Are Children Smarter or More Socialized Because of the Internet?
Introduction
Growth of internet usage worldwide revolutionized access to knowledge and means of communication (Greydanus 452). Many children today are affected by their use of Internet which has both positive and negative implications. This paper argues that the outcome of Internet use by children depends greatly on how it is used and how Internet use is supervised and guided by agents of socialization such as parents, families, teachers, and other adults. There are many positive and negative outcomes of the use of Internet by children. Negative outcomes that can diminish children’s well-being and cognitive and socialization capacity include harmful social interactions such as cyber-bullying, negative emotional and physical consequences, ineffective personal time management, exposure to violent and obscene content, and exposure to commercial advertising and consumerism. Positive benefits include the use of Internet for school study, development of creativity, access to variety of useful information, and communication on educational matters with children in other countries. Children who are using Internet for educational purposes and communications that enhance their development are getting smarter and more socialized whereas children who use Internet pathologically and excessively for other purposes may get less smart and less socialized.
Internet as the Source of Socialization
The use of Internet
In contemporary times, the technological advancement known as the Internet, has revolutionized the way in which society is educated. This tool greatly impacts not only the field of education, but every aspect of society. Indeed, Lewin documents, “those ages 8 to 18 spend more than seven and a half hours a day” (A1), connected to the Internet. This citation illustrates the extensive amount of time today’s youth are online. To that end, the Internet is prevalent in many homes throughout the world and continues to influence the way in which people are educated both in the classroom and even while performing homework. The impact of the Internet becomes evident when one begins to examine similarities and differences between the slew of
Around the world, the internet is a resource where individuals can meet new people, do research, or access entertainment. Although technology can do many different tasks, it also can alter child development. The effects of child development have become a main concern regarding the internet. In their separate articles, Genevieve Johnson and Nicholas Carr discuss how the technological world is becoming hazardous for the brains of adolescence. The articles mainly focuses on how a person can resort to their brain changing as they continue to use the Net and the effected social behaviors on child development.
Regardless of social class most parents wish for their children to be happy, healthy, and successful; however, parents disagree on the best way to raise their children to be all of those things, which is when social class determines the parents’ child rearing method. Whether a child comes from a working class or middle class family affects the child’s development and socialization; and consequently the child’s future.
Gender is a concept constructed entirely by society. We base gender off of what we perceive and what others perceive of us. Until fairly recently, it has been categorized as one of two things: male or female. When we watched the documentary in class, we saw evidence of society 's socialization of young children. Commercials for Nerf Guns, action figures, and cars and trucks were all depicted with young boys as their users. Never did we see a girl playing with GI Joes or with Hot Wheels, only boys played with those. Meanwhile, dolls, baking sets, and make up kits were only advertised to girls, and no boys were shown playing with Barbies or Bratz. Society begins to shape gender notions from a very early age, where people are shown that they are one or the other, either male or female.
Had there been no internet, the earth would have been a better place to live in with increased peace and happiness. The internet has not only deteriorated the social structures, norms and civilization, it has also had effected people’s day to day life. A social network through internet has created a lot of problems in the modern society. In the article “Friending, Ancient or Otherwise”, Wright argues how there has been a shift in communication between the individual and the society. It has corrupted the English language and degraded the overall educational qualities. Internet also helps students plagiarize materials. Despite of its some usefulness in the modern world, internet and social
My cousin's wife Irina Olaru has a positive attitude about the internet use of their children, a girl of four years, and a boy of two and half years. Irina graduated Bethel University, in Minnesota, four years ago. She said to me that their children use a laptop and cellphones every day. Asking her how much time daily their children spend in front of a laptop or cell phone, she said more than two hours every day, which confirms above statistical data. Asking her what attitude they have, as parents about the computer use of their children at such young age, she explained that the internet gives many opportunities of learning and developing for their children. They do not want to ban computer use because they need a time when their children
Aided by the convenience of smartphones, tablets, and computers, the Pew Research Center has found that 92% of teens are online daily, with open access to harmful material that can affect developing minds permanently, and set up habits that can damage their potential for success in the future. An even more shocking 24% of teens say that they are online “almost constantly.” As a tenth grader in Carolina Day’s upper school, I’ve witnessed the daily activities of students who confirm these statistics. To them, navigating the internet is second nature, and that is where the real danger lies. While at school, they are still granted connection to every game, social media site, and free essay resource, without limits. Unrestricted and unlimited access to the internet is negatively impacting Carolina Day School’s environment by affecting interpersonal relationships, stunting the positive development of the brain, and decreasing the chance of students gaining critical life skills.
