Running head: IMPACT OF MOBILE TECHNOLOGY ON CHILDREN

The Impact of Mobile Technology on Children's Behavior and Skills

Tyler Deal
University of North Carolina at Charlotte

IMPACT OF MOBILE TECHNOLOGY ON CHILDREN

Abstract
This study will investigate the positive and negative effects of an early introduction to
mobile technology on children. Growing up before technology had this mobility, it was highly
suggested that time children spent with the television, the computer, videogames, and anything
else of that nature be limited. Children were told to play outside or to use their imagination in
order to experience a life beyond a screen. Nowadays, however, those screens are located almost
everywhere. Smartphones and tablet computers allow for portable television, computer,
videogames, and more. All those things warned against years ago are now in the pockets and
bags of parents being handed off to children when they need to be entertained in public, on long
car rides, or sometimes when they just ask for them.
As a result of this mobility, one would assume that the risk factors of early technology
usage in children has elevated to extreme heights. The goal of this project is to investigate
whether or not that has indeed happened and what those risk factors are. Also, because of
children being more technologically savvy at younger ages, what advantages will they have over
the generations before them? Findings will be reported in different fields of children's health and
behavior and compiled in a report to be presented at the end of the month.

IMPACT OF MOBILE TECHNOLOGY ON CHILDREN

The Impact of Mobile Technology on Children's Behavior and Skills

Introduction
Mobile technology is becoming increasingly prevalent in our everyday lives.
Businesspersons find themselves carrying laptops, tablets, and Smartphones to mobilize their
work enabling themselves to conduct company related errands outside of their office.
Adolescents receive Smartphones at progressively earlier ages to converse with their peers and
download interactive apps to. Beyond that, it is not uncommon to see children today, as young as
those in the toddler stages, being handed tablet computers to play with.
Because of this, one cannot help but wonder what effects this technologically immersive
world will have on children. During my research, I will set out to explore the possible positive
and negative effects an early introduction to the frequent usage of mobile technology has on a
child. These effects may reveal themselves in various fields of a child's behavior and skills:
1. Health and Well-Being
2. Social Skills and Behavior
3. Cognitive Skills
4. Other Areas
Research Questions
Examples of questions I intend to have answered regarding the impact of mobile
technology in these areas are as follows:
Impact on Health and Well-Being
What consequences does the continual usage of mobile devices have on a developing
child's physical and mental health? Are children that use mobile technology a lot at early ages
more prone to any ailments, such as vision problems, than children who do not use it as often?

IMPACT OF MOBILE TECHNOLOGY ON CHILDREN

Impact on Social Skills and Behavior

Is children's social development hindered by persistent usage of mobile technology? Are
they more often asocial and introverted in comparison to those who do not make steady use of
mobile technology at early ages?
Impact on Cognitive Skills
Does continuous use of mobile technology lend children an academic advantage over
others? How useful of a tool is mobile technology in teaching children how to read, mathematics,
etc. at early ages?
Impact in Other Areas
How does frequent usage of mobile technology impact a child's imagination? Any other
findings that are noteworthy that do not fit in the other areas will be reported.
Methodology
To conduct this research, I will read through a variety of sources from scholarly articles
to articles on reputable websites for mothers, as mothers would have great insight on the subject.
With these articles, I will investigate the advantages that an early introduction to technology may
bring to a child as well as the side effects and increased risk factors the child will have to watch
out for. While I do not expect my findings to lean one hundred percent for or against children
using mobile technology, breaking my findings up into the various aforementioned fields (health,
social, cognitive, etc.) will provide for narrower assessments and smaller conclusions to be
made. For example, technology could have a beneficial impact on children academically whilst
having a negative impact on their health. These findings will be compiled in a report of my own
to be presented at the end of the month.

IMPACT OF MOBILE TECHNOLOGY ON CHILDREN

Annotated Bibliography
Attewell, P. & Battle, J. (2003). Computers and young children: Social benefit or social
problem? Social Forces, 82, 277-296. doi:10.1353/sof.2003.0075
This source sets out to explain how computers can socially benefit and socially harm
young children. Along the way, they also include health hazards and educational benefits
of early technology use for children.
This source will be useful as it provides various benefits and hazards to early computer
usage for children. It has been cited numerous times by various other publications and is
located within the Oxford Journals proving it to contain reliable information.
This source will assist me in presenting the benefits and hazards of children using mobile
technology at such a young age across various departments of a child's life such as social
interaction, cognitive skills, and everyday behavior.
Druin, A. (2009). Mobile technology for children: Designing interaction and learning.
Burlington, MA: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.
This book covers mobile technology's various uses to enhance a child's education and
academics. The author has investigated how mobile technology can enrich a child's
learning experience and what skills of the child's will be heightened through different
activities using mobile devices.
This source is useful for learning about how mobile technology can be beneficial to a
child's learning experience and which sets of skills get strengthened through these
activities. In comparison with other sources, this article is extremely positive and only
focuses on the pros of mobile technology. This is not problematic, however, as the focus
is on educational uses, which every other source backs up as having only positive

