Technology and Children: Good or Bad?

Most would define technology as a means of gaining knowledge or accomplishing some sort of task (http://www.merriam-webster.com/) whether it be surfing the internet, listening to audio books, watching an online documentary, or making calls from a wireless blue-tooth device.

Technology provides many benefits as noted above, but when it comes to children, it has been more of a hazard than a benefit.

I would like to elaborate on the issue of video games and how they have been proven to cause violence and aggressive behavior.

An exerpt from the book, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology by Mark P. Zanna writes,

"Both experimental and correlational studies, on average, yield significant positive relations between exposure to violent video games and aggressive behavior with average effect sizes in the r + = 0.20 range" (Anderson and Bushman, 2001)

A study by Thomas A. Kooijmans at the Rochester Institute of Technology also finds that,

"During adolescence there is a general increase in the aggression (Lindemann, Harakka, & Keltikangas-Jaervinen, 1997). "This aggression combined with the exposure to violent media will reinforce and increase aggressive cognitions, affects and arousal. This interaction has a negative affect on the internal state, leading to increased aggression (Spear, 2000)."

As you can see, there is strong evidence that backs this distinct relationship.

The Columbine incident of 1999 is also a great example. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1295920.stm)

For more information, please follow this link:

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=2OHSgcuEU2YC&oi=fnd&pg=PA199&dq=%22Anderson%22+%22Effects+of+Violent+Video+Games+on+Aggressive+Behavior,+...%22+&ots=DOvnUDIO6O&sig=K3xtzTCP3yCReSWmU_Bx3FSYfLU#PPA205,M1