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December 9, 2021 by Sophia Ofer
Largely, we use technology to stay connected and informed of the world around us. In the past year and a half, the Covid-19 pandemic has made technology an even more central part of everyday life, with many aspects of our daily lives becoming digital during the lockdown. While the pandemic has had a major effect on everyone, younger children stand out as some of the most significantly affected.
In my own life, technology didn’t start to become a bigger part of my personal habits or school work until middle school. When I was in elementary school getting to use the laptops was enough to make my week, as no one had an individual device. Most assignments were handwritten and getting to type was a special treat. In sixth grade, I got an iPad for school and that was the first time where a significant portion of my work was digital. The difference between the amount of technology used in elementary and middle school was drastic. I think that this can be attributed to the requirement to have an iPad to do work and homework daily.
Despite a lot of elementary and middle school students being in my generation and a similar age to me, I've noticed a big difference in their access to technology. When the pandemic began and lockdowns were put in place, children began remote learning. Understandably, many more young children began using technology as a part of their everyday life. Since the pandemic, I’ve seen a spike in very young kids active on social media. Without the proper conversations or maturity, social media can be very negative. It is difficult enough for so many of us to be surrounded by an unattainable and edited beauty standard, exposing young kids to this may impact their ability to separate themselves from what they are seeing. While this is something I’ve more personally thought about, in the coming years I’ll be interested to see if kids having such wide access to social media so young has an impact on self-esteem.
Technology can strain the development of young children. From the time they are born, kids need “hands-on exploration and social interaction with trusted caregivers to develop their cognitive, language, motor, and social-emotional skills” (American Academy of Pediatrics). Families with high media usage can lead to a decreased amount of verbal interactions, which is correlated to conflict, anger issues, and miscommunication. Technology also has physical effects on sleep due to melatonin suppression from blue light.
On another note, digital learning in no way replaces valuable time in school that kids need. A study conducted among educators in the Horace Mann Educator’s Corporation found that 97% of educators believed that covid had some loss of learning. The majority of them believed the effect was significant. As a student who experienced remote learning, it’s definitely understood through my and my peers’ experiences that remote learning affected our ability to retain information and truly learn. The study also found that 96% of educators believed their students had a loss in social-emotional progress. For younger kids, this was evident in classrooms as in-person learning returned, a teacher mentioned “My kindergarten students are all sitting at their tables instead of coming to the carpet to learn. They aren’t able to interact much with their peers”. There is no replacing the development of important interpersonal skills that come with operating in a classroom with other students. While it is clear that for a lot of students you can’t replicate the advantages of in-person learning, health and safety take precedence and remote learning was the safest way to continue students’ education.
While there are going to be downsides to technology, it was likely one of the most useful assets during the pandemic. The ability to stay connected with loved ones and receive news was the only thing keeping most of us sane. It also allowed education, business, and other aspects of society to continue in a safe way.
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