How do new technologies affect childhood?

Today we live surrounded by electronic devices that absorb all our attention: tablets, smartphones, televisions, computers... This is not something cognitively beneficial for being human, we spend many hours in front of these devices, which bring us the world to the sofa at home, but, wouldn't it be better to go out and see the world?

Surely more than one has been amazed at the great management that our children have on new technologies. The tablet has become one of the great allies of many parents. This allows us to have our son calm while we are having dinner with some friends, we see a movie, we are doing housework or even on some occasion they have helped us manage a huff. But... How do these technologies affect our children?

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The Effects of Technological Distractions on Children

One of our main jobs as parents is to calm our children, that is, to provide them with the necessary tools for adequate emotional regulation in their adulthood. Children by themselves do not learn these skills and only through us will they be able to calm down.

Of course this is not an easy task. Sometimes we will be the ones who get even more nervous than the child. What will be the result? That we will be transmitting the discomfort to our son and he will not be able to calm down.

There are times when at this point of frustration we try to give them food, toys, the mobile or the tablet. To our surprise this works; all those sounds, movements, images and colors make our son calm down and therefore so do we. Because this has worked for us, we will start using it every time we can't get our child to calm down, becoming excessive use at an early age and in full brain development of the child.

All this that makes us return to our calm, generates a series of long-term negative consequences in the child. What negative consequences does the use of new technologies have on children?

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Isolation

We will not be connecting emotionally with what happens to our child and therefore we will not be understanding or helping to resolve what it is that has generated the tantrum or crying. We will be teaching the child to regulate his emotions through distraction, so there will not be adequate regulation in the face of negative emotional states.

Reward behaviors that do not solve given

The little one will learn that to get what he wants he can do it through the tantrum and anger. As a consequence, we will not be promoting self-control in the child or his tolerance for frustration.

Imagine a tantrum in the middle of the supermarket because we haven't bought what you asked for. It can be an awkward situation. As we cannot calm him down, we leave him our mobile phone so that he can be calm during the time we are left shopping. In this case we will be rewarding their behavior and as I said before we will not be promoting tolerance to frustration. The child will think: "well, they have not bought me those trinkets that I have asked for, but in return I have obtained what they rarely leave me. He has to take no for an answer.

Slows down your learning

At an early age, symbolic play is especially important in children. This consists of playing imagining that you are a mother, a teacher or a doctor. Let him imagine feeding his doll or bathing him, that with a stick that he finds he can imagine that it is a toothbrush. This allows us to understand and internalize the world in which they live and around them.

On the contrary, television or video games do not allow this cognitive work, since there is no possibility of imagining and creating from what happens in the material environment.

In childhood the brain connections are still developing, and the use of screens generates addiction. In this case, all the colors, movements and sounds that they generate in the child is a kind of fascination, generating an over stimulation in the child. That is why the child remains absorbed when he has one of these devices in his hands.

We may think that the child will be concentrated and attentive but the reality is that it is not. This is a passive attitude to novel stimuli, generating a disconnection of the frontal lobe in the child, which is in charge of attention, planning, problem solving or working memory, seeing all these functions affected.

Encourage the little one

We will also be sending an implicit message that it bothers us in certain situations. A child will always be moving, talking, touching things etc. This is something natural in children, what we will be doing with the tablet is "anesthetizing" their behavior and preventing their cognitive development from taking its course.

It gives them a form of evasion

Sometimes children with emotional problems use the use of technologies as a way to disconnect. Video games allow you to be in a parallel and unreal world, in which you do not feel discomfort. This encourages the dissociation of children, that is, disconnecting from oneself and from reality, this being an avoidance response, chronifying all discomfort.

In short, different studies have shown that the premature use of technologies can affect attention, learning, impulsivity, relationship problems, addiction and problems with language.

How should we limit the use of technologies in our children?

First of all, we have to take into account that we are the role model of our children, so we will be the first to limit our own use of these devices. We cannot scold our son when he is using the mobile while we eat, if we do the same. If our son is with us, it is important to leave the mobile phone aside and spend that time with our son and attend to her needs.

It is important that there are no electronic devices in our children's room. These should be in a visible place where we can monitor the use that is given.

In consultation, I meet many parents who put the television on their children so that they eat. From my point of view it is important to remove the television at lunchtime. The intake may take longer as possible, and it is a moment that can be shared as a family.

To this day we know that children learn through real-world experiences and through interaction with adults and their peers. All the experiences that the child can live in their day to day, all interaction with nature, with play, a look, a smile etc, are what mark his development and will be decisive in the history and development of his lifetime. Of course this is something that is lost in the interaction with the screens.