IMPACT OF MOBILE TECHNOLOGY ON CHILDREN

outcomes.
This book will aid me in discussing the impact of mobile technology on a child's
cognitive skills, education, and academics greatly. It makes use of examples and
experiments, with sources to back up its information. The author has clearly done their
research and including her book as a resource for relaying the positive uses of mobile
technology to enhance a child's learning experience is a safe choice to make.
Edwards, L. (2013). Computers in preschool: Hurting or helping? n.a. Retrieved from
http://www.education.com
This article outlines the advantages and disadvantages of preschool age children being
introduced to technology. The author also stressed the need for physical exercise and
social interaction. To conclude, the article gives advice on what would be considered
wise computer usage for preschool aged students.
This article is written for parents and educators of preschool aged students offering
advice on proper computer usage. It comes from a reliable source that is known for
providing aid to educators of younger children. The way the article provides both
advantages and disadvantages of computer usage helps it to avoid bias and remain fair to
both sides of the argument. Quotes from an educational psychologist are also included,
providing information from a source with credentials.
This article will be helpful to me as it provides insight on how mobile technology can be
used as a tool in heightening a child's education experience. It also has information
included from a professional advising against prolonged use and using mobile technology
as a substitute for other activities. This article will help to provide information for the
impact of mobile technology on a child's health and social skills for my research.

IMPACT OF MOBILE TECHNOLOGY ON CHILDREN

Grossman, Lt. Col. D., & DeGaetano, G. (1999). Stop teaching our kids to kill: A call to action
against TV, movie, and videogame violence. New York, NY: Crown Publishers.
This book is written by a lieutenant colonel of the military who is adamant on relaying
the psychological impact of killing to children. The focus of this book that is key to my
research, however, is that he places some of the blame of children becoming aggressive
and murderous on violence in television shows and video games. He believes that the
material provided by technology desensitizes children to violence and killing and that it is
to blame for the rise in violence in children.
This book will be useful to me in outlining the psychological and behavioral impacts
mobile technology may have on children. It is very similar to the Science Magazine
article that conducted research to find a correlation between violence on television and
patterns of violence in adolescent viewers. The book pulls from a variety of reliable
sources and offers the insight of someone who had to participate in violent behaviors for
their job.
This book will be helpful to me in compiling psychological and behavioral effects on
children from mobile technology usage as mobile technology can expose children to
violent material that will desensitize them to violent acts, as the author states. Something
I find possibly worth including in presenting my research is a quote included in the book
from a speech by Bill Clinton on violent television desensitizing children to the violent
acts they display.
Horn, M. S. (2004). Literature review: Young Children and Technology. n.a. Retrieved from
http://www.researchgate.net/
This article is summary of another reading that lists the facts of that reading with

IMPACT OF MOBILE TECHNOLOGY ON CHILDREN

citations. It covers the educational uses of mobile technology with children as well as the
social interactions that occur between the children while working with mobile
technology.
While this source may not be the most official, it does cite back to its origin source so
that I can retrieve that information if need be. The information is presented in bulleted
lists that helps get the key points across.
This source and its origin source may be helpful to me in providing information about the
ways mobile technology can be used to enrich the learning experience of children and the
a different approach to the social impacts of technology. Rather than focusing on the long
term social impact, this article goes through the social interactions that occur during the
use of such technology between children.
Johnson, J. G., Cohen, P., Smailes, E. M., Kasen, S., Brook, J.S. (2002). Television viewing and
aggressive behavior during adolescence and adulthood. Science Magazine, 295, 24682471. doi:10.1126/science.1062929
This article goes in depth on a community assessment of children and young adults'
patterns of aggressive behavior while watching aggression on television shows. The
assessment was carried out three times with different age groups and findings varied.
This article is knowledgeable and useful in conveying the behavioral and emotional
impacts of technology. This experiment and assessment was carried out by a reliable
publication and displays no bias. Their goal was to find a relationship between hours
spent watching television, the programs that were watched, and patterns of aggression in
viewers' behavior. They were semi-successful and conclude that more research will need
to be conducted before their findings are presented as fact.

