Aasai

TECHNOLOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY.

INTRODUCTION.

Technology refers to the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes for example learning,enhancing creativity, enhancing communication and confidence and for emotional and psychological benefits.A child is a human being between birth and adolescence.According to Childrens Act,a child is defined as any human being below the age of eighteen.Twenty first century(21st century) refers to a period spanning from the year 2001 upto the year 2100.

This period is marked with great application of technology which in turn have both negative impacts to children including exposure to inappropriate contents and positive effects like having emotional and psychological benefits for example online counselling with digital platforms such as Betterhelp and Shamiri Health.

LITERATURE REVIEW.

Without any fear of contradiction, technology has done more harm than good to children in the 21st century majorly the generation-Z and generation Alpha.Some of the negative effects of technology to children include exposure to inappropriate contents,leads to internet and screen addictions,leads to mental health issues for example can cause sleep disorders like insomnia and can affect the overall physical health.

Despite technology having very negative impacts to children,it also have some positive effects for example it plays a very fundamental role in enhancing learning,enhancing social and communication skills and have some emotional and psychological benefits for example teletherapy.With all these on a see-saw,parents,caregivers,psychologists and government must come up with a balance and interventions to solve these effects of technology.Interventions adopted may include training on digital literacy as well as therapy and psychological support for those already addicted to the internet.

Negative impacts of technology to a child.

These refers to the resultant challenges that children face when using technology:

Mental health related issues

Over reliance in technology may cause mental health issues and disorders for example insomnia.Insomnia is the inability to have adequate sleep which is seven to eight hours a day.Insomnia can result due to excessive exposure to screen hours and blue light which is majorly produced by smartphones,computers,tablets and laptops.Morever, according to Michael Grandner in his journal "The use of technology at Night:Impact on sleep and health "elaborated that excessive exposure to light from smartphones interferes with melatonin production in children.Melatonin is the sleep hormone, when altered with, insomnia arises.

Technology expose children to inappropriate contents.

Technology expose children to inappropriate contents including pornography videos and various dating sites.For example, consider the case of a fourteen year old high school student who always requests for mothers phone during the weekend to do homework,but out of curiosity she goes on to the google search to look for pornography videos and contents as well as dating sites.

Tiktok,a social media which is currently rising in terms of viewers may too expose children to inappropriate style of clothing, and this occurs due to social learning as they will trying as much as possible to model and imitate models.In addition to that, research has shown that Tiktok videos reduces the concentration abilities to both children and adults.

Leads to internet addictions at an early age.

According to American Psychological Association, addiction refers to compulsive and obsessive urge to use a substance for example drugs or to engage in a behaviour for example internet addiction.Once a child is exposed to to technology at an early age, they will get addicted as there will be a compulsive urge to continually use technology.

Smartphone is addictive(Tayana,2018).In her journal "Is smartphone really addictive"she stated that from the research and studies conducted,seventy percent of children who were frequently exposed to internet and smartphones got addicted to it.And once they got addicted,their attention abilities also reduced.

Technology affects the physical health of a child.

Physical health refers to the wellbeing of physical structures of the body.Increased use of technology by a child without proper guidance from parents and caregivers will lead to decreased physical activity like going to play out with peers.Instead,the child may stay seated all day focusing on either laptop or a smartphone.This may lead to diseases such as obesity.Obesity is linked with reduced mobility, heart diseases and physical impairments which may worsen physical health.

Despite all these negatives,there are still positive effects of technology to the children:

Emotional and psychological benefits.

Technology platforms like Betterhelp can be adopted when offering counselling and emotional support to children with emotional and behavioural disorders as well as offering speech therapy services to children with speech and language disorders for example disfluency, articulation disorders and disfluency.This in turn helps children to enhance on their self awareness and later improve on their confidence and self esteem.According to Justin Chan in his journal "Technology and mental health:State of the art for Assessment and treatment",he emphasized on how technology has assisted much in offering child therapy.

Technology enhance learning.

Learning refers to the acquisition of knowledge from ones environment.Children with learning disorders for example Attention deficit Hyperactivity Disorder may have problems with learning.In order to curb this,use of assistive technology in learning is usually recommended to enhance learning as well as increase motivation to learning.

Children can also utilise technology to enhance communication skills, interpersonal skills and confidence through observing key models through the use of technology.Moreover, creativity and innovativeness is enhanced by technology for example the computer coding programs and online classes via Google meet where children can easily homeschool and monitored by their teachers.

Having the negative and positive effects of technology to children is not enough.There is need to put into practice some interventions to curb and control the negative effects of technology:

PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERVENTIONS.

Digital literacy and education awareness.

Caregivers should be trained on how to regulate the technology use by the children.This can be conducted through seminars, parenting programs and advocacy awareness programs like in media for example PG to mean parental guidance show and GE to mean general exhibition show.

Therapy and psychological support.

Those addicted to technology related platforms should be given therapy and counselling support to enhance their healing process as well as enhance self awareness and set room for personal development.

Positive parenting styles.

Parents should guide and monitor the kinds of contents their children are utilising in technology platforms.Parenting styles for example Authoritarian parenting styles should be adopted to give room for understanding between parents and their children regarding technology.

CONCLUSION.

Technology has greatly impacted children in the 21st century.The effects include both positive and negative effects.This calls for a wake up call for combined efforts between parents, caregivers and the government at large.Psychologists should also play a pivotal role in helping children majorly those addicted to technology and technology related platforms.I submit.

REFERENCES.

American Psychological Association journal.

Childrens Act 

Justin,C.(2021).Technology and mental health:State of the Art for assessment and treatment.Harvard Publishers.

Michael,G.(2013).The use of technology at Night: Impact on sleep and health.Oxford publishers.

Tayana,P.(2018).Is smartphone addiction really addiction.Oxford publishers.