Smartphone and Children Interaction: Positive and Negative Impacts

Description

Km. Sangeeta and Suvidha (Department of Home Science (Human Development), Banasthali Vidyapith, Tonk, Rajasthan)

Smartphones are widely accessible and significantly affect everyone’s lives, particularly children. Children spend a significant amount of time using smartphones. In today’s world, excessive and uncontrolled smartphone use may raise concerns about smartphone addiction and its consequences for children’s development, despite the numerous benefits of smartphones, including communication, entertainment, and educational tools. Due to the increase in smartphone use in recent years, children’s interactions with their peers and environment have changed. This study aims to investigate how children’s cognitive, social, physical, emotional, neural, and language development is impacted by smartphone addiction. According to the findings, smartphone addiction has many detrimental impacts on physical development, such as musculoskeletal pain, visual problems, and sleep disturbances. Excessive reliance on smartphones and prioritizing online communication may negatively affect interpersonal relationships. Studies also suggest that it affects children’s neurodevelopment and may contribute to ASD-like symptoms. Cognitively, it can affect attention span, critical thinking skills, and academic performance. Language development was significantly hindered by smartphone addiction. Children who use smartphones irresponsibly also exhibit higher levels of anger and anxiety. Reducing the impacts of smartphone addiction while promoting holistic development in the digital age requires that parents be educated in digital literacy and set screen time limits.