Technology Balance for Children

Every day children use technology without knowing the effects and influences of screens on their actions, moods, and bodies. This topic is hotly contested as parents often don’t know what is too much screen time and when to set limits. Yes, I know screens are fun and they most definitely pass the time easily, but many children do spend way too much time on them every day. While technology has a lot of positive effects, it is also important to ensure there is supervision and management put in place.

By now you are probably wondering what those negative effects of not supervising your child are. That is the focus of this letter. First of all, no screen supervision and letting your child have a lot of screen time creates addiction and emotional instability. The New York Times article Can Students Have Too Much Technology Time? says that video games are building anxiety that then turns into anger. This suggests that children, especially in their teen years, tend to have mood swings, and screens have a high risk of triggering them. Yes, some may argue that their children are not in their teen years yet and they won’t be for a while. However the article Video Game Rage by Victoria L. Dunckley, an adolescent and adult psychiatrist, quotes that “Mood swings may happen in the child's teen years, but headaches and possibly migraines happen to children of all ages.” (Dunckley, 2015). In conclusion, it is essential that parents need to know when the screens are harming their child mentally and physically, and they need to know when to put a stop to it.

Furthermore, many kids are just too young. Going out to dinner with my family, and looking around, I see babies even under the age of two on iPads and iPhones. They’re not learning to socialize. I feel very strongly about this as my parents grew up not using technology and they have taught me to manage my time on devices so that I learn many skills needed for the big world. The article Kids Spend Too Much Time on Technology quotes “68% of children under the age of two are on media every day.” (Cohen, 2016). This is significant and impacts self-regulation and attention skills necessary for learning. The article also says that many children in struggling families tend to have higher grades at the end of high school as they learn how to self-manage better and learn better time management skills. Children learning how to use technology, even before they have learned how to talk, brings attention to the point that screens are changing the next generation's social skills and everyday skills. This will harm the next society and change the way people communicate forever.

Finally, my last reason why supervision needs to be put into place is because technology limits the child’s creativity and imagination. Just think back to your childhood when you would walk outside and see children playing hopscotch and tag. Without technology supervision, the next society will be different as there is a likely chance you might not see any children outside playing those fun old games anymore. The article The Impact of Technology on Developing Children says that 75% of children have a television in their room, and 50% of North American households have their television on all day. One personal example of this is when I didn’t have a computer. I would always find something to do outside or inside depending on the weather. However now I’m often on my laptop, I feel that I have lost a bit of my imagination as sometimes I can’t think of anything to do. The article also quotes, “Technology limits necessary challenges that the body needs to learn how to handle.” (Wakefield, 2014). This idea is crucial as, even if we don’t want to admit it, we know that nothing good comes out of being couch potatoes.

In this day and age, technology is all around us and it seems impossible to avoid. However, it is clear that the overuse of technology can have serious negative effects, and supervision will help children avoid them for the long term.


"Technology in Schools: Future Changes in Classrooms - BBC News." BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2016.

"Kids Spend Too Much Time with Technology." Newsworks.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2016.

Pinker, Susan. "Can Students Have Too Much Tech?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 29 Jan. 2015. Web. 16 Mar. 2016.

"Five Ways Teachers Can Use Technology to Help Students." The Brookings Institution. N.p., 07 May 2013. Web. 16 Mar. 2016.

Rowan, Cris. "The Impact of Technology on the Developing Child." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2016.