The rise of technology- are children addicted to digital?

How young is too young when it comes to using digital technology? I remember when I was young and my summer holidays would be filled with fun adventures in the woods, playing on the swings and in the rainy days playing with Barbies. Now it seems that every child spends their free time playing on iPads, phones and computers games, should this be right?

So what made me start thinking about children and technology? Well, at the start of this academic year every child at my sisters secondary school were given iPads to ‘learn’ on, in which I thought this was absurd! They use them to write notes on, calculate maths and search the Internet for answers, for me I think this is cheating as the programming does it all from spell check to answering every question to the finest detail, how will they ever learn? I have also heard of other schools having no teacher present in the room and instead being stuck in front of a computer where they would be taught online over webcam and all work being uploaded online. Having no teacher in the room and constantly looking at a computer screen opposed to anything else, not only do I believe this harms their learning, but where is the social interaction?

This whole idea of technology taking over played on my mind even more when my sister got a game for Christmas that my mum used to play when she was little called ‘French Skipping’ which involved a rope and the person playing jumping either side of it.  She sort of looked at it in disgust as to say ‘a game? That’s not online? What on earth were you thinking mum?’ It really made me start to think, are playground games all over, is it all about technology these days and that when you don’t have the latest technical products your classed as a loser, an outsider? If only this could all be rubbish, but it’s not, technology IS taking over...

Having one computer in a house with dial up Internet connection is now unheard of today! In my childhood years my brother and I used to be allowed on this one computer to go online for 10 minutes each evening, where we would quickly speak to our friends on MSN and post on our Bebo accounts. This was our only time to talk to friends in the evening, unless we met at the park, as we had no mobile phones! Younger children today ask ‘but what did you used to do, were you not bored?’ well my evenings consisted of going out to play, playing board games or reading, and I was certainly not bored, so bearing in mind my childhood was not THAT long ago, children of today deem it as centuries ago!

It seems that the only outside world children know nowadays is when they are fighting the ‘baddie’ in computer games or pretending to play tennis on the Wii. A few years ago it was found that in the UK 58% of 2-5 year olds can play computer games but only 43% can ride a bike; even more so, 10% of this age range can use Smartphone’s whereas only 9% can tie shoes. Could this really be true, have children EVER seen the daylight?

It’s all well and good me saying that children are using too much technology, but it’s the parents that are supplying these products and teaching them how to use them. Do they not realise that they are turning their children into ‘cyber kids’? Is it right that they are learning to write on iPad’s opposed to pen and paper and not learning to cross their T’s and dot their I’s? Should parents and schoolteachers keep a closer eye on what is happening to these children, and reflect on whether they think it is right or wrong to let them this close to technology?

So that leaves me to ask you, do you think more needs to be done to stop technology taking over children, or do you think that with the rise in technology this is the way the world is moving forward and everyone needs to get with the times?

Thank you for reading,

C