What impact does the ubiquitous internet have on children’s growth

I recently saw a news article. The Australian government is currently implementing legislation to prohibit children under the age of 16 from having accounts on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, and to require technology companies to take reasonable measures to ensure that minors are unable to use their services.

Australian Prime Minister Albanese said, ‘This is a global issue, and we hope that young Australians can have a wonderful childhood.

‘. In recent years, many countries have implemented restrictions on children’s use of the Internet. Recently, France has pushed forward legislation requiring social media platforms to prohibit children under the age of 15 from accessing without parental consent.

More than ten countries, including Austria, Germany, Italy, and South Korea, are working to set minimum age access restrictions for social media.

The UK government is also considering supporting a parliamentary proposal on this issue. About 10 states in the United States have passed laws restricting children’s access to social media platforms.

The impact of the internet and electronic products on children has always been a topic that I have been very concerned about and have spent a lot of time researching.

The popularity of smart phones (which means mobile Internet) has been more than ten years. For middle-aged people like us who have experienced the “pre smartphone” era, we will be acutely aware of how drastically life has changed.

Everyone has become a low head tribe, and mobile phones are always in hand. Real life is gradually being replaced by the internet and virtual world.

People can choose not to get married or have a spouse, but they cannot do without mobile phones and internet.

However, for children born in the era of mobile Internet, they will not feel “changed” as we do, but will feel that the current model is natural and deserved.

Entertainment should be playing games and watching videos; Social networking should be about playing games online or sending messages online; The pace of life should be fragmented; Screens should replace books; To understand others’ opinions on a matter, one should search online instead of discussing it with people around them; People should have a persona, and photos on the internet should be staged and beautifully edited, and so on.

Compared to human history, smartphones are still a new thing; Compared to the long-standing education model, the impact and impact of smartphones are still uncertain.

For such a complex new change, there are naturally advantages and disadvantages, and different people have different concerns.

Due to the lack of a large amount of data and long-term tracking, there is no universal consensus. But in the process of research and practice, I increasingly feel that children who are exposed to electronic products too early and surrounded by the internet too early have more disadvantages than advantages.

Therefore, a few years ago, corresponding courses were launched to tell parents not to give their children phones and tablets casually, and to manage their children’s usage time and methods.

In the process of raising children myself, I have also suffered from the impact of many electronic products, and even fell into a “moment of collapse”.

After seeing the news of Australian legislation this time, I feel that my personal views may have been somewhat confirmed.

Legislation requires a large amount of evidence, data, and cases, and cannot be promoted by the personal opinions of a few individuals.

I believe that the reality has reached a relatively severe point, making it difficult for legislators to ignore such negative impacts, and therefore cannot simply regard “using social networks” as personal behavior.

So, I want to talk about the impact of ubiquitous internet on children’s growth. I have come into contact with a large number of parents, and electronic products can be said to be a widely concerned issue among parents.

Few parents think that this is not a problem. However, based on my observation, parents’ understanding of this issue is still relatively limited, lacking deeper thinking and failing to perceive more harmful threats.

Generally speaking, parents are most concerned that excessive use of electronic devices can harm their eyesight, and addiction to games or the internet can affect their academic performance.

If the child’s vision is good and their academic performance is good, parents’ anxiety about electronic products will be alleviated.

But I believe that vision and academic performance are not the most serious, and the most serious impact is not so immediate.

It takes longer to manifest, and children will only realize it when they reach a certain age. At that time, it is very difficult to change and save them.

What other possible adverse effects besides vision and academic performance. Below is a brief list, and I will write more articles to elaborate on it later.

1. The impact on children’s values, worldview, and outlook on life. In the past, children who loved reading had their values influenced by books; For those who do not love reading, their values mainly come from family and friends.

We all know the story of Meng’s mother’s three relocations, and we all hope that our children can go to a school with a good academic atmosphere.

We also know that families where parents play mahjong at home all day have a negative impact on their children.

Providing a good environment for children’s growth is a consensus among parents. However, nowadays children’s values may no longer come from books, family, and friends, but from the internet, from anonymous online comments that do not know their age, position, or character.

What is right and what is wrong, such important shaping of right and wrong views, has been handed over to the internet.

2. Losing the ability to understand complex things and transforming into extremely simplified thinking.

On the internet, only extreme and clear statements can have more exposure, which promotes more people to post extreme statements for traffic.

In addition, the information cocoon caused by algorithms can deprive readers of the opportunity to think from multiple perspectives.

The fast-paced life and scarcity of attention make people feel that spending time researching complex problems is not worthwhile.

Instead of spending too much time on one problem, it is better to focus on the next one. But in real life, whether it’s work or life, there are rarely problems that are very simple.

