Cause and effect essay
Running head: INTERNET INFLUENCE ON CHILDREN 1
INTERNET INFLUENCE ON CHILDREN 4
Internet Influence on Children
Constant internet exposure has different effects on children depending on how they use it. The internet can either have a positive impact on the children or influence them negatively. Using the internet for playing video games helps in developing the creativity of children. Mostly, playing video games require children to be creative in oder to solve complex procedures that need preceding steps to be completed before advancing to the next level of the game in play. When used as a learning tool, the internet exposes children to several materials of references on a single area of learning. This exposure broadens the children's knowledge about a given topic of study and enhances their understanding of creativity concerning the topics under study. On the other hand, children who spend most of their time on the internet may get depression since they participate in social activities. Uncontrolled use of the internet may lead children to access harmful materials like pornography or violent videos that changes the children's perception about the world or lead to change in character as they try to practice what they observe on the internet.
Playing games, in many cases, involves the participation of more than one child at a time. Games that require children collective efforts to play or to solve builds the spirit of teamwork among them. They get to understand the importance of working together to solve the challenges that they face in everyday life, such as preventing cases of bullying by learning the importance of a good relationship with each other from watching educative programs like nickelodeon. Playing games that require timing and precision helps kids in increasing hand-eye coordination. Hand-eye coordination is an essential skillset in professions like medical surgery, professional rally sports, computer programming, engineering professions, and other fields.
Using the internet boosts the level of confidence in children. Children who learn from the internet are generally well informed on a wide range of topics. This increases their acceptance among their peers as they are looked upon to give more information about different topics giving them a sense of self-worth among their peers. Playing complex computer games boosts the morale of children. They develop self-trust that they are the solutions to the challenges that they face in their daily lives and learn to report other challenges that are beyond their control like cyberbullying.
Over usage of the internet can lead children to develop unhealthy habits. Children need to participate in physical activities to improve their health. Children that spend excess time on the internet risk becoming obese, which may lead them to develop health problems like high blood pressure or other cardiovascular diseases. Excess internet usage may lead kids to develop repetitive motion injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome and eye strain. Rapidly flashing images can trigger epileptic seizures in children.
The use of the internet by children can result in cognitive challenges. They may find it difficult to differentiate between facts and fiction since the internet contents do not get filtered or reviewed. In many cases, children carry informal communications and chats they learn from the internet into the classrooms. Educators find it challenging to correct such behaviors due to continuous exposure to informal communication. The internet encourages children to be lazy in doing their classwork as the assignment can easily be plagiarized from the internet.
Exposure to harmful things like pornography and violence on the internet can fundamentally alter children's perspectives about the world. They may either grow to adapt these negative characters or grow up in fear of what might happen to their lives. Over usage of the internet, may result in depression and isolation. Children that spend most of their time alone on the internet mostly feel lonely and unwanted to some extent. These children will develop depression, which, when left unchecked, can result in committing suicide.
In conclusion, parents and teachers should take a front stage in monitoring how children under their care use the internet and educate them on the appropriate ways of using the internet without getting affected negatively. If possible, the parents should control the content that their child watches and create a timetable for them that determines how long they can spend on the internet daily to enable them to participate in other activities like participating in physical exercise.