Due to the advanced world, we live in, at young ages, individuals are exposed to an abundance of technology that can ultimately affect them in various ways; this can be detrimental to their wellbeing as their educational needs, social and mental health are all at stake of being compromised due to this exposure.

There are three main reasons why children and adolescents are using technology. For one, it’s there. Technology is a part of everyone’s daily activities so of course children will come across it and use it. Secondly, it provides entertainment for children. With technology, children can play games, watch videos, scroll through social media and much more. In addition, due to the fear of missing out more children will use technology as well. Lastly, educational reasons tend to be another large factor to why children and adolescents utilize technology. In elementary school children have computer classes and learn how to type. By the time they reach high school, a laptop may even become required for their classes. So, children won’t escape technology usage at home, and they most definitely won’t when they are in school.

The usage of social media can have various effects on the mental health of children and adolescents as it can increase social isolation, depression, and anxiety. Though social media can be a great community, there are side effects from absorbing an abundance of information every day. When people use social media, there tends to be a cycle of depression as the more one uses it the more depressed one becomes, however if one is already depressed the more likely one is to use it. In addition, when people use social media, they are regularly going to be spending their time thinking about how they perceive themselves, and how people are perceiving them. If adolescents are fixated on these thoughts, it will increase their anxiety and social isolation.

The extensive usage of social media and having instant conversations with people online can also lead to the loss of social skills. At young ages while we are learning how to communicate with others, much of that time is spent learning to read social and visual cues, but these types of cues do not exist on the internet. The friendships and conversations we have at a young age are the basis of how we are going to navigate adult relationships and friendships in the future. This crucial part of childhood has been taken away and is inhibiting social skills which means levels of social anxiety will be increasing.

The growing pace of technology signifies that children and adolescents have access to an abundance of material online, which means they have more access than ever to absorb graphic and adult content. Exposure to internet pornography can start as early as 10-14 years old, however as various forms of technology have become increasingly more in use, this age is going to get lower. Exposure at these ages tends to be by accident through clicking around; a child can click on one wrong thing and easily be succumbed to adult content. This repeated exposure can be traumatic for a child and have various effects on a child’s overall well-being and mental health. Seeing this content, at a young age can be damaging to their future sexual relationships and the way they see sex.

The coronavirus pandemic provided a great test to see if technology would be enough to teach the students of the world; however, it proved that “technology is not able to take the place of a quality teacher. Children were not learning as much as they usually did from a normal school year even with the access to applications like zoom that could stimulate a “normal” classroom. In general technology leads to more dependence, less creativity, and more distraction in the classroom. In addition, there has been added pressure on educators to add technology in the classrooms, which ultimately would be more blue light exposure in a child’s life; a child’s screen time has tripled in the last couple of years.

Now, the question is what should we do about these effects? Children need to know how technology works. In this day in age, using a computer is considered a basic human skill that people need in order to be successful in the future. So, the point of this paper is not to take technology away from children but rather, the world needs to try and limit the detrimental effects of technology communication on children. There are two ways the world can combat this from a parental point of view and from a law making and technology perspective. Parents need to be more involved in their children’s lives when it comes to technology, and they must be role models for healthy usage. Tech companies and lawmakers should work on protecting children from the dangers of technology.

There is no doubt that the internet can provide some great benefits for people, but it’s important for the world to be mindful of the negatives as well. We must always make sure that we outweigh the positives and negatives when introducing technology into young people’s minds. They are the future of the world and they do not deserve to suffer these traumatic and mentally draining experiences.