The Impact of Technology on Our Children Thinking.
Lets look at the Impact Technology has on our Developing Children.
We need to ask ourselves this question; are our children of this generation prepared to think and focus for success in even in the simple things in the 21st century life?
When we were growing up we used to play to play outside with our friends all day, building tree houses, tag, sports, riding our bikes etc. One of main thing we did as children was play the ‘pretend’ game, which took a lot imagination. As children we was masters of the imaginary games, these imaginary games is fundamental as a developing child. This matters because it contains our experiences and helped us understood pretty much the first step that made us understand the world.
One of the most important thing that worries many different professions working in the department of children & education are our children's sensory, their sensory are developed on the early age which is important when our children are exploring, especially the outside world. All this can be impacted with the take over of advantage technology our children seem to have an easy access at an early age.
It is about their “Thinking, capacity to reflect, reason, and draw conclusions based on our experiences, knowledges, and insights” (Jim Taylor, Ph.D., 2012) It is what makes more humane than other animals and able to create, build, advance, communicate in a civilised manner.
There is a big doubt that our children are able to think intellect level in their age, from observing, learning, questioning, remembering, arguing, deciding, judging and acting; because the new technologies are shaping the way we think in ways and becoming a big obstacle for the children to explore instead of being close to screen, may it is be TV, smart phone, tablet, computer, they are all the same suspect harming our eye sights. With that being said, there is no doubt that technology has benefited our ability to scan information faster and efficiently rapidly but the problem is that it also hurts us, especially the children in the thinking aspects.
Jim Taylor who acquired a Ph. D, wrote an article on ‘Psychology Today’ site, in 2012 on how technology is changing the way children think and focus in the 21st century. Over the several weeks he focused on the research on how much of a big influence technology can affect our children's thinking. By thinking, more of ‘attention’, which is the key to thinking. “The ability of your children to learn to focus effectively and consistently lays the foundation for almost all aspects of growth and is fundamental to their development into successful and happy people”(Jim Taylor, Ph.D., 2012).
Attention is influenced by the environment we live in. Just like different animals who have different selective attention for helping them to survive. There are predators that have high level attention skills to help them spot and track their prey successfully, while you have the preys that have developed amazing auditory attention which helps them detect for movement in the area. They are even able to hear a twig crunch from a great distance. Even as humans we also develop all aspects of attention in our environment but how do our children develop this at an early age as they should, when are occupied with the new technologies? The exploration curiosity for our children is decreasing which limits their attention aspects because of technology.
In the past the lack of technology effectively developed attention, “children’s immediate environment determines the kind of attention that they develop. In generations past, for example, children directed considerable amounts of their time to reading, an activity that offered few distractions and required intense and sustained attention, imagination, and memory.” (Jim Taylor, Ph.D., 2012). Now in this these days “television altered that attention by offering children visual stimuli, fragmented attention, and little need for imagination.” (Jim Taylor, Ph.D., 2012) it is as it programmed the children to think in a certain limited way.
Jim taylor stated that in the studies he researched, he found out that “reading uninterrupted text results in faster completion and better understanding, recall, and learning than those who read text filled with hyperlinks and ads. Those who read a text-only version of a presentation, as compared to one that included video, found the presentation to be more engaging, informative, and entertaining, a finding contrary to conventional wisdom, to be sure. Additionally, contrary to conventional educational wisdom, students who were allowed Internet access during class didn’t recall the lecture nor did they perform as well on a test of the material as those who weren’t “wired” during class. Finally, reading develops reflection, critical thinking, problem solving, and vocabulary better than visual media.”(Jim Taylor, Ph.D., 2012)
In conclusion not enough activities, such as reading, playing games, and good old unstructured and imaginative play and too much screen time will lead our children into having their brains wired in ways that may make them less, not more, prepared to thrive in this new world of advanced technology.
(Jim Taylor, Ph.D., 2012)
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-power-prime/201212/how-technology-is-changing-the-way-children-think-and-focus
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/technology/21brain.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=growing%20up%20digital&st=cse&
Google, Images Jpegs, Children with tablets
