Why you should think twice before taking the tablet away from your child

Tablets and smartphones will damage your child’s cognitive development!
It will cause behavioral addiction, result in inhibited self-discipline, emotional numbness and a bunch of other unpleasant things.

Actually, the effects of the infinitely irresistible scrolling, clicking, beeping, and blinking are thought to be so inherently evil that the number of blog posts and articles about how bad modern technology is for the young generation, in itself seem to cause infinite scrolling.

Let’s take a little look at history

First of all, let’s dwell with the fact that we still lack clear, unambiguous scientific evidence that the use of tablets and smartphones is in fact harmful.

Moreover, let’s take a little look at history.
In the 15th century, a large group of people was panicking over the invention of the printing press.
The idea of knowledge being easily distributed through books and papers, and wisdom no longer being reserved for the privileged upper class seemed obscene at the time.

Likewise, in the 90’s the idea of fairy tales being harmful campaigns of indoctrination gained a lot of attention.
An idea that cognitive and developmental psychologists have been debunking a number of times ever since.

And how about the assumption that listening to The Beatles would cause substance abuse, and that violent computer-games would result in an epidemic of violence?
Well, The Beatles is regarded as the most influential act of the rock era, resulting in much of all the nice music that we have today.
Likewise, playing games such as the popular first-person shooter, Counter-Strike, seem to positively influence the brain’s reaction speed, and violence as a direct result of playing computer games is still considered to be statistically insignificant.

These are just a few examples of the suspicion and skepticism that are polarized within society whenever time is changing.

Juvenoia

According to Wikipedia, ‘juvenoia’ is a term describing the fear or hostility directed by an older generation toward a younger one, or toward youth culture in general.

This pattern of concerns about how the young generation is growing up in a society that is not good for them, and that growing up ‘back when we were young’ was much more healthy, seems to be best described as a cognitive bias.

The ‘constant and overwhelming stream of information’ (and how that’s bad) seems to be a general argument in the debate about modern technology.
However, evolutionary psychologists argue that this ‘stream’ isn’t overly unnatural to the human brain. Back in the jungle, we would have to make a lot of fast and crucial decision from a wide range of sensory inputs at a given time. Navigating in a ‘stream of information’ isn’t really as dangerous as it may sound.

None the less, this stage of technological development is still brand new.
Maybe there are complications regarding children’s use of smartphones and tablets. Maybe it is even harmful. As of now, we still don’t have sufficient scientific studies to reject it.

However, personally, I tend to say that they’ll be just fine!
Most people didn’t end up on heroin from listening to The Beatles, most people didn’t become mass murderers from playing Counter-Strike, and you can totally let your kid play around with your tablet without worrying whether he or she will become emotionally numb or addicted to pressing the red notification button.

I would even argue that you are putting your child at risk by limiting their tablet-access, at least if you are doing this excessively.

Instead of implicitly indoctrinating your child with how bad technology is, embrace it instead. Get yourself involved in your children’s online life. Participate! Teach them how to program! Support their gaming activities!

After all, the internet has come to stay. The technology is not going to stop progressing at a speed that only goes faster and faster.
This is going to be your children’s future! A world that they crucially need to navigate around in, in order to become successful, and to some extent maybe even survive!
Do you really want to slow them down on this one?

I strongly advise you to think twice before taking the tablet away from your child.