The effects technology has on the social skills of young viewers - Research

Reference

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/09/children-texting-technology-social-skills_n_1137570.html

Bindley, K.B. (2011). When children text all day, what happens to their social skills?. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/09/children-texting-technology-social-skills_n_1137570.html.


I came across this article by the Huffington Post which looks at the effects technology has on the social skills of young kids. There's a question that caught my eye which I thought was interesting to think about, "Will they be able to hold their own in conversation?" I thought this was interesting because we spend so much time communicating online but how does it affect our social skills in person or does it affect it at all?

The article states that many of us don't exercise our face to face socialization muscles as much as we did in the past, this could affect those who has to talk to strangers they have never spoke to before, would they know how to interact properly? Well, Melissa Ortega who is a child psychologist believes that "they don't know how to handle conflict face to face because so many things happen through some sort of technology." Conversation needs practice and kids who are dependent on technology will struggle to interact. Another thing that could affect them is to initiate conversations, since they are not used to it, they wouldn't know how to start a conversation.

Another part that I found interesting was the difference between speaking to someone on a device to speaking to them in person and the difference is big, for example, it's easier to read someone in person because you get to see their face, how they move, their eye contact and the pauses between the interaction which then you have to respond on your feet right away, it's more powerful and it stimulates the brain more than speaking to someone behind a screen, from that, you get to learn facial expressions and what to say, this is what is lacking when speaking to someone on a device.

Let's forget for a second on how kids are using technology and focus on why they are using it. Kids are using technology to soothe and entertain themselves, they have nothing to do at times so they turn their attention to technology instead of using their imagination to entertain themselves which what kids used to do in the past, that could have an impact on their creativity.