In recent years, advances in technology have exploded. Almost every child has a tablet, middle schools are giving students laptops, and nearly every adult on the planet can be seen walking around with a smartphone. The internet is a huge part of today’s society. Information from all over the globe is just a few clicks away, but could that be a bad thing? Nicholas Carr thinks that the internet is making society stupid in his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” Steven Johnson says that the internet is a great thing in his essay “Everything Bad is Good for Us,” and Christine Rosen seems to think that everything digital is evil in her work “People on the Screen.” When used correctly, the internet has an overwhelmingly positive effect on the growth of the human brain. Technology provides people with more opportunities to read, a way for children to be stimulated, and simpler communication.
The development of children can depend on many factors, one of the important ones being socioeconomic status (SES). SES can be defined as a multidimensional construct, including measures of social factors such as power, prestige and hierarchical social status, and economic resources (Hackman and Farah, 2009). Child development can be studied from multiple dimensions such as physical, mental, social, and emotional development among others. For the purposes of this study, I will be focusing on how socioeconomic status affects child cognitive development.
On the negative side, children are spending more time indoors playing computer games or the equivalent, but they are not developing interpersonal relationships. As the internet is becoming less of a modern convenience and more of a necessity for humans, young and old, it should be noted that the internet can cause impaired academic achievement, bad time management, and problems with health and interpersonal relationships (Lai & Gwung, 2013). In another study, Laverick (2009) states the children of the 21st century have lives that are interwoven with technology. These children do not know of a world without technology; in the study, this is called “an Eculture” (Laverick, 2009).
“Internet, mobility, and multimedia are important technology tools that are used in education industry” (Hameed 372).Although the internet is an important tool in the classroom and out, it does have downsides. Websites have become more commercialized, and this has made searching through websites difficult since not all websites are reliable. In the Journal done by Shihab Hameed he says that statistics show that teenagers use the internet more than adults, they use the internet to play games, listen to music and meet new people. Hameed also mentions that it reduces student activity. Students are able to get solutions to homework and as result
Intelligence is used by everyone to help them in everyday life. Where people get their intelligence, however, is debatable. A person is born with an amount of inherited intelligence; this intelligence is considered nature, genetic, or heredity. Then there is intelligence that comes from the ability to learn from experience; this intelligence is impacted by nurture or the environment. It is known that both genetic and environmental factors determine intelligence, but the subject is controversial among professionals. Does nature or nurture have a bigger impact on intelligence? Is it true that some people are born with high intelligence, but are limited by their environment? Given the proper tools, can a person increase their intelligence? How accurate are IQ tests?
In the last few weeks, my Honors English class has been studying a largely controversial argument; is behavior formed in a child because of their nature or the way they are nurtured. This is the nature vs. nurture controversy. In the nurture standpoint, psychology says that external factors and experience create particular aspects of behavior. Nature’s perspective on the case, however, is that behavior is influenced by genetic and other biological factors. Modern scientists now believe that there seems to be a mixture of the two ideas, and it is not so “all or nothing”. By combining the two ideas, could this possibly mean that the parents experiences could have an affect on a child’s behavior or help us predict it.
Children nowadays are always on the internet, for entertainment purpose and even educational ones. The internet has become a necessity in today way of life. In today’s modern world even schools use the internet to educate students and keep them connected. Elementary schools use the advantage of the internet to help kids read more via specific websites and they even use Apps to have teachers and parents communicate about how the child is doing. Surely the internet isn’t all that bad, but is it helping kids become more educated and helping them develop their social skills through their interactions on the internet. Some say that kids who play games on the internet are learning how to
The Internet plays a key role in the development of education. According to past research findings, 72% of adolescents surveyed reported using the Internet for school objectives and nearly all of them go online daily (Norris, 2007). Additionally, many interviewed teenagers and parents reported that Internet use is vital to complete school projects. Adolescents need to be educated on how to maximize the legitimacy and safety of online information. Adolescents awareness of the potential impact from internet use and exposure is a