Children’s Overuse of Technology

Childrens lend one egotism of engineering science closely affects a persons cognitive outgrowth by eliminating the clock eon that tikeren have for sepa brande activities like proper sleep, a basketball furthermostinaceous in the park, or just a face to face clack with a group of friends. Technology is not a proper permutation for a put-on ground, parks or a chat with friends where a child can remark unlimited opportunities to learn valuable reading about how they fit in the square world. A childs cognitive using is not harmed directly by engineering science so often as it is harmed indirectly by abstaining from forcible activities, failing to quarter proper sleep, or not acting with associates.A pick out by the Kaiser conception illustrates the enormous time children hap multi ta scrapeg each day through technology, straight hits youth pack a total of 10 hours and 45 arcminutes worth of media content into those daily 7 1/2 hours an increase of almost 2 1/4 hours of media exposure per day over the past five eld (Henry J. Kaiser Foundation 2010, p. 1). It is not to offer that technology plays no role in increasing a childs cognitive development it is to suggest that thither is a turnout gap between the time a child entertains themselves with technology and the moments that he or she allocate to alternatives activities.The benefits children receive from non technology based activities ar effectuate in m each search studies on cognitive development for example, a study by preeminent sleep theorist Dr. Sadeh returned that the cognitive abilities of primary school children deprived of just one hours night sleep would be reduced by two grades the future(a) morning (Sadeh, Gruber & Ravi 2003, p. 444 -445). Children cannot be eng jump ond in interactive play with their peers, sleep or physical exercise which atomic number 18 so critical to their development, due to an over intention of discriminate technological activities s uch as cell phones, television and exposure plots.Children who spend as well much time with technology find themselves isolated from their peers. hint theorists like Jean Pia institute understood the importance of peer interaction as a research tool that wins children with unlimited opportunities to evaluate other nations concept of how to deal with situations that happen in the world. check to Pi eont, children puddleed companionship about the world through their interaction with others and incorporated that information into cognitive structures (Piaget 1962, p. 257).Piaget saw unscripted play as a way for children to gain vernal social skills by assimilating a peers new ideas and changing their understanding of the world to accommodate them. Children exposed to peer play gain the skill set which will allow them to fall out away from an egocentric understand point in which they atomic number 18 the philia of the universe to a much than abstract vision of the world t hat encompasses the ethical motive needs of friendship. A child that has gained understanding of this is said to gain the social, mad, and cognitive skills and behaviors that they need in order to be successful people in the world.Piaget would find nurtureal value in any technology that allows children the hazard to freely experiment with their understanding of the world. From the preoperational through the operational stage, children receive educational experiences tied(p) from basic technology like karaoke machines or cell phones that provide them the opportunity to assay their lyric skills through experimentation. A child in the preoperational stage will commit the karaoke machine in symbolic play to pretend to be a rock star.The operational stage children that are further a bulky on their cognitive development might use a cell phone share ideas on what it is like to be in a rock group. However, the most promising use of technology to Piaget would be bundle that appears to emulate his possibility of assimilation and accommodation. Indeed, Piaget believed that children learned ruff when a constant flow of information was acquired from others that all reinforced or challenged their perception of themselves in the world.An example of technology that might provide this is the game SimCity, which was marketed as providing people with the opportunity to test their knowledge of cities while knowledge to build one of their own. However, eventually Piaget would find games like this to be too restrictive in their opportunities for players to decide whether to replace their self-constructs of city- emotional state based on the limited real life scenarios in the game.The child is presented with or channelise into possible actions by the software program and made to believe there are no limitations to the options one can take however, software actions are very narrow and circumscribed, and what is even more important for the child it is define by the game developer and the manufacturer instead of by the child (Provenzo, 1991, 1994). According to Piaget (1972), play can provide many opportunities for children to actively learn in a manner that is more intuitive than a direct focusing lesson.Piagets philosophy about play is validated by the dramatizeing research. A study on rats that compete rough with each other had a higher(prenominal) degree of neurotropic factor transcripts created in their brains cerebral mantlees than a rat raised(a) in closing off (Gordon, Burke, Watson &Panskepp 2003, p. 17-20). Research by diamond et al. (1966) on the thickening of a rats cortex delivered that when a rat was allowed to freely assimilate and accommodate within an enriched environment (Krech, Rosenzweig& Bennett, 1960, p. 09-513) its cortex was affected profoundly as equalityd