The explosive growth of the internet and social media is transforming our children's' lives; in school and at home. Although the internet can be a wonderful tool for research and work, no one has any idea of what all of this media and technology use means for our kids as they grow up. The impact of heavy media and technology use on kids' social, emotional, and cognitive development is only beginning to be studied, and the emergent results are serious. Although research is still in its early stages, it suggests that the Internet may actually be changing how our brains work. Too much access to this technology has been shown not only to inhibit learning and comprehension, limit social growth and self-esteem, but introduces our children to harmful and dangerous situations. Children should not be able to access the internet without strict supervision by their parents, teachers, and other safety conscious adults.
There are people that believe that the internet has improved our children's education. As Lefkowits argues, "Together, stakeholders' contributions to school improvement strategies could grow exponentially and virally in the same way one adds friends on Facebook." Although I think was she's saying is true, I believe more firmly that the internet has been damaging to our children. I would not want to compare school improvement strategies to anything like Facebook. There are many who believe that Facebook has done more damage than good. I feel that children who spend time on the computer, are replacing what could be great time used for school work with surfing and gaming. "Recent research, including a University of Munich study of 174,000 students in thirty-one countries, indicates that students who frequently use computers perform worse academically than those who use them rarely or not at all" (Monke). There has been no scientific proof that the use of computers has actually benefited learning, comprehension and coping skills.
