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Joshua Gobble Ms. Rand ENGL 1102 26 March 2014 Todays Most Prominent Effects on Adolescents What is affecting a childs development and actions? Could it be television and Hollywood? Could it be the Internet? Could it be social media? Could it be video games? All of these factors play important roles in childhood development. I want to connect all of them to show how they affect a childs behavior. Television, social media, video games, and the Internet all make up modern technology. A child can see virtually any information through the Internet and social media. When a child has access to so many influences, then he or she will be offered many different ways to behave and act. These influences have obviously not always been as available to children. Technology has made many progressions over the last decade. Smart phones, iPods, iPads, and newer video games have been developed. Laptops, tablets, and computers have faster Internet access. As a child, I had very limited Internet access until I was about twelve because it was not as powerful. This was just seven years ago. Now, I look at my little siblings and other adolescents, and they have iPads and iPods. They have instant Internet access and they can communicate with anyone across the world. With the technological advances, not only do positive resources come, but also negative resources. You may be thinking, well do these effects not affect adults too? Not necessarily, mainly because adults had already developed their character and thinking skills before technology became so advanced. Whereas, adolescents have technology to influence them as they are developing their brains and decisions making skills. No one has any idea of what all of this media and technology use will mean for our kids as they grow up. (Clinton and Steyer).

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You may think it is just the cutest thing for a toddler or a baby to play with an iPhone or iPad. Think again. Statistics show in America that by the time a child is two, ninety percent of them have an online history. By the time children are five years old, fifty percent of them are interacting with a computer or tablet (Clinton and Steyer). Little babies are so easily entertained, why must we give them technology at such an early age? On average, teenagers text 3,400 times a month (Clinton, and Steyer). That is over one hundred text messages a day! Is that not insane? This is a habit being instilled in teenagers that they will carry forever. The wide exposure to media and technology among children is obvious. Television and Hollywood interfere with childrens social interaction. The television causes families to converse less at dinner because children or adults do not want to miss their favorite episodes (Wilson). Children must be given time to talk, not just listen to the television. Children will learn more from role models that they perceive as attractive, such as their parents or other adults. If they see violent characters on television, they are more likely to learn aggression (Wilson). I believe this goes hand in hand with video games that are aggressive. When shows seem realistic, a child pays closer attention (Wilson). This helps them develop their cognitive thinking as they process the information. Shows that are realistic encourage children to put themselves in the characters place (Wilson). This can be beneficial, but what about the violent shows? The child may put himself or herself in the violent position. I believe this is one cause of bullying, fighting, and crime among adolescents. These behaviors then lead to problems with an adolescents grades and academic performance. Along with the television, video games can be harmful to children. They are shown to improve IQ, but one does not need background knowledge when playing video games. The information on video games is not knowledge. One does not have to understand and relate one thing to another. One works in isolation while playing video games (Greenfield). Video games are similar to the television in that the child may try to put themselves in the characters shoes. Well, if a child puts himself or herself in a

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violent characters position in real life, there is no telling what they may do. While some video games might be realistic, they do not show the consequences and results of violence. Since video gaming children work in isolation while playing video games, they do not see the results of real world violence. Children are receiving negative influence on their behavior from some of the video games they play. I believe this is another cause of fighting and bullying among children and teens. I want to focus the rest of this paper on social medias and the Internets effect on children. Social media has become huge over the past few years. MySpace used to be the largest social media site when I was younger, but now Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram lead the way. These are just a few examples, and many people have accounts with each of them. Why would someone need three social media sites? One does not learn valuable communication skills when he or she talks to someone on Facebook. When one talks in person, he or she will learn how to look someone in the eye and learn when not to look someone in the eye (Greenfield). Talking in person is a much better way of communication. One will see the expressions and be able to see the emphasis from the person they are having a conversation with. One only knows how someone feels by body language and tone of voice. (Greenfield). Also, too much hypertext and multimedia is known to limit a childs attention span, lower their comprehension, cause poor focus, increase the risk for depression, and diminish long-term memory (Clinton, and Steyer). This is not only going to hurt the child as they become older and need focus and comprehension in their professional careers, but also hurt their communication skills in that they will not be able to engage and focus in a conversation. Many children give away much private information over social media. Young people constantly post personal content for everyone to see. They do not consider the consequences (Clinton, and Steyer). One consequence may be a criminal getting their information and using it to commit a crime. In an interview, Twitter was compared to a child. One may get on there and say what they are wearing,