There are many connections, and solving them can have a ripple effect. For someone who lacks the ability to understand complex things, facing such problems can be either simple and crude, or helpless.

3. Fragmented focus. Focus is not only the most important element for learning, but also the most important element for a person to achieve success.

The fragmented pace of life makes it difficult for people to have the patience to read a book, watch a movie, understand a problem, or even live together after getting along with someone.

4. Lack of language, emotions, and thoughts. In order to spread, internet language must be simplified and symbolized.

Praise is YYDS, men with significant flaws are scumbags, and they think China is good
It’s just a little pink, people with different opinions are either stupid or bad.

People are no longer able to express their feelings and thoughts in precise language. Even negative emotions are rapidly reducing, as if all Chinese people are left with only one negative emotion, namely anxiety.

Language is the carrier of expression, and the scarcity of language directly promotes the scarcity of emotions and thoughts.

Therefore, compared to artificial intelligence, humans do not have any significant advantages. People are becoming increasingly tool oriented, and in terms of tool attributes, they are still inferior to AI.

5. Massive information makes people mistake “knowing” for “understanding”. Because of the vast amount of information, knowing is indeed more, but knowing does not mean understanding.

Human energy is limited, and the more time spent on ‘knowing’, the less opportunity there is to ‘understand’.

But not knowing that you don’t understand, mistaking knowing for understanding, this could be even worse than not knowing at all.

6. Comparison is everywhere and there is psychological imbalance. No matter how satisfied you are with yourself, you can always see better than yourself on the internet, and it’s not easy to maintain satisfaction at this point.

So dissatisfaction became a common social emotion, with parents dissatisfied with their children, employees dissatisfied with the company, residents dissatisfied with the city, and citizens dissatisfied with society.

I don’t even know how to be satisfied. In order to “win on the internet”, it is necessary to create a persona, crave recognition from others after posting information, be anxious about others’ evaluations, and do extraordinary things to perform exaggerated performances in order to gain traffic.

7. Losing the exploration of real life, chewing on other people’s leftovers. Whether it’s traveling, studying, or shopping, the first thing to do is to search for guides online and read others’ reviews and suggestions.

When we chatted with classmates back then, we talked about real people and things in real life. Nowadays, when children chat with classmates, they talk about hot topics and memes on the internet, which are not their own experiences, but rather the second-hand, third hand, and N-hand experiences of others.

Losing one’s own exploration, just repeating the path taken by others. People are becoming less and less daring to explore, more and more afraid of making mistakes, and conservatism is becoming increasingly prevalent.

8. Losing interest in real life and feeling that nothing is as interesting as the internet. All kinds of things that used to intoxicate humanity pale in comparison, whether it was traveling, theater, or dating, none of them were as interesting as surfing the internet.

If real life is already so boring, do children feel that life is meaningless when their phones are confiscated and internet access is prohibited.

9. The easy availability of content amplifies the desires and greed in the heart, which cannot be resisted.

Those who like beautiful women can see countless beauties online, those who like luxury life can see endless exquisite products, those who like violent content can find countless related materials, and those who like playing games can have endless games and related strategies.

The massive content and information cocoon is what makes you unable to stop and completely sink into it.

10. Expose personal privacy, leave a “criminal record”, and have unpredictable impacts on future life.

Young people make mistakes. I made a mistake before, but when I corrected it, I turned over the page.

But the internet will leave traces and make people lose their ‘right to be forgotten’. I will write an article later to further analyze the above points.

In fact, the impact is not only on minors, but also on adults. However, minors are weaker than adults in psychological immunity, self-discipline, and ability to distinguish right from wrong.

In addition, they were born in the mobile Internet era, and do not have more life experience than adults, especially in the non network era.

Therefore, they do not know that some behaviors are abnormal and lose their vigilance. Of course, the ubiquitous internet has also brought many benefits, such as more learning resources and more convenient life.

However, I still believe that early exposure to the internet can have various negative impacts on children, which is still worth being vigilant about.

Without convenience, life may not be as convenient, but if one’s personality and thoughts are shaped into inappropriate patterns, it is an irreparable loss.

As for the solution, there is no perfect one, and in such a large environment, it is difficult to promote and execute.

But I still want to make an appeal to make more people aware of the seriousness of the problem, unite more forces, and create a healthier growth environment for children.

If you think this article is helpful, please share or light up “reading” to benefit more people. Sophie has a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Tsinghua University, and is a specially appointed alumni mentor of Tsinghua University’s “Career Mentor” program.

She has been studying “Development and Educational Psychology” for two years and is a lifelong learner.

She reads 15 million words every year as a mother of two boys, practicing her own educational philosophy.