The Effects of Technology Use in Early Childhood

It is obvious that technology has become completely ingrained in our society. From phones and computers being necessary for most modern-day tasks, to the emergence of AI as an increasingly useful tool in many modern industries, technology is largely inescapable. But a question must be asked of how we can protect our children. Now I know it can be funny to make fun of the nonsensical nature of Gen Alpha’s “humor” today, with many kids spending far too much time talking about mewing and watching Skibidi toilet (two popular Gen Alpha memes). However, aside from jokes, this recent emergence of technology and internet access as a consistent part of life from early childhood poses many threats.

The first of these is the effect it has on the education system, with many teachers complaining of Gen Alpha students’ misbehavior. Now this is not a new phenomenon, as children have always been known to act out and misbehave, especially when forced to be at school – an inherently unpopular location for children. However, these complaints have been far from ordinary. On a Reddit thread posted in 2023 about teaching Gen Alpha students, one teacher commented that they have “noticed [Gen Alpha] never admit fault.” With the example of asking a student to pick up a pencil they threw on the ground, the teacher comments that “Previous generations would either say no or my bad and pick it up. Gen [Alpha] takes a different approach, they act completely indignant that you had the nerve to [accuse] them,” “then throw a huge tantrum denying they have ever held a pencil.” With learning already delayed for many young students due to COVID lockdowns and Zoom classes, distractions caused by misbehavior only exacerbate this already pressing issue. Not only is this a problem for children’s educational outcomes, but also for the future of teaching as a profession. Although not completely attributed to Gen Alpha’s behavior, teaching shortages have become yet another task that America has to deal with. The NCES reported in late 2022 that “18 percent of public schools had one teaching vacancy and 26 percent had multiple teaching vacancies.” Many factors such as low pay or frustrating administration can help explain this data, but it stands to reason that a disinterest in dealing with today’s youth is at least one of the factors contributing to this issue.

Moreover, these behavioral deficits reach beyond just the classroom environment. Conrad Tan, a current high schooler who volunteered for a summer camp watching over 6 and 7-year-olds, described his experience leading these children in the summer of 2023 as a “living hell.” When discussing specifics about their misbehavior, Conrad Tan explained that “kids of this new generation are loud, restless and incredibly difficult people to work with socially. Always interrupting leaders during activities, having little respect for one-another and unable to sit still for more than a few minutes.” In conjunction with this misbehavior, Tan is also getting at the problem of decreased attention spans for members of Gen Alpha, which has also been criticized as a product of widespread internet access.

The Cleveland Clinic reported on one 2018 study that found that “students who reported using digital media many times a day were more likely than their peers to show” two symptoms commonly associated with ADHD. These symptoms include “Inattention, such as difficulty organizing and completing tasks” and “Hyperactivity-impulsivity, such as having trouble sitting still.” While increases in ADHD can’t be attributed directly to internet access, these recent findings provide a strong correlation between internet use and attention problems, which have potentially negative effects on many aspects of an individual’s life, namely success in school and career.

With these problems for Gen Alpha established, some may ask if this can truly be attributed to technology, and who is to blame. Ryan Lowe, a child and adolescent psychotherapist and spokesperson for the Association of Child Psychotherapists, said to Vice in an interview in November of 2023 that “The issue with screens is not that they are terrible in themselves, but that they are being used as babysitters, and to shut children up.” Lowe says that this causes children to not learn “the basic skills of patience and containing themselves long enough to manage something difficult or frustrating.” Lowe continues this line of reasoning, arguing that “if a device is put in front of a child the minute they start to fret or find things difficult, then that’s the only way they learn to cope with difficult feelings”. This issue is actually one of parenting, as children are not just randomly stumbling into technology and getting hooked. When parents continually use technology as a source of distraction for their children, they are inadvertently robbing them of the opportunity to build skills that eventually set them up to be well-behaved with full attention spans. Children become dependent on technology as an outlet or cure for boredom, not wanting to engage outside of the digital world or practice patience. Although regulation on certain devices or applications could help curb some negative effects of technology use at early ages, parents in the future ultimately need to do a better job of limiting their children’s technology use themselves and exposing them to formative experiences outside of the digital world.