be aware of screen time of using technological devices in order to develop their own self toward positive goals soon.

In conclusion, the three most negative effects on children’s use are as a warming message to their parents as well as school. Restricting children’s time with electronic devices, no matter what they use those devices for, will positively affect their lifestyle both mentally and physically, as well as help with their social relations and decrease their dependence on these devices. Children do not have to eliminate their time on these devices, they are just reasonable and dedicate certain amounts of time to each aspect. It is understandable if they need it for research, but they do not need to be on it all day playing games. Technological devices are in everyone’s best interest that screen time be limited to get the best version of oneself.

References

1. Ebbeck, M., Yim, H., Chan, Y., Goh, M. (2016). Singaporean Parents’ Views of Their Young Children’s Access and Use of Technological Devices. Early Childhood Educational Journal, 44(2), 127- 134. Retrieved Mar 20th, 2019 from Complementary Index Database.
2. Frank, H. A., Jacobs, K., & McLoone, H. (2017). The Effect of a Wearable Device Prompting High School Students Aged 17-18 Years to Break up Periods of Prolonged Sitting in Class. Work, 56(3), 475-477, doi: 10.3233/WOR-172513.
3. Lissak, G. (2018). Adverse Physiological and Psychological Effects of Screen Time on Children and Adolescents: Literature Review and Case Study. In Environmental Research, 149-157, doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2018.01.015.
4. Yeager, A., (2017). Evening Screen Time Can Sabotage Sleep. Science News for Students, 2. Retrieved Mar 13th, 2019 from Primary Search Database.
5. Young. K. S., Abreu, C. N. D., (2017). Internet Addiction in Children and Adolescents: Risk Factors, Assessment, and Treatment. Retrieved March 15th, 2019 from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.eztest.ocls.ca/eds/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=3d0b1a24-ffa2-4dbc-8fb8-c92f1e902e7b%40sessionmgr4006&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=1526360&db=nlebk

With each passing year, school systems strive to become the best/top school in their district by developing new ways to help further educate young minds and improve overall testing scores. To achieve their goals, some schools have cut down on recess and increased classroom proactivity. Other schools just simply took out basic electives such as home EC and workshops and replaced them with more math classes and science classes. Then we have some schools where the newest technology such as tablets is the next best thing for teaching children. Even though finding the best solution for teaching our children better in school is always the best thing we can do for them. Bringing in tablets for children instead of textbooks may help them learn how to use technology better, but it will, in reality, decrease their chances of actually learning to their full content. I am against this and believe that tablets should not be allowed to become the primary way students learn.

Learning how to use the newest technology is always a useful way of adapting along with how our current century is leading into. Technology is something that is growing rapidly and is used a lot more frequently than ever before. It has improved the way we do things such as communicating with each other, searching for information has become a lot more accessible through the use of online, and even our transportation has evolved from the use of the Internet by creating things such as smart cars. But having things become a lot easier to obtain isn’t always a good thing. Whenever someone needs to know the answer to things, they could simply look up their question on the Internet, whenever someone needs to know a math question, they could merely pull out their phone and have their answer right then and there. This ability has limited the way we think because our minds have become too dependent on technology. We can’t always depend on things just because it is the easiest way out of something. To fully use our potential, we need to be able to know the answer, or at least know how to solve it without the use of technology. For example, if someone asks you what 9 x 6 is and you don’t have any form of a calculator on you, would you still be able to figure out the answer is 54? Or would you just not know the answer to it? Having tablets instead of textbooks in school for kids to use would limit the way they think. Yes, we should learn how to use them, but having them as a primary learning tool wouldn’t be the best thing for them to learn how to gain knowledge.

There are many negative impacts of replacing textbooks with tablets. For example, excessive use of the Internet is actually harmful to both children and adults. In the past decade, research has accumulated suggesting that excessive use of the Internet can lead to the development of behavioral addiction. Internet addiction has been considered a serious threat to mental health and excessive use of the Internet has been linked to a variety of negative psychosocial consequences. Clinical evidence suggests that Internet addicts experience several bio-psychosocial symptoms and consequences. These include symptoms traditionally associated with substance-related addictions, namely salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, conflict, and relapse” (Brain Sciences, ‘Internet and Gaming Addiction: A Systematic Literature Review of Neuroimaging Studies’).

Another example of why replacing textbooks with tablets is a bad thing is because it can cause health issues. Too much screen time can actually damage your eyes sight by having to strain your eyes due to the glare of the screen, which may cause blurred vision. According to American Optometric Association, people who use mobile devices more often have a higher incidence of musculoskeletal disorders associated with repetitive strain on muscles, including carpal tunnel syndrome, neck pain (‘text neck’), shoulder pain, and fibromyalgia.

Some say this is the best thing because this replaces the cost of having to buy new textbooks. But tablets are actually a lot more expensive to purchase than it is a textbook. Because of new systems and software coming out for certain hardware, and all the training you would need to do to teach your teachers and administrations how to use them, plus with installing new Wi-Fi infrastructures, it would actually cost a lot more to purchase these things than it would a textbook. “All the sweet promises Apple is making are going to slam headfirst into the funding issue”. Lee Wilson, a management consultant for companies that serve K-12 education, states that “it will cost a school 552% more to implement iPad textbooks than it does to deploy books”. By factoring in all of the averaging costs per student per class (textbook = 14.26, e-text=$71.55), cost of print vs. software (print=$10.38, software=$15.24), cost of staff training on new software updates (textbooks = $1.88, e-text = $6.94), and even the amount of use sage of devices on a wireless network (which could lay somewhere in the $500 range just to install the number of access points needed to hand all of the incoming device outputs).

