The Internet and Its Negative Social Effects on Child

Development

By: Katelyn Cross

The Internet as the Social Demise of Our

Society What does it mean to be human?

› Is it our opposable thumbs? › Our ability to speak?› Natural need to be social?

Is it possible that our human need to be social, will also cause the social demise of our society? Of our race?

Some of the Basics…

Members of Generation Y or Don Tapscott’s Net Generation have experienced the negative social effects of the internet more perhaps than any other generation thus far.

The internet progressed from a dial-up connection through telephone lines to high speed and high definition capabilities.

Negative Social Effects of the Internet

Communication through the internet has lead members of society to become:› Depressed› Impersonal› Lazy› Impatient› Inability to focus› “Me Monster” Syndrome

Negative Social Effects of the Internet: Depression

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42298789/ns/health-mental_health/

Social Networking Sites

So what’s the big deal, you ask? The problem is not Facebook itself, but the

interactive nature of the communication, as well as the context of the communication.

Because the communication occurs more through the internet, and not in person, kids are not learning how to communicate in the “real world”.

They’re not able to make and maintain eye contact.

Social Networking Sites

According to the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project:

31% of 12 year olds in 2006 in the US were actively using social networking sites

By mid-2009 this grew to 38%› More kids are taking advantage of social

networking sites at younger ages.

Social Networking Sites

Kids are also lying about their ages in order to create an account.

As a result, kids are being exposed to content that they’re necessarily not ready to handle.

Websites for Younger Children & How They’re

Affecting Them So we know the sites that are popular with

older teens and young adults, but what site’s target younger children?

-Club Penguin -Kidzworld -Webkinz -Imbee

Websites for Younger Children & How They’re

Affecting Them

Because these sites are targeting children at younger and younger ages, kids are growing up being constantly exposed to the internet.

Younger children, more so than teenagers, are exhibiting more of the negative effects of the internet, be they grow up with it, it’s all they know.

Effects on Younger Children

Younger Children are exhibiting the following effects:

Laziness Impatient Inability to Focus

Developmental Effects of the

Brain

According to the article, Web Sites for Young Children: Gateway to Online Social Networking?, time on the computer, on the internet "creates a hyper-fluid sense of identity".

“Me Monster Syndrome”o The idea that kids have become more

egocentric.o By posting status updates through social

networking sites, kids make their lives public to others on the internet, and essentially create opportunities to boast about themselves on these sites.

o The comments that they receive from their friends act as fuel for their ego.

o Where does this come from?

Words from the Wise:What Are Teacher’s

Noticing in the Classroom? impulsivity inattentiveness lack of verbal reasoning lack of listening skills lack of independent work skills more needed scaffolding or guiding by the teacher decline in work ethic and motivation short attention span teacher needing to break up the day more because the

students can't focus for more than 10 min at a time lack of critical thinking and creativity and imagination