Nowadays, the
usage
of
smartphones
by
children
has increased considerably, spending on them numerous
hours
per day. There are many reasons that may cause
this
trend, but the most important ones are technological developments related to audiovisual
devices
and the high exposure to social media. Even if
smartphones
brought ease in communications, I consider that exposing
children
to the influence of these kinds of
devices
may have very negative effects on their personal development and social skills.
To begin
with, technological advances in audiovisual
devices
caused critical changes and improvements in the way that human beings communicate and interact with each other. There is nothing wrong with it.
However
, excessive
usage
of these
devices
by
children
creates overstimulation which implies addictive conduct.
For instance
, many statistics have proved that
children
between 4 and 8 years of age who spend around 4
hours
on their
smartphones
have developed more anxiety and attention disorders.
To sum up
, spending many daily
hours
on these
devices
does not contribute to their health and well-being.
Besides
this
, there is a current trend in which
children
communicate with each other through social media, which
also
impacts negatively on their social skills development.
For example
, teachers have reported that their young students do not interact with their pairs as pupils of their age used to do it. There is evidence that they have been using their
smartphones
more than expected, being more interested in chatting through Apps like What’s Up, Instagram or Facebook.
In addition
to
this
,
children
have become more worried about their physical appearance as they follow many YouTubers and singers who show a certain fashion looking as the only one
that is
right in society. Because of
this
, activities
such
as playing games and singing childhood songs decreased its popularity, ruining their face-to-face interaction.
In conclusion, excessive
usage
of
smartphones
by
children
is directly related to technological advances over decades which created at the same time huge advances in social media, making them more addictive to consume. In
this
case, we cannot deny that smartphone creation implicated great improvements.
However
, if it is used by
children
for many
hours
every day will probably harm their childhoods, creating more anxiety and decreasing their social skills, which is why I believe that
this
is a beneficial development for humankind but a very negative one for
children
if their
usage
is not restricted.