Aldo, the use of tablets can create short attention spans in young minds by all of the distractions that tablets bring to the table. Students may pay more attention to apps such as email, online games, and even social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter. Thus, making it harder for teachers to gain the attention they need to teach.

Then you have your homework assignments. Most Americans today don’t even have broadband connections. So, if most of a child’s learning comes from a tablet, and they’re part of that group that doesn’t have a connection to the Internet to do the homework that is needed for it, those certain students wouldn’t be able to meet their required needs to make it through school.

Considering all the above arguments, I believe that replacing textbooks with tablets in K-12 schools is not the right decision. Despite the rapid development of technologies and the fact that they have made our lives much easier, the consequences of such innovations can be negative. I still remain faithful to the traditional way of learning.

With each passing year, school systems strive to become the best/top school in their district by developing new ways to help further educate young minds and improve overall testing scores. To achieve their goals, some schools have cut down on recess and increased classroom proactivity. Other schools just simply took out basic electives such as home EC and workshops and replaced them with more math classes and science classes. Then we have some schools where the newest technology such as tablets is the next best thing for teaching children. Even though finding the best solution for teaching our children better in school is always the best thing we can do for them. Bringing in tablets for children instead of textbooks may help them learn how to use technology better, but it will, in reality, decrease their chances of actually learning to their full content. I am against this and believe that tablets should not be allowed to become the primary way students learn.

Learning how to use the newest technology is always a useful way of adapting along with how our current century is leading into. Technology is something that is growing rapidly and is used a lot more frequently than ever before. It has improved the way we do things such as communicating with each other, searching for information has become a lot more accessible through the use of online, and even our transportation has evolved from the use of the Internet by creating things such as smart cars. But having things become a lot easier to obtain isn’t always a good thing. Whenever someone needs to know the answer to things, they could simply look up their question on the Internet, whenever someone needs to know a math question, they could merely pull out their phone and have their answer right then and there. This ability has limited the way we think because our minds have become too dependent on technology. We can’t always depend on things just because it is the easiest way out of something. To fully use our potential, we need to be able to know the answer, or at least know how to solve it without the use of technology. For example, if someone asks you what 9 x 6 is and you don’t have any form of a calculator on you, would you still be able to figure out the answer is 54? Or would you just not know the answer to it? Having tablets instead of textbooks in school for kids to use would limit the way they think. Yes, we should learn how to use them, but having them as a primary learning tool wouldn’t be the best thing for them to learn how to gain knowledge.

There are many negative impacts of replacing textbooks with tablets. For example, excessive use of the Internet is actually harmful to both children and adults. In the past decade, research has accumulated suggesting that excessive use of the Internet can lead to the development of behavioral addiction. Internet addiction has been considered a serious threat to mental health and excessive use of the Internet has been linked to a variety of negative psychosocial consequences. Clinical evidence suggests that Internet addicts experience several bio-psychosocial symptoms and consequences. These include symptoms traditionally associated with substance-related addictions, namely salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, conflict, and relapse” (Brain Sciences, ‘Internet and Gaming Addiction: A Systematic Literature Review of Neuroimaging Studies’).

Another example of why replacing textbooks with tablets is a bad thing is because it can cause health issues. Too much screen time can actually damage your eyes sight by having to strain your eyes due to the glare of the screen, which may cause blurred vision. According to American Optometric Association, people who use mobile devices more often have a higher incidence of musculoskeletal disorders associated with repetitive strain on muscles, including carpal tunnel syndrome, neck pain (‘text neck’), shoulder pain, and fibromyalgia.

Some say this is the best thing because this replaces the cost of having to buy new textbooks. But tablets are actually a lot more expensive to purchase than it is a textbook. Because of new systems and software coming out for certain hardware, and all the training you would need to do to teach your teachers and administrations how to use them, plus with installing new Wi-Fi infrastructures, it would actually cost a lot more to purchase these things than it would a textbook. “All the sweet promises Apple is making are going to slam headfirst into the funding issue”. Lee Wilson, a management consultant for companies that serve K-12 education, states that “it will cost a school 552% more to implement iPad textbooks than it does to deploy books”. By factoring in all of the averaging costs per student per class (textbook = 14.26, e-text=$71.55), cost of print vs. software (print=$10.38, software=$15.24), cost of staff training on new software updates (textbooks = $1.88, e-text = $6.94), and even the amount of use sage of devices on a wireless network (which could lay somewhere in the $500 range just to install the number of access points needed to hand all of the incoming device outputs).

Aldo, the use of tablets can create short attention spans in young minds by all of the distractions that tablets bring to the table. Students may pay more attention to apps such as email, online games, and even social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter. Thus, making it harder for teachers to gain the attention they need to teach.

Then you have your homework assignments. Most Americans today don’t even have broadband connections. So, if most of a child’s learning comes from a tablet, and they’re part of that group that doesn’t have a connection to the Internet to do the homework that is needed for it, those certain students wouldn’t be able to meet their required needs to make it through school.

Considering all the above arguments, I believe that replacing textbooks with tablets in K-12 schools is not the right decision. Despite the rapid development of technologies and the fact that they have made our lives much easier, the consequences of such innovations can be negative. I still remain faithful to the traditional way of learning.