Impact of Mobile Phones on Children
The Impacts of Mobile Phones on Socialization of Children as Child Cuddling is Being Replaced by Mobile Phones
The shifting of family structure from joint family to nuclear family, rapid development and penetrations of IT services in people’s daily lives and busy work and daily schedules of both parents and their children has led to degradation of the traditional children and caregiver relationship which is replaced by human to gadgets relationship, as people tend to spend more time with their phones than with each other. This has made significant impacts on children and how they socialize.
Impacts of increased screen time on Socialisation of Children
Positive Impacts
- Worldwide Connections: Children can now connect with people from all over the world , interact with them and learn from them.
- Acquire Diverse Knowledge: With their mobile phones, children can now have access to numerous content which give them the opportunity to educate themselves about different topics related to world affairs , philosophies, diverse cultures, skills, etc.
- Technological Advancement: With increased amount of time that children spend with their mobile phones, they are getting more accustomed to new technologies, inventions, specifications and user knowledge of different services.
- Provides them a Platform: Social media and mobile phones give children a platform and access to a large audience to showcase their talents and also learn new skills from other creators.
Negative Impacts
1. Degradation of Value: With decreased human to human contacts and decreased amount of time children spend interacting with their elders and guardians, there is slow development of emotional intelligence and core values among children which is further leading to low empathy and estrangement among them.
2. Low Self Worth: With the advent of social media, there is an ongoing unhealthy phenomenon of comparing one’s life with other’s life on social media, measuring one’s self worth on the basis of their social media followers and number of likes, which is leading to inferiority complex and feelings of self doubt among children.
3. Mental Health Issues: Less human interactions and increase in screen time and cases of cyber bullying has led to loneliness and mental health issues like phone addiction and depression among children which further pushes them into isolation and further restricts them from socializing.
4. Cyber Crimes: As children spend more time with their phones, they are more susceptible to cyber crimes like online frauds, sexual grooming, child pornography, etc. which can have a lasting impact on a child’s psyche.
Children are a nation’s future. Theirs appropriate physical, psychological
and emotional development needs to be ensured so they can develop holistically
and share a healthy bond filled with empathy and values with others. The way we
rear them and bring them up will determine the future of the country.