IMPACT OF MOBILE TECHNOLOGY ON CHILDREN

This article will be helpful to me in showing that there is a correlation between TV

viewing and other technological mediums and patterns of aggression in adolescents,
while making note of the other variables that may impact the viewer. This information
can be presented within my research as the behavioral impact of mobile technology on
children. While my research is not restricted to TV, it is inclusive of TV as mobile
technology and the Internet make television shows more accessible to children.
Josephson, J. H. (2004). Do we introduce children to technology? n.a. Retrieved from
http://www.kindersite.org
This article outlines the pros and cons of an early introduction to computers for children.
Another aim of this article is to inform parents of when the best time to introduce
children to technology is. The article also stresses the necessity for children to become
informed of computers at some point in their lives.
This article is very useful as it lists pros and cons in a very organized manner that I can
evaluate and distribute amongst the cognitive, social, etc. fields I plan to display my
research in. The article avoids bias by stating the facts and separating them from all
opinionated material. It is written for a website predominantly concerned with children's
education and catered towards parents.
Within my research, this article will aid me greatly by separating the pros from the cons
and providing a variety of each. I am certain that I can use most of these provided facts in
my research to present a compilation of positive impacts and negative impacts of using
mobile technology as a child.
McMillan, S. J., & Morrison, M. M. (2006). Coming of age with the Internet: A qualitative
exploration of how the Internet has become an integral part of young people's lives. New

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Media & Society, 8, 73-95. doi:10.1177/1461444806059871

This article is a qualitative exploration of several autobiographical accounts from young
adults on how technology has impacted their life. Through the use and analysis of quotes
from these autobiographical accounts, the authors display how technology heavily
influences the lives of children today.
The autobiographical aspect of this article makes it extremely useful because these are
firsthand accounts of how technology is impacting the lives of children and young adults
currently. These accounts were compiled by a study conducted at the University of
Tennessee and later published in a journal, giving the article credibility.
This article has the potential to be helpful in assembling my research but there is the
downfall of the autobiographical accounts being too dated to be of use since technology
is advancing at a rapid pace. Depending on how my research presentation plans pan out,
some of the firsthand accounts may or may not find their way into my presentation.
Subrahmanyan, K., Kraut, R. E., Greenfield, P. M., & Gross, E.F. (2000). The impact of home
computer use on children's activities and development. Children and Computer
Technology, 10. Retrieved from http://www.princeton.edu/futureofchildren/
This article sets out to investigate how the use of home computers is impacting children's
lives. The authors have researched and presented proposed advantages that home
computers have on children's academics and cognitive skills as well as the potential risks
home computers may have on their health, social skills, and perceptions of reality. The
article does point out that there is limited research and evidence available on the topic for
any solid and sound conclusions to be made.
For my research, this paper will be very useful as it conveniently lines up with the way I

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plan to present my research, tackling the impact in different fields of a child's

development and skills such as cognitive, social, and health. Most other articles I have
read during my research have not done this and instead have been restricted to the impact
of computers in just one of these fields, adding to its usefulness. The article is contained
within Princeton's journal for children and computer technology, so adequate research
was done during its composition and it is coming a trustworthy source.
As stated above, this article will be very helpful in my research as it covers a variety of
relevant topics that lines up nearly perfectly with the way I intend to present my research.
I will use this source in compiling lists of the advantages and disadvantages of early
introduction to mobile technology. While the article was written years ago and about
home computers that were stationary, as another article points out, the technology may be
new but the concerns are old.
Wartella, E. A., & Jennings, N. (2000). Children and computers: New technology - old concerns.
Children and Computer Technology, 10. Retrieved from http://www.futureofchildren.org
This article expounds on the proponents and opponents of every new wave of technology
in the past and compares them to the proponents and opponents of today's technology.
The authors also investigate the social, cognitive, and behavioral impacts of technology
on children in the past and today.
This article will be very useful in prefacing my research by providing a historical
background of similar situations. This is the only article that I have encountered that has
gone into great detail about past occurrences but it does so marvelously. The source is
reputable as it is from a journal catered to the topic I am researching and is also in
cooperation with the Princeton article, adding to its reliability. The article does not

IMPACT OF MOBILE TECHNOLOGY ON CHILDREN

display any bias and does a fair job at displaying the proponents and opponents of each
new wave of technology.
This article has been very helpful to shaping the way I intend to relay and present my
research by providing a historical background on the topic. I intend to use this
information to deliver a fleshed out introduction to the topic citing past situations and
noting their similarities to the current day arguments for and against children's use of
mobile technology.

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