Running around as a little child, having a gigantic stick in my hand. “I’m going to slay that dragon! Charge!” Being that hyper little child I always was, running around outside. Now I look at my little nieces and nephews just sitting at the kitchen table. Not talking to one another, just sitting there playing on some sort of electronic. Nowadays kids just play games online, technology has an effect on how kids function, how their brains process stuff. About kids creativity, how they do in school, and how they make friends.

Creativity is how people use their imagination, or how people decide to create am original ideas. As stated in the Washington Post “Researches have tracked children’s creativity 50 years are seeing a significant decrease in creativity among children for the first time, especially younger children from kindergarten through sixth grade. This decline of creativity is thought to be due at least in part to the decline of play.” So children are proven to be getting less and less creative, from lack of going and playing. Instead they just decide to sit and play on technology. Playing is a very important part of the creativity process that fosters emotional health. Problem solving, thinking, and critical thinking. But when kids look and play on technology, they only see what is a representation of what is the real world. The symbols and all the online “friends” they make won’t give them the actual experience they need for the real world.

The world is changing so much now. We used to use books and dictionaries, now kids use some type of tablet or device. In the article on the website Edudemic, “For example, while playing video games may condition the brain to multiple stimuli, they can lead to distraction and decreased memory.” Nowadays children who come into school, they can have a really hard time in school, if the just sit around on technology. In the Huff Post on the article “The Impact of Technology on the Developing Child, “Hard-wired for high speed, today’s young are entering school are struggling with self regulation and attention skills necessary for learning , eventually becoming significant behavior management problems for teachers in the classroom.” Teachers will have a more difficult time with kids listening, and be trouble makers.

Technology has an effect on not only a kid ranging from the ages 4-8. It also can have a huge impact on teen’s brains too. Science Illustrated said, “In the US, teenagers are spending 8.5 hours on computers, mobiles, or some other kind of device to learn, interact, and play. This jumps to 11.5 hours if you put into all the multitasking that goes on, such as talking on the phone while watching tv. As they stare at those screens, they’re taking in and shifting through an incredible amount of information; in the past, they would have been working out how to do math problems or thinking about english literature.” Teens are processing too much information at once when surfing the internet. So they can’t really remember what exactly they just read.

Technology has an effect on how kids make friends. “Fully 57% of teens ages 13 to 17 have made a friend online, with 29% of teen indicating that they have made for than five friends in online venues. Most of these friendships stay in digital space; only 20% of all online teens have met that friend in person.” That was in the article on Pew Research Center’s website. Teens are making a lot of friends online, but not actually talking to them face to face. Teens aren’t having a real life interaction, they just talk over social media or texting. Research says that boys are more likely to find a friend/ friends on the internet. 61% of boys compared to 52% of girls who meet friends online. Also older teens are the ones who also more likely to find a friend online. Teens say that making friends online makes them feel more confident with themselves. If they aren’t the most “coolest” person in their schools, making friends from another place online makes them feel more confident. “Even as teens often feel better to be connected with friends’ feelings and information about their lives through social media, they have also reported that they are sometimes too connected to their friends’ lives. Fully 88% of social media-using agree that people share too much information about themselves on social media, with 35% agreeing strongly.” Again stated in Pew Research Center. So teens are sharing too much about themselves to kids they never met. That’s kind of scary.

Kids and teens have turned into technology freaks. Kids aren’t going outside and slaying dragons as much anymore. They are happily content just sitting inside, and playing some type of electronic device. Kids having a harder time in paying attention and remembering in school. Teens becoming anti-social and just happy making friends online. Never having to talk to that friend face to face. Even though how kids and teens use their brain has changed a lot in the past years. This doesn’t mean that kids and teens are significantly dumb nowadays. But letting them stay inside and play on technology isn’t gonna make them any smarter. Technology can be good, but it also has it’s really bad sides.