Christian Arocha

Marc Sanchez
Jerick Zen Sildo
Christ the King College
STS

Children’s use of Technology and social media

Children’s use of Technology
 Parenting children of today’s generation comes with a unique set of challenges due to the
many recent advancements in technology. There is no denying the reach technology has in
our lives, as well as the lives of our children. Technology is virtually in every home in one way
or another. How often do kids use technology? Nearly 84 percent of parents said their children
use technology with them or another parent in the home. For those parents who said they
personally engaged in technology with their children, 35 percent said they spend from 30
minutes to one hour a day and 23 percent said they engage from one to two hours a day.
Therefore, it’s important for parents to be mindful of how their children use technology and the
potential effects—both positive and negative.
Negative Impacts
Technology can negatively affect children’s developing social skills, relationships, health, and overall
ability to focus.
 Social skills: With the increased use of technology, children might not be adequately
developing their social skills. This can lead to more children being socially awkward,
withdrawn, shy, or intimidated by social situations. They might not know how to engage with
other children or adults. Developing social skills takes practice, and if technology is often in the
way, there are fewer opportunities for kids to develop these skills.
 Relationships: Children might get used to being alone and lose the desire to engage with their
parents or even friends, outside of the internet. Often the virtual reality of their devices is more
appealing and entertaining than the physical reality.
 Health problems: Technology can potentially influence the child’s developing brain and
problem-solving skills. For instance, the child might be reliant on a device to solve problems for
them rather than using brain connections to work through a problem and find a solution. There
could also be a lack of exercise due to being inside, which can cause weight gain. If kids use
their devices before bedtime, this could lead to reduced sleep quality, affecting their overall
wellbeing and immune system.
 Ability to focus: Children who spend a lot of time using devices might have a reduced
attention span and ability to focus due to their reliance on technology to pay attention for them.
This is evident in classrooms, where teachers are opting for shorter lesson plans to
accommodate students becoming easily distracted.
 Dangers of browsing: With so much information available on the internet, it’s difficult for
parents to monitor what their children are exposed to, including inappropriate content or
interactions with strangers.
Positive Impacts
There are also many ways in which technology can positively impact our lives and those of our
children—it all depends on how the technology is being used.
 Organization: Technology can be beneficial to organization and planning. For example,
families can keep an online calendar to make it easier to stay updated on each other’s
schedules. Group text messaging is also convenient for streamlining communication and
keeping everyone in the loop. Lastly, technology also makes budgeting easier with different
apps, which can help parents teach children about money management.
 Research and critical thinking: The internet provide access to a great deal of information
and resources to help children learn about different topics. This is helpful for school projects or
for researching areas of interest. This can also be a teachable moment, by showing children
how to sift through information to find reliable sources.
 Bonding and community: Technology can foster connection by allowing kids to stay in touch
with family members or friends who do not live close by. Also, kids can interact with others in
their age group while playing games online and learn to play as a team.
 Self-expression: Children can learn how to share their thoughts online, which is a powerful
tool that can build confidence. They can learn how to connect with others and be exposed to
other viewpoints or perspectives.
 Creativity and exploring interests: In many ways, technology fosters creativity and learning
new skills through various apps for all different ages. Children can explore different areas they
have an interest in, such as learning to play an instrument, creative writing, or beginner
program related to various subjects.

Since nowadays use technology devices such as laptops, desktops, and mobile phones children also
use an interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas,
interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. And its called
Social Media.

Children’s use of Social Media

Social media is a fast-emerging platform that has changed how people communicate and connect.
Since these networking platforms are easy to use and entertaining, they have attracted the attention
of most children. Therefore, it becomes essential to discuss the effects of social media on children.
Social media, if used wisely, is a good platform to interact, learn, communicate, and have fun;
however, if misused or excessively used, it may lead to cyberbullying, anxiety, and health problems.
So, before allowing your children to access social media, you should be aware of its functionalities,
privacy settings, and age limit.
Spending time on social media has become almost a way of life for most adults — scrolling through
videos of cuddly cats and wacky dances for hours a day.
But is it healthy for your children to have the same habits? And how do you know if they’re being safe
on social media?
the potential dangers of kids using social media and — if you’re allowing them to use it — how to talk
to them about how to stay safe, not overdo it and not take a lot of what they see on there too
seriously.

How social media affects children

Most social media apps require users to be at least 13 years old. But parents stated that 50% of
children 10 to 12 years old and 33% of children 7 to 9 years old use social media apps. If a child is
currently on social media or if they’ve been asking to join, it’s important to talk to them about what
social media is, what rules you have for it and how it doesn’t always show an accurate picture of
someone’s life.