to other rats cortexes that were raised in non-enriched environments (p. 117-125).The research was designed to compare the thickening in the cortex of several rats brains raised in third contrasting environments one raised in isolation, three rats in a cage that emulated their natural environment, and three that were placed in the enriched environment. An enriched environment is defined as a cage that has enough fashion to accommodate the rats and toys that are added at specific intervals during their stay (Krech et al. 960, p. 509- 513). The rats were placed in the environment from 4 days to 80 days, and afterwards the cortexes were removed for semblance (Diamond et al. 1966, p. 117-125).A second set of experiments were designed to isolate factors like age or stress, which were constantly changing to reach the maximum thickening of the cortex. info comparisons between the cortexes of the rats raised in the impoverished environments and the lone rat were measured, notwithstanding not compared however, further experimentation, in this maybe warranted in order to show the effect of peer play.In more play directed study, it was seen t hat rats that had contend rough with each other had brains with a higher degree of neurotropic factors created in the brains cortex than a rat raised in isolation (Beatty, Dodge, Dodge, White & Panskepp 1982, p. 417-422). Another study of rats in social isolation showed an even more dramatic need for interactive play when a rat failed to respond with the proper defense mechanism when dealing with a plethoric male rat.The study showed that rats that played with peers were successful in assimilating into society by using the tools they learned from peer interaction, much like Lev Vygotskys studies showed children did as well (Foroud & Pellis 2003, p. 35-43). Unlike Piaget, Vygotsky believed that a childs eruditeness action or cognitive development was not based on a solitary exploration of the world, but the influences of the childs culture, environment or knowledgeable vaingloriouss. Vygotskys studies were based on the epoch-making approach that children achieved on tests when they hunted with an adult as compared to working alone.The test results for children working singly rarely reached the level of a child that had been taught by an adult. In the process of this adult guided development, the child not only matures, but is rearmed. It is this rearming that accounts for a bang-up(p) deal of development and change we can that accounts for a great deal of the development and change we can observe as we follow the transition from child to civilized adult (Luria & Vygotsky, 1992, p. 110). The times children meet with a knowledgeable peer or adult to learn a great deal of understanding is gained by the child.The growth of the child that works with an adult can be observed throughout their lives till they reach adulthood. Vygotsky would find potential in todays technology and hope for the software technology of tomorrow that he would perceive as supporting his theory of the Zone of Proximal Distance. His theory states the distance between the actual deve lopmental level as determined by independent puzzle closure and the level of potential development as determined through line of work solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers is greater (Vygotsky 1978, p. 6).The technology that was capable of teaching critical thinking, analysis and problem solving skills by joining them together to learn about any subject matter. Present technology does not have the natural language skills necessary to be able to respond to a childs unlimited questions however, games can guide a childs theme process by the designers implementation of scaffolding techniques into the program. For instance, close to games like Oregon Trail are appropriate educational opportunities for larn in the classroom.The game is a form of computer mediated charge that uses information inserted into the program (scaffolding techniques) to help students make do the tasks that are important to set an activity however, it is limited in value since it does not allow children to interact with a knowledgeable adult or peer. Games that allow multiple players to work towards a earthy goal are available online and could be use to teach children in the way Vygotsky envisioned. Games like The Penguin Club or rain cloud are designed to allow children to work together towards a common goal however, they are created to entertain and not to teach.Video games must be designed to capture a childs interest and be tested to show how they improve a childs education, or they will remain another example of a technology whose use is restricted solely to family entertainment. Other examples of technology that children use for household entertainment are described in the following study including which technologies are preferred by both sexes and which are preferred by a specific sex.Children are cold more likely to use technology for entertainment purposes to download music, chat on the social network, email friends or lay video games than do research on a issuing of interest than for education (Subrahmanyam, Greenfield, Kraut & Gross 2001, p. 7-30). The study shows boys and girls are likely to use the same technology for the same hours in school. However, after school hours boys were far more likely to play video games than girls. On the contrary, girls were far more likely to use their cell phones to text friends or communicate on the social network than their male counterparts. Both girls and boys still watched television more than any other technology.The study focused primarily on the theatrical role of technology a child used to entertain him or her self however, the study did not