Essay on Negative Effects of Electronics on Young Children and Adolescents

The world today or rather the modern world is well known to have been faced with the issue of technology and the growths that are affiliated by its existence. Technology is one a factor that has been seen to develop very fast and the rate of which it keeps on growing is quite alarming. Thanks to the rapid growth of technology, nearly all sectors of the world have been affected for instance religion, business, social relations and even the economy as well as the political bit of the world. All these elements mentioned above are experiencing a change, and this is because of the existence of technology. Thanks to technology, there have been more sophisticated electronic devices or rather gadgets being introduced. With such in mind, then even the children are not spared off the ravages of effects of technology. Most young people are known to be having technological devices and other electronics and these pose them to a lot of dangers. The young generation is seen to be suffering from the continuous exposure to electronic devices and other forms of technology. This paper seeks to have a comprehensive review of the effects of technological tools, commonly known as electronic devices, on the young children and adolescents.

First, one of the most common electronic devices that the young adolescents and teenagers are fond of is the television. Studies and research have proven that most children spend an average of 15 hours of their regular days watching the TV (Owens, Judith, and Adolescent Sleep Working Group e925). This same research shows that these children eat a lot of junk food while watching the televisions such are a clear indication of serious risks being posed to the health of these children. It is worth noting that teenagers or rather the adolescents have the types of bodies that are still undergoing some changes that are necessary for their healthy development. If they begin to set other feeding habits, it is likely that they will adapt to doing that and will carry such poor eating habits into their adulthood. The eventual results of such actions are getting obese or even becoming overweight. This is one common problem that is known to have been tagged along with the idea of access to televisions by the young people.

Second, researchers have proven that most young people can do up to seven tasks at a go. For instance, an average teen would chat, check his email, texting, listen to music and at the same time call someone. This, if given to an older adult to do will make them confused. However, the young people can manage this will no difficulties at all. This may sound to be advantageous, but in the real sense, it hinders with a part of their brain that is responsible for learning. Their brains get too much engaged such that understanding or even learning the topics that are taught in school becomes hectic. It is true that such makes it easy for them to multitask but then it also has severe implications on their ability to focus properly hence poor performance in school.

Notably, teenagers are this type of individuals that are still on the verge of having a discovery of themselves and who they truly are. Exposure to technological devices and even the electronics would have a severe impact on their self-identification. The electronics such as the mobile phones and the computers are likely to display pornographic pictures of people and portray them as to be normal. The teenagers, on the other hand, may end up copying such and engaging themselves in strange characters. The human body is known to operate in the GIGO mode and whatever is fed to the mind is exactly what someone does. Therefore, if a teenager is exposed to porn and even habits such as smoking and drinking, it is more likely that they will grow to own these behaviors. Indeed, we can as well assert that electronic devices impact on the development of the teenagers and young adolescents and this can be proven as above.

Third, most teenagers are known to be movies and game addicts such that they watch a lot of movies and play so many games. Such could pose a lot of risk in their well-being since most of these games and movies are characterized by violent actions. The more the teens spend their time engaging themselves with violent and aggressive stuff, the higher their chances of developing such traits to be part of their character. With the development of aggressive nature, then an individual is more likely to engage in fights with his peers or even argue uncontrollably with his teachers and even the elders. Ideally, electronic devices would make an individual develop certain characters that are not worth admiring.

Additionally, some people argue that an additional electronic device in a childs or even teenagers room would have negative implications on their sleeping habits. The electronic devices being given to the young people are more than likely to interrupt their regular sleeping patterns. Most of the teens are known to be having friends who keep them engaged up to very late hours of the night. That aside, they go on and receive calls and text messages even while sleeping. This affects them in the sense that they are not able to sleep soundly. It is advisable that phones are switched off during sleep time to ensure that there is zero interference with the childs sleep.

Another common form of electronic that is being seen to impact on the young adults is the electric cigarette. This is one a technological device that most young people are seen to be embracing with much passion. Most young people engage themselves with the electronic cigarette and they argue that it is a safer way to smoke compared to the sticks bought in shops (Goniewicz et al. 715). This poses their health into a lot of risks and thus ought to be avoided or even banned among the teenagers.

It has been proven that such constant exposure to electronics by the young people is a potential cause for mental health problems. Most young people when tired or even depressed are seen to turn to their video games and play as a way of relieving themselves of the stress. However much this may seem to be helpful, it is not helpful as it only makes the individual addicted to these devices. Once addicted, they may have problems with associating with other important stuff such as academics or even their friends and family (Rosen et al. 370). They end up not engaging themselves with other things, and the result of such actions is laziness and lack of proper development due to poor social interaction. Therefore we can assert that continuous exposure to electronic devices has proven to be of more harm to the adolescents and teenagers than good.

One final flaw that is associated with the young people being exposed to electronic devices is the fact that it affects their safety. In the modern world, the idea of sexting has been known t be common among the young people. It involves children and young adults transmitting explicit sexual pictures and videos through the cell phones or even emails. This is evidence that their morals end up being corrupt. That aside, they end up being charged with child pornography. This may affect them the rest of their lives. Also, by sending such pictures and videos, the teens make themselves more vulnerable to the sexual predators who seek out for younger people to recruit in the industries.

Summarily, technology is one a factor that is known to have had its effects cut across all the sectors of the world. It has led to the development of electronic devices which have been proven to have both positive and negative implications for individuals. The young children have been shown to be most affected by the negative impacts of these technological devices. The different ways to which the electronics affect the young people have been displayed in this paper. They include impacting on their development, posing health risks to them such s obesity and mental disorder, makes individuals lack proper focus and finally corrupts the morals of these young people. Indeed, it is right to assert that the idea or rather concept of technology and electronics, despite having numerous advantages, have more negative implications for the children and young people.

Works Cited

Owens, Judith, and Adolescent Sleep Working Group. "Insufficient sleep in adolescents and young adults: an update on causes and consequences." Pediatrics 134.3 (2014): e921-e932.

Lemola, Sakari, et al. "Adolescents electronic media use at night, sleep disturbance, and depressive symptoms in the smartphone age." Journal of youth and adolescence 44.2 (2015): 405-418.

Rosen, Larry D., et al. "Media and technology use predicts ill-being among children, preteens and teenagers independent of the negative health impacts of exercise and eating habits." Computers in human behavior 35 (2014): 364-375.

Hajek, Peter, et al. "Electronic cigarettes: review of use, content, safety, effects on smokers and potential for harm and benefit." Addiction 109.11 (2014): 1801-1810.

Goniewicz, Maciej L., et al. "Rise in electronic cigarette use among adolescents in Poland." Journal of Adolescent Health 55.5 (2014): 713-715.