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The Effects of Technology on Children’s Social SkillsCathy RobertsonSoutheastern Louisiana University The use of technology has consistently emerged into the lives of many people over the last century. Technology seem to have had an increasingly, rapid way of controlling people’s lives especially the youths of this present generation. Young people work, play, shop, engage in learning activities, and even communicate with others locally as well as globally online. Technology has made life easy. It has become a source for information gathering and communicating (Sundar, 2008). Along with the convenience technology brings comes an overly dependent and vulnerable society to its downfalls. Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian philosopher, saw the emergence of technology and its downfalls almost a century before it happened. As he wrote about technology, he described it as extensions of the human body (McLuhan, 1964). He spoke of these extensions as being very beneficial to man-kind but extensions that carry negative risks or those which can easily become obsolete (McLuhan, 1964). This author suggests that the technological extensions of mankind have amputated or modified some other extension (McLuhan, 1964). His observation of our society and the exploding use of technology with its positive and negative effects hold truth as seen in our culture of young people. Adams, Devaney and Longstreet state that digital communication technologies pervades every area of society and is changing people’s actions and beliefs (2010). In agreement with their statement, the author Jim Taylor comments that young people are losing critical social skills as technology pervades (2012). Technology has reduced human contact so much that children are not learning the proper social skills that will help them to succeed later on in their adult life (Taylor, 2012). Young people are surrounded by technology. Instead of reading a book, they can listen to its audio format online. Most young people communicate with most of their acquaintances through cell phones and computer-mediated communication tools such as instant messengers and e-mail systems. Instead of engaging in a personal one-on-one conversation, they are observed communication in one or more of these modes. Dr. Larry Rosen suggests that online socialization robs young people out of the opportunity to resolve conflicts in the real world, and excessive communication through technology causes anxiety issues (2011). With the arrival of personal broadcasting technologies such as blogs and social net-working sites, many youngsters experience the world through their own self-expression and the expressions of their peers (Sundar, 2008). This medium of technology has blurred the traditional boundary between interpersonal and mass communication. McLuhan believed that mankind was fascinated and obsessed with technology, which he calls extensions (1964). He states that mankind frequently chose to ignore or minimize the amputations or a loss that prevails with the use of technology (McLuhan, 1964). In essence, children learn the art of covert messages in their speech and actions through human contact. Rosen says that when they experience reduced human contact their social skills weaken and they tend to shrink away from one-on-one social situations (2011). In this situation, the extension is the email or text. It extends the human voice, and the over-use of this extension causes a loss in social skills. Rosen has witness other losses because of the over-use of technology which include the lack of attention to surroundings, problems with concentration, and the lack of sleep (2011). As new technology develops, adults must understand that unless children have a personal experience in social skills training, they may act inappropriate without even knowing that they are. Social skills are very important tools needed to function effectively in the social world. With the increase of technology, children have loss some of the personal human interaction (Rosen, 2011). Society cannot let the medium be the only message. Children need to learn various social skills from observing social interactions. They need to learn these social skills while they are young and in the process of developing their own personality. ReferencesAdams, N., DeVaney, T. & Longstreet, W. (2010). Investigating aspect of emerging digital ethnicity: Development of digital ethnicity scale (DES). Computers in Human Behavior, 26(6), 3-10. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2010.07.010McLuhan, M. (1994). Understanding media: The extensions of man. New York: McGraw-Hill.Rosen, R. L. (2013). Effects of technology on children. Retrieved from , S. (2008). The Main model: A heuristic approach to understanding technology effects on credibility. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. Taylor, J. (2012). How technology is changing the way children think and focus: The power of prime: Psychology Today. Retrieved from ................
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