delve into the effects technology use had on a child. Grant money has been expanded for research to investigate new social concerns about technology ranging from the possibilities of brain tumors brought about by high-spirited use of cell phones, desensitizing affects of cutthroat video games on children towards real violence , and attention span problems caused by television and video games.A young research study on the effects of children playing unfounded video games and their desensitizing effect on a childs view of real life has challenged long held tenets of parents and researchers alike. Bowen and Spaniol (2011) designed a study to compare the emotional arousal state and long term memory of individuals that played violent video game as compared to those that did not. The participants viewed 150 photos of scenes that were designed to get a positive, negative, or natural response from the individuals. matchless hour by and by the people were asked once again to observe the scenes and this time 150 superfluous photos were added. The researcher then asked the individuals if they indeed had seen the photos previously and the results were recorded. Afterwards, the students were given a self-assessment test that asked them questions about their emotional state. Researchers predicted the results would show that the participants that played violent video games would look on less of the photos and have a lower level of emotional arousal.The study showed that the results were in favor of the null hypothesis and that there was no significant difference in the long term memory or emotional state of the participant that played video games and the individuals that did not. This study questioned sooner held opinions that violent video indeed caused children to be less sensitive to real life violence. Research by Carnagey, Anderson and Bushman (2007) evaluated the physiological response of individuals that watched a ten minute video showing real-life violence after playing their choice of a violent game or non-violent game for twenty minutes.The individuals that played the violent video game were predicted to have a lowerheart beat and galvanic skin response than the non violent video game watchers. The violent video players did show a lower heart rate and galvanic than the non-violent game players and were considered to be desensitized to violence (p. 489-496). The conflicting results help illustrate how little is known to whether video game technology as any direct adverse on the cognitive development of children that the concerns of society have suggested.Furthermore, studies on the effect of radio waves on heavy long term users of cell phones suggest different conclusions leading to question about its adverse affects on children as well. One study which evaluated brain tumor risk in relation to long term mobile use showed no increase in crabmeat in individuals that used cellphones excessively over the last ten years (Cardis 2010, p. 14).Another study showed that the brain glucose metabolism rates were significantly higher when using a cell phone causing concern that there may be negative effects from radio signals delivered to the brain (Volkow et al. 001, p. 808-813). It appears that supererogatory research on technology is required, as was expended on te levision earlier in order to get a clearer picture of its effect on children.Television viewing time at a mean age of 14 years was associated with elevated risk for attention difficulties, frequent chastisement to complete homework assignments, frequent boredom at school, failure to complete high school, poor grades, negative attitudes about school (i. e. hates school) overall donnish failure in secondary school, and failure to obtain post-secondary (eg, college, university, training school) education (Johnson et al. 2007, 481). The Research by Zimmerman and Christakis (2007) showed that six and seven year old children, who had watched an add up of three hours of television a day as three year olds, had lower cognitive achievement scores on the Peabody Individual feat test for reading recognition and reading comprehension (473-479).Less sedentary activities that children do when not playing video games show a much clearer picture of the benefit they provided to a childs cognitiv e development than any adverse effect technology does. Children who rode bicycles, played basketball or performed other aerobic activities at least three times a week for sixty minutes and spent an equal amount of time on muscle and bone strengthening workouts three times a week or more had significantly better grades than the children who did not (Coe, Pivarnik, Woomack, Reeves &Malina 2006, p. 515-1519).In conclusion, software technology as advanced as it may expect is not robust enough to support the theories of Piaget or Vygotsky. Advances in mushy Intelligence for natural language would be required to make either Piaget or Vygotsky theories close to a real life learning experience. A computer game would need to be able to understand the thoughts easy by a child and be able to respond to them fluently to recreate a real life experience. That software for video games is far from being developed.A childs ability to learn from a computer as if it was a teacher is limited by how well the software developer provides guidance within the program to complete each task. A child will never get the freedom to explore and change his or her constructs in the world of technology as he or she can in the real world. In this day of modern technology and the information highway, it may seem ironic that the best thing a child can do to develop his or her cognitive development is to turn the television, video game or cell phone off and go for a bike ride.