Technology Is Shaping Kids Minds

Dr. Jim Taylor at University of San Francisco. Stated in Psychology Today magazine that internet are constantly shaping how children think. Internet is a extreme rapid pace, we have no supports from the history nor time to stop and think the effect of the advanced technology have brought and the impact on children. Compared to past generation, technology is so rapidly exposed to the young children, it has gradually changed children’s thoughts and mind. It might even have shaped their brain a different way then it’s supposed to be(Taylor).

So when the influences of technology are within the minds of our youth, it is nothing but expected for them to be influenced by it. For example, when a new trend takes place on the Internet students begin to follow it like the Tide Pod challenge that took place at the beginning of the year. When this challenge started students everywhere began participating in a dangerous event thought youth was just something for fun. However, other students are using technology and media for the benefit of things. The students from Parkland, Florida used technology to speak out against and bring awareness for gun violence. Although there is much controversy from this event, it still shows that technology can be used for

Technology is an important aspect of change in our world. As time goes on, we are introduced to more and more technology every year, which includes media such as video games. The increase of technology has also increased and improved the world including ways of communicating and distribution of information. More often used outlets of media are those used for entertainment purposes, like television, internet and video games. The ones who are most likely to engage in these media outlets are millennials and the most recent generation Z, because they have been introduced to these outlets from a young age. In fact, a study found that children spend around 9 hours a week playing video games (Polman, de Castro, & van Aken, 2008). It is evident that video games are progressively becoming more violent in nature, and with children spending as much time as they do playing video games, there are questions that must be asked, is the violent nature of video games effecting today’s youth? And if so in what ways?

Technology has become second nature to our daily lives because we use it to think when we can’t, to help us from being bored, and to keep us in touch with the world. Hank Pellissier, in his article, “Your Child’s Brain on Technology: Video Games” quotes, “Take a deep breath. To relax, you scroll through Facebook and catch up on your email. Meekly, you join the other mesmerized zombies.” Clearly, we’re infected by these upcoming innovations and awaiting for fresh creativity. And speaking of zombies: my son plays Plants vs. Zombies, and as scary as that game may sound by its title, it distinctly lives up to its name. It is an entertaining strategic game that helps you think and act fast by using plants to destroy various skilled zombies. Video games are all fun and games, until someone gets hurt right? They can be detrimental for people who are wrongly influenced by it.

Additionally, although violent video games might expose children to violent behavior, the amount of violence are not as great as the ones in movies and television. The news is filled with stories of war and murder, and nearly every movie contains some forms of violence. Plus, these two media are different from games in a very important way because they involve real people, not computer-generated characters. One of the social psychological science faculties in

Many people may believe that violent media makes children behave violently.They might be correct, as many as 97% of US kids age 12-17 play video games, contributing to $21.53 billion domestic video game industry (Does). More than half of the top 50 best-selling games contain violence(Does).

A ponderous medium of media is video games in co-relation to violence. Video games encourage violent behavior in children as they are at a crucial stage of adaptation.

Technology has always changed world’s face and in one view makes the life easier for humans. In these few decades, technology has a lot of progress and now more than before people live in an electronic jungle. The human’s nature is a powerful engine for people to look for more shortcuts in the life. As the society depends on technology more and more to find an answer for humans’ problem, the ability of thinking for themselves among people reduces. Kids influence by technology’s effect more than adults. Higher technology tools change the structure of children thinking and also cause children cannot use their minds for solving problems.

The current generation of children is completely different than the preceding ones. They are living in the digital age. “Technology has blended in with daily activity to become a way of life and children today take for granted all of which is automated. It is hard for kids nowadays to imagine a world that existed without all of the gadgets, electronics and seamless operations that computer technology provides.” (3) “Children in the United States devote some 40 hours a week to television, video games and the Internet.” (12) Many psychologists and researchers are concerned about the impact that technology has on children. Children, tomorrow’s future parents and leaders, are being consumed by the negative effects that technology had on their

The graphics in games now make the game almost look as if it were real life. That has brought the video game industry a lot more players and part of those new gamers are young children. The issue is when a child is presented with a violent video game that has really good graphics the child has a better understanding of what is going on in that game. Because children can relate what is going in the video game to the real world, that leads children to believe that the actions being done in that video game are accepted in society. If the children believe that its right from them to do violent actions that they learned from the game there attitude starts becoming more aggressive. Anne Harding says “children who watch violence in the media can internalize the message that the world is a hostile place...”.

Controversy about video games continue to escalate between parents and gamers, regarding the psychological effect of simulated, realistic, and 3D violence on the minds of young children and growing teenagers. Yet, research shows that video games contribute very little to today’s everyday violence, despite complaints and concerns that games influence a child’s normal behavior. Technology is a way of life in today’s world, computers are used by toddlers, adolescents, and adults alike. No matter what career path a person chooses, the computer plays an essential role in the job. The more our technology progresses and as our industry grows stronger, computers and electronic entertainment will grow to be found everywhere around the world. This includes videogames.

“Recent contents analyses of video games show that many as 89% of games contain some violent contents” (Gentile, Lynch, Linder, Walsh 3). More than half of video games being sold around the world contain some form of violence. All of the violence involved in the video games being played by children is a pattern leading to aggression. Aggression can be caused by many things; however, violent video games are the main cause of aggression in young adults. “If a child began playing violent video games at a young age, then he might think that violence in real life is the same as the game violence and that it doesn’t have a real impact on others” (Gilad, Alto 1). Thinking that violence in the virtual world is the same as in the real world is the first step to showing aggression. Aggression in children caused by video games is the biggest effect parents and researchers worry about. Violent video games teach children that shooting and killing people are

According to the A.C. Nielsen Company, kids watch TV for an average of 3.5 hours per day. That’s roughly half the amount of time that they spend in school on a typical weekday. It amounts to about 24 hours per week, which means that TV has a significant influence on what kids are learning – or not learning.

Video games are also another form of entertainment that can promote violence. Many children spent most of their time in front of a TV playing video games. Video games have become a more recent trend. Many games consist of cursing, shooting, beating, and killing humans and monsters. The most games played are games that include killing and slaughtering other creatures and sports games that also have aggressive behavior. Video games have a stronger effect on children than watching television because the players take a direct and active task in the violence. The violence in these games can give them the idea that violence is an acceptable way to deal with problems.

Aimee Tompkins (2003) claims that children are being affected by everything what they see around them in the youth, and people, who see violence in the youth, always tend to be more hostile and less responsive to images of violence. That 's why parents try to border children from any possible negative influences. But they often do not even realize that by buying to child a game console, they put them into the risk. Since most video games contain violent character. According to statistics given by the ‘Children now’ organization (2001), 89% of the top-selling video games have violent character and serious violence is contained in half of them.