With the uprise in technology, advancements in AI, effects from COVID-19 and general change in society, maybe phones aren’t to blame for the lower test scores, decrease in social skills, and all around negative changes seen in Generation Alpha.
Statistics show that in the last 20 years attention spans have shortened, literacy rates have decreased, and cognitive development has gotten slower in children in general.
According to the National Library of Medicine, “Increased technological exposure is associated with reduced opportunities for verbal interaction with parents. Studies have suggested that the reduced interactions are associated with negative developmental outcomes.”
While technology limits interaction with other people, Aubrey Stark, a fifth grade teacher explains how she’s seen technology affect her students.
“Technology inhibits our brain’s ability to think critically, because it strengthens neurons that help us do surface level learning while erasing connections that allow us to think more deeply and focus on one topic. For the first time in human history, we see trends that we are, as a society, becoming less able to think, focus, and problem solve as a direct result of screen time.” Stark said.
Even though COVID-19 happened four years ago society is still feeling its effects.
“Literacy education slowed during COVID because it was hard to learn virtually. Parents tend to be busier and need to work more to support their family, so kids are getting less support at home. Some teachers and parents use technology as a substitute for literacy training rather than as a supplemental tool.” said Stark.
This is seconded by Avarie Rosenstiel, a sophomore heavily involved in child development,
“We don’t really take in as much as we used to, we tend to make excuses like, ‘oh we have that program, we have this program that we came up with during COVID.’ We haven’t fully broken the habit of relying on those programs.” Rosenstiel said.
COVID was the first real gateway to going virtual. It opened doors for technology to replace human connection and took a toll on our emotional and social development.
“Even bigger than their academic skill struggles are their struggles emotionally and socially. While kids may be more easily able to connect with one another on a surface level, they have a really hard time actually engaging with their peers in any deep way. When they have problems, resolutions are hard and they need adults to help them work through issues that they should be able to walk through with less help. Empathy is also reliant on deep thinking skills, and if children grow up with technology hindering their ability to think deeply, they will also be less able to experience empathy.” said Stark.