Impact on Children
From low self-esteem to increased risk of suicide and radicalization, the negative effects of youth
social media use are alarming. However, it is not all bad news. There are also ways that social media
can be helpful for children’s development. For example, social media can help young people learn to
communicate and collaborate effectively with others. The bottom line is that social media is here to
stay, and we need to find ways to make sure it benefits our children’s development instead of
harming it.
Some things that parents can do include:
 Setting time limits on how much time kids can spend on social media each day
 Monitoring their children’s online activity
 Talking to their kids about the risks associated with using social media
 Encouraging them to use social media in moderation
 Providing alternatives to social media, such as books, sports, and face-to-face interactions

Although social media has some ups and downs, it is also a big part of social and creative life for
pre-teens and teenagers.

Pre-teens and teenagers use social media to have fun, make and maintain friendships, share and
learn interests, explore identities and develop relationships with family. It’s an extension of their offline
and face-to-face interactions. For older teenagers especially, it’s often a key part of how they connect
with friends.

Social media can connect pre-teens and teenagers to online global groups based on shared
interests. These might be support networks – for example, for young people with disability or medical
conditions, LGBTIQ+ teenagers, or children from particular cultural backgrounds. Or they might be
sites for commenting on and sharing content about particular interests like games, TV series, music
or hobbies.

Managing social media risks for pre-teens and teenagers

Talking about social media use

Talking with your child is the best way to protect them from social media risks and ensure their
internet safety. Talking gives you the opportunity to help your child:
  work out how they want to treat other people and be treated online – for example, you can
encourage your child to make only positive comments
 understand the risks involved in using social media – for example, your child might be tagged
in an embarrassing photo taken at a party
 learn how to navigate the risks – for example, if your child posts an identifiable selfie, they can
reduce risk by not including any other personal information
 learn what to do if people ask for personal details, are mean or abusive online, post
embarrassing photos of them, or share information that links back to them.

Finding out more about social media

Social media apps and functionality are always changing, so it’s a good idea to keep up to date with
the social media your child uses. You could ask your child which platforms are popular and which
ones they like. You could also get your child to show you how they work.

Thinking about age recommendations

Most social media apps require people to be at least 13 years old to sign up. But these age
restrictions aren’t always enforced, so pre-teens can often still use the apps. It can be tricky if your
child’s friends are using social media apps before they’re old enough and your child wants to do the
same.

If you want your child to wait, here are some options you could think about:

 Could you compromise? What if your child uses a family social media account until they’re old
enough for their own? This could give your child a way to connect with friends with your help to
navigate social media.
 Could your child use a child-friendly social media app, like YouTube Kids or Messenger Kids?
These have stronger safety settings and age-appropriate content.

Social media is a really convenient and important communicate network for all the people
nowadays. We can use it to know friends and keep contact with friends that came from different
countries. We can also share our ideas so quickly so that all the things could develop so fast because
people could tell us their ideas and we could improve it immediately. We could also learn new things
on social media by watching or reading the things that people shared onto the social media. People
could also sell things on social media freely which could reduce the expenditure of advertisements.

There are more advantages for using social media, however, there is always advantages and
disadvantages for a thing. As social media is too convenient for people, almost most of them don't
even have to 'speak out' to communicate with people. No longer, people will lose their communication
skills. The more serious problem is many people utilized the power of social media and used it to
bully someone. The power of social media is also same as the one in real life. A little of them used
social media to do things that against the law, which is a fool behavior.

Social media changed our life so much. Our life became more convenient because social media is a
very useful tool for us in 21st century, it could help us to improve our life. However, we have to aware
of how we use them. If we could use the social media smartly, having social media will become a
good change for us.
 In today’s technology many have constant access to many  different forms of media through
television, cell phones, movies, music, video games, and the Internet. Media can enhance children's
education, learning opportunities, curiosity, creativity, and communication. However, it can also teach
negative life lessons; consume too much of children's time; and distract them from exercise, other
physical play, and socialization. Parents can best guide their children's media choices by educating
themselves about the forms modern media take (including the newest Internet formats for obtaining
and consuming media and for communicating), by monitoring media youth consume, by reviewing
media before releasing it to youth, by careful use of media blocking technologies to make it harder for
youth to view inappropriate content, and by setting and enforcing clear rules and boundaries for
balanced media use.