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what they had for breakfast, or what they are doing. This is similar to a child telling his parents everything about his or her day (Greenfield). Social media creates a combustible mix among the vulnerable young people that are not experienced socially and have not developed emotionally. Children will often self-reveal before they reflect when it comes to social media posting. This causes many adolescents to regret what they have posted about themselves on social media before they even start high school (Clinton, and Steyer). Many girls, guys alike, can ruin their reputations by the pictures they post of themselves on social media. It may seem to attract the opposite sex at first, but sooner or later, it is only going to bring criticism. Embarrassment and potential danger can last forever because of the permanence of what is posted online. There is no eraser button to what people have already seen on social media (Clinton, and Steyer). Sometimes posts and pictures get spread so easily across the Internet and social media, it is impossible to get it deleted completely. I believe when adolescents see their peers posting pictures, statuses, or tweets, it pressures them into posting something themselves. It almost turns into a competition of who can post the most, which will lead to too much personal information being shared. I found that social media and the Internet also cause children to want to start dating at such an early age now. With the easy access of communication via social media, a child begins sharing their undeveloped feelings and emotions with others, which lead to relationships. Because young people form unhealthy attachments to partners, make poor decisions because of their partners, and take breakups a lot harder than adults due to lack of cognitive development, they are more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol (Kobola). This is their remedy for the pain of breakups. These problems connect back to the available influences children have such as the Internet to create new behaviors. Self-harming has increased greatly among adolescents. This is correlated to the Internet and social media (University of Oxford). Teens cut themselves to relieve emotions, and it makes them feel better (Schenek). Social media is where so many thoughts are shared, good or bad. One talks about his

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or her pain and what he or she is going through with others that are experiencing the same feeling. This often magnifies the feelings of the individuals. Doctors in Perth feel this is why teens are harming themselves as there has been a fifty percent rise of self-harm since social media took off in 2007 (PerthTenNews). This is true because oftentimes people find it easier to share information and be open to others when the conversation is not in person. I believe sometimes people do not receive the attention they want when they reveal their emotions. This causes them to seek attention in other ways. Researchers have found Internet sites that allow socially isolated young people to network and connect (University of Oxford). While these sites may be helpful to some, I believe it is harming more young people than helping. I would view it as a small world of helplessness because they have no one that knows how to lead them in the right direction. They all have the same problems but do not know how to solve them. This is where the Internet links adolescents to suicidal and self-harm ideas and thoughts. Studies show that young people who searched self-harm and suicide online were exposed to violent imagery. They would then act out what they had seen (University of Oxford). As I opened up with, when so many influences, such as the Internet are available to children, many more ways to behave are introduced. Studies showed that fifty-nine percent of young people interviewed have researched suicide online. Out of fifteen teenagers in the study that had self-harmed, twelve of them had gone online to research it before they performed their act of self-harm (University of Oxford). The Internet and social media provide easy ways for individuals to research self-harm and provide them with more ideas that others have used. Cyber-bullying has also been on the rise. Online bullying was found to make victims more likely to self-harm (University of Oxford). Social media easily allows cyber-bullying as people connect with others that they know in their communities. It is not easily controlled as people can post and say what they want about others. Things said on social media can be seen by many people and spread quickly. This is a behavior issue than could be prevented if there was no social media to do it on.

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I believe parenting ties into these modern effects on adolescents in a few different ways. First off, a parent should monitor what a child is doing with his or her technology. This is more important than making rules on how much time a child can spend using their technology including television, video games, or social media (Wilson). This could prevent children from posting personal information or photos, researching self-harm, cyber-bullying, watching inappropriate shows, or playing violent video games. One article even went so far as to say we need more than parents to step into childrens lives. It suggested legislation and educational efforts be put into practice that focus on the 21st century realities. They believe it will maximize the opportunities available technology and minimize the behavior risks (Clinton, and Steyer). Secondly, I believe if a child is self-harming, it has to do with the parenting. The child seeks attention by self-harming (Self-Injury in Adolescents). The most common reason a child self-harms is to cope with his or her emotions (Relevant). If parents become more involved in their childrens lives, and talked to them about their emotions and feelings, then the child would not as likely self-harm for attention. Other methods for helping adolescents to stop self-harming include teaching them to accept reality, identifying feelings and talking about them rather than acting on them, distracting themselves from feelings of self-harm, evaluating the pros and cons of self-injury, soothing themselves in a positive way, and practicing positive stress management (Self-Injury in Adolescents). I believe parents need to be more involved in their childrens emotional lives and help them develop it rather than letting peers and social media shape childrens emotions. Lastly, I believe divorce among parents cause many children to seek attention and emotional help through social media. Ninety-three studies in the late nineteen hundreds showed that children with divorced parents struggle more than those with married parents. Academics, conduct, psychological well-being, self-esteem and peer relations were all worsened. Most importantly though, children in divorced families have weaker bonds with their fathers and mothers than do children in two-

