by Emory Miller
The Burlington School

Summer is the perfect time for playing outside, riding bikes with friends, or even heading to the neighborhood pool. 

Unfortunately, many children are likely to be found indoors in front of some form of electronics.

Today, technology use has increased significantly as it has moved from adults to teens, and from teens to elementary students. Not only are elementary students being put in front of screens at school to learn, but many are also immediately put in front of a screen when they get home as a form of entertainment. 

Children may initially be given electronics for purposeful reasons like learning new information, increasing vocabulary, and developing math skills. However, electronic usage can often become a strategy for parents excessively, resulting in negatively impacting the overall development of children.   

There are many technological advancements that children are increasingly given access to from a young age. 

Researchers stated in a study, that “96% of Americans have a TV and 94% of children ages 3 to 18 have internet access through a computer or smartphone.”

This has led to a negative impact on school performance, social skills, and overall physical fitness of youth across the United States. 

“If young children spend most of their time engaging with an iPad, smartphone, or television, all of which are highly entertaining,” Dr. Jennifer F. Cross, a child behavioral specialist, said in the Journal of the American Medical Association of Pediatrics. “It can be hard to get them engaged in non-electronic activities, such as playing with toys to foster imagination and creativity, exploring outdoors, and playing with other children to develop appropriate social skills.” 

Kristi Tanner, Dean of Students at The Burlington School in Burlington, North Carolina recognizes both the personal and professional impact she has seen as a result of increased screen time. Tanner’s children, like many others, turn into zombies when watching an electronic because they are consistently staring at a screen. 

Tanner has seen that screen time is being shown to affect her children’s creativity. Tanner said, “My own kids love to play pretend and make up new situations, school, restaurant, coffee shop, etcetera, but when they watch a show all of their imagination freezes.”

Many children who are addicted to screens are limiting their social skills and are then limited from having impactful conversations. This hinders children’s abilities to connect with others, unlike children in the past.  

Heather Gibson, a teacher at Providence Christian Montessori, a school in Burlington, North Carolina, said, “I find that the children that have less time on a screen have a higher conversation level. They are able to sit and talk with their families, reason through, and have real conversations.”

When children participate in different kinds of play, for example, sports, walking the dog, or running around the playground, they learn so much more than watching something on an iPad, computer, TV, and other electronics. Harvard graduate Leah Shafner stated in Summertime, Playtime, “In play, children learn to navigate their physical and social environment, while also imagining and constructing new realities. They practice solving problems, testing out how to love, what is wise, and what is safe.” 

The impact of overuse of electronics additionally impacts children’s performance in school. Tanner suggests that as an educator she has observed how resourcefulness and resilience across the board has decreased, and that she believes this is correlated with increased screen time for children. 

“Students want immediate feedback and need lots of reassurance, significantly more than 15 years ago,” Tanner said. 

The need for immediate reassurance leads to children finding it difficult to fend for themselves, Tanner said. Children rely on other people to create their own ideas without having to use their own imagination.

Additionally, Gibson, discusses how when families of children took away leisurely electronics for one month parents and teachers saw a vast difference. 

“Those children were more in tune in class, more thoughtful, and better at problem-solving.”

According to Charles Nechtem Associates, teachers now are starting to plan shorter lessons for their classes. This is because by watching screens or being on electronics, they are prone to become easily distracted, which then results in not being able to stay focused for a long period of time.

Excessive screen time almost immediately affects the child’s ability to watch and understand the everyday involvement which they need to understand the world better even from a young age. But sometimes being addicted to an electronic can change a child’s sense of reality, decreasing their understanding of the world even from a young age. 

Richard Frampton, an elementary school physical education teacher in North Carolina, believes being on an electronic computer can change a child’s sense of reality. 

“Unless a parent sits down and talks to the kid about the games or videos they watch we have a false sense of reality,” Frampton said. “If they are playing a game where they kill people if it is not explained in the world that there is no reset button, there is no new game.” 

Frampton has seen that being on an electronic for extended lengths of time greatly decreases children’s physical activity.

“That’s one of the really negative things about electronics is that kids get addicted so quickly. One more show turns into another, then another, then another one. You finally reach the point of being addicted,” Frampton said. “Because they get so addicted they never step outside or never move their bodies which is honestly harmful to their overall health.” 

In order to counteract the negative effects of the overuse of technology, Providence Christian Montessori decided to make their students spend over 1,000 hours outside during the school year.

“There is so much to gain from being outside. Our bodies need the vitamin D to help process the calcium and magnesium which helps kids grow,” Gibson said. “Being outside helps children with a better sleep schedule, lets the children get their energy out, and just overall have a fun time enjoying nature.”

By having extra time outside children learn from mistakes but also have guidance as needed. Not only does playing outside help problem-solving skills, but it also helps with development and communication with other children since “playing means noticing social cues, listening, and taking another’s perspective,” Shafner stated in a study. 

While some will say there is a need for screens and others will argue that screens will never be good for child development, there must be a balance between screen time and playtime. Children deserve to physically experience the world and need to be encouraged to ditch the iPad and play outside.