Читать книгу The Movement and Technology Balance - Traci Lengel - Страница 51

The current generation is growing up socially and emotionally in a world driven by technology and screen time. The amount of time children and adults alike spend using electronic devices takes away from the traditional interactions that past generations once knew. Figure 3.1 shows us the growth in household Internet access from 1997 through 2015. Today, more than 77% of the nation uses the Internet in their homes. In fact, only 11% of U.S. adults do not use the Internet at all (Anderson, Perrin, & Jiang, 2018). Children’s access to electronic devices has grown tremendously, and they engage with screens almost all day long. It’s safe to say that families are not interacting and communicating with one another nearly as often as they were 20 years ago. And it’s not only families; children aren’t physically engaging with one another anymore. Technology has created an avenue for kids to stay in contact without ever having to see or speak to one another. In 2016, teenagers said they spend less than two hours a week socializing with friends outside of school, only one third of the time GenX students spent at parties in 1987 (Twenge, 2017). In 2010, teens between the ages of 12 to 17 reported using text messages more than any other form of communication, including face-to-face interaction (Lenhart et al., 2010). These days, many teens use Snapchat as their primary form of communication, citing several reasons for the app’s main appeal: the informality, the choice to use photos or text to communicate, and the ability to view friends’ stories (or not) with no obligation to reply (Godlewski, 2016).

All of this digital communication leads to young children who aren’t benefitting from the emotional cues, nonverbal cues, body language, and facial expressions that social interactions provide. Children who engage with one another in real life acquire the skills needed to form positive relationships and participate effectively in social situations. It helps them read the emotional context clues of the situation and make decisions to act accordingly. It allows them to develop their skills in the art of conversation making. “Teaching the younger generation the finer points of interpersonal skills is key to their long-term success. No matter how advanced technology becomes, landing a scholarship, job interview or fiancé will still require some form of verbal communication” (Fine 2017).

Figure 3.1 ■ Percentage of Households Using the Internet by Year

Source: Computer and Internet Use in the United States: Population Characteristics, Thom File. Issued May 2013: https://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/p20-569.pdf.

The demise of emotional recognition contributes to the rising trend of poor decisions adolescents and teens make when engaging with each other online. Approximately 39% of teens admit that they have posted something online that they regret and 25% have shared a profile with a false identity (“Is Social Networking Changing Childhood?,” 2009). Social media sites and online gaming profiles allow children to create alter egos or fictional identities to foster a level of anonymity that they feel protected by. It also provides a false sense of invincibility and distance that they believe will prevent them from being held accountable for their online actions. About 32% of teenagers who use the Internet say they have been targets of threatening messages, have had their private e-mails or text messages forwarded without consent, have had an embarrassing picture posted without permission, have had rumors about them spread online, or have experienced other forms of cyberbullying, with girls more likely to experience it than boys (Lenhart, 2007). The Internet has provided children with a platform to say whatever they want whenever they want without having to physically face the consequences of their words. It used to be that you could actually see the hurt in someone’s eyes when you were caught name-calling on the playground. Now you can close your eyes to it while the cyber world shuffles it around from person to person, destroying the target of your words with every click and forward.