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parent families (Amato). I can directly relate to this situation. My parents divorced during my fifth grade year. In middle school, I sought and found emotional attention through instant messaging with friends on the Internet. I also struggled building close relationships with both of my parents over the years. Although I did not struggle with behavioral problems, self-harming, or many of the other problems I have talked about within this paper, many children today are struggling with these issues. Children are going to seek attention in negative ways if they are not receiving positive attention from the most important people in their lives, their families. I believe action needs to be taken by parents and by law that will prevent these negative influences from shaping the behavior of children. Parents should begin monitoring their childrens activities with technology, and become more involved in their childrens lives. Parents should stop relying on technology to entertain their children everyday, and find other activities for their children to become involved in such as sports or clubs. I believe this would reduce a childs use of technology. Also, I think the government needs to step up and monitor websites and social media. There has to be a way to prevent such young children from being on social media or on websites they should not be on. I believe with the rise of technology and computers, it is becoming like another society that requires more law enforcement. Maybe the government should open a department significantly to monitor social media sites and the Internet. This would help reduce cyber-bullying, crime, self-harming among children, and many other problems. Another idea I have for reducing these problems is just doing away with technology to adolescents and making it illegal to possess before a certain age. If access to many influences of today were reduced, then less ways to behave would be offered.

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Works Cited

Amato, Paul. "The Impact of Family Formation Change on the Cognitive, Social, and Emotional Well-Being of the Next Generation." Marriage and Child Wellbeing. 15.2 (2005): n. page. Web. 29 Mar. 2014. Clinton, Chelsea, and James Steyer. "Is the Internet Hurting Children?" CNN Opinion. CNN, 21 May 2012. Web. 19 Mar 2014. Greenfield, Susan. Interview by bren49764. Impact of Technology on Childrens Brains. Youtube. YouTube. 28 Mar 2011. Web. 19 Mar 2014. Kobola, Frank. "People Who Started Dating Young Have More Problems." MSN Living Love & Sex. MSN. Web. 19 Mar 2014 PerthTenNews. An Alarming Link Between Social Media and Teenagers Self Harming. 2012. Video. YouTube, Perth. Web. 19 Mar 2014. Revelant, Julie. "Cutting and Self-harm: Is Your Kid Doing it?" Fox News Health. Fox News Network, 16 Mar 2014. Web. 19 Mar 2014. Schenek, Dan. Study: Younger Children Engaging in Self-injury. 2012. Video. HLN DrDREW. Web. 19 Mar 2014. "Self-Injury in Adolescents." Facts for Families Pages. American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, n.d. Web. 19 Mar 2014. University of Oxford. "How Internet Affects Young People at Risk of Self-harm, Suicide." Science Daily. Science Daily, 30 Oct 2013. Web. 19 Mar 2014. Wilson, Barbara. "Media and Children's Aggression, Fear, and Altruism." Children and Electronic Media. 18.1 (2008): n. page. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.

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Reflection Questions: 1. The most interesting thing I learned through this inquiry process is how so many factors can be related to each other. I found out that children use technology for way too many areas of their lives. I would have never known that a child would research on the Internet self-harm before they performed it. It was also interesting to find out how much self-harm increased due to social media and the Internet. It was also interesting to find that parents divorces could tie to a childs overuse of social media and the Internet. 2. I definitely struggled with tying all of my factors together in a concise way that makes sense. I wanted to put together a strong, effective argument that made sense to a reader. I had to spend much time organizing my thoughts, way more time than I thought I would have to spend doing that. 3. I would not say my question changed, but I definitely had to narrow my question down to a smaller spectrum as I answered it. There are way too many factors that affect childhood development to focus on, so I have to narrow my question down to modern effects on childhood development, which is technology. 4. It is important to consider in my historical view that technology has greatly increased over the last decade. It has brought about many influences upon children that were not historically available. That is one reason I wrote my paper, in order to focus on how childhood development is changing. 5. Yes, I believe my analytical skills have changed because not only did I have to understand how all of my factors tied together, but I also had to summarize them and make an effective, understandable argument with my evaluation skills. 6. I was most proud of being able to finish my paper because I sure did struggle with trying to organize it, but I did not give up. I felt like my topic was broad and complicated, but I narrowed

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it down to a way that made my argument effective I believe. I also tried to develop my paper into a climax type way, and I feel I was successful with that. I started with minor effects, and worked my way up to major effects, while still tying them all together. I hope the information in my paper keeps the reader shocked as they go along, and keeps them interested until the end. 7. I would like to know more about how much social media is talked about among adolescents at school. I believe peer pressure causes children to want to be involved in social media. It would also be interesting to know how many parents know what their children do on social media and the Internet.