Children and Technology

As a product of what I would consider the beginnings of the digital generation, I cannot imagine a time before there was at least a computer in my home. Hours, days, and weeks of my life have been spread over the Internet with the rise of social networking around my middle school days… but it was entirely my doing and my choice. It is impossible to imagine if it had been out of my control.

I am currently working on my master’s degree to be a high school teacher. I love the idea of teaching children to access the positive benefits of the technology that daily assaults them, but I have to admit that an article entitled "Bringing Up Baby in the Digital Age" by Martin Lindstrom has caused me to second guess the exposure children are garnering from social networking.

Lindstrom reports the findings of Internet security firm AVG, which reported that: “92% of American children have an online footprint before the ripe old age of 2 years old.”

92% before most children can form sentences.

The facts become more startling when he states, “their digital presence often begins with their first image- a sonogram- being posted online.” Of course, many of my pregnant friends have 3D and the, ever-so-creepy, “4D” sonograms of their unborn children on Facebook, but until now it has always been just a way to show their excitement in my eyes. While I at least think my personal friends have stopped there, “7% (of children) are born with a pre-established email address, and a further 5% have a social network profile.”

With these statistics, every student I have at age 14 or so will have a fully established, documented, and heavily broadcast life available on the Internet. Is it right for me as an educator to add to this pile?

Lindstrom spent time with 10 families whose children who had online representation. The two children focused on in the article were trapped either by their parents or themselves as a result of social media. Both children interviewed exhibited that their privacy had been taken away and they were forced to live inside themselves and inside their homes to have any feeling of safety.

I believe that school is a place where all children have the right to feel safe. I want to add to this atmosphere without intensifying any prior situations, but it seems naive to neglect how useful social networking can be to learning. Students can tweet their thesis statements for papers or make connections to people they might never have a chance to meet in real life who could help them enhance their writing.

I am left now thinking about what age children should be subjected to social media, is it right to force them to use it either as a parent or teacher, and what, if any, limits need to be in place to protect a child’s psychological state?

The original article can be found here.

Please leave any comments with your personal feelings! I’d love to hear other opinions on this subject.