Turn Off the CoComelon
Apple released the first iPad on April 3rd, 2010. Within the month, the phrase “iPad kid” gained popularity on Twitter, with an annual spike in search results near the release date of each successive iPad. The use of the word has only risen in pop culture relevance in recent years, and in over a decade of use, the term has maintained relative continuity in its cultural meaning: an iPad kid is a child who receives a vast proportion of their entertainment from technology.
The iPad Kid
The existence of an iPad kid can come only from parenting which adheres to such an existence, and the prevalence of iPad children today is endemic of a parenting style which has seen steady rise over the past two decades. In short, parenting is a difficult task, and devices intended to entertain children, to capture their attention, and occupy them for some amount of time, to give the parents a break from their overbearing task, have been around for centuries. The newest expansion in the progression of technology has been personal computers, developing further into handheld devices, bringing the iPad to light. While all forms of child entertainment have lended themselves to differing levels of scrutiny in their potential negative effects, the technology of today has found itself in a category wholly unmatched by anything interacted with by previous generations. Modern apps are designed to be as captivating as possible, many apps advertise their addictive nature and use it as a selling point. Understanding the nature of the services provided by modern devices is vastly important to cultivating responsible and beneficial use, and such an understanding is something that a toddler or young child is simply incapable of.
The Child-Media Complex
Toddlers and young children are largely passive actors in viewing preferences, watching whatever is put in front of them as opposed to actively seeking certain media out. This method of interaction with content lends itself particularly well to many hypermodern forms of media entertainment, like Youtube, Instagram, and TikTok. These platforms have been specifically designed to deliver near endless amounts of media with little to no active participation on the part of the consumer; meaning that a toddler has no say in what videos youtube autoplay decides to show them. Combine this with the fact that not only are the content platforms themselves designed to be as addictive as possible, but that the content itself is designed to be addictive, simple, and iterative, so as to maximize the amount of videos capable of being watched and the captivation of the children watching them, as is seen overwhelmingly today with children’s Youtube channels, and the harm of such a system begins to show. Children can watch hours and hours of content without thought and when that content lacks even the slightest level of education or development required to provide some benefit over the base harm of looking at a screen as opposed to interacting with another human being, the effects can become devastating.
The Harm
A plethora of negative effects on child development have already been documented as stemming from media consumption, internet usage, and screen time. The biggest issue is that since young children’s brains are still developing and much more malleable, they adapt to the screens in front of them. Attention spans of children with frequent technology use are much lower than those of children with limited screen time, and children exposed to heightened visual stimulation develop stunted imaginations. This alone has serious negative effects on school performance, as children struggle to pay attention for long periods of time or think creatively to solve problems.
Social-Emotional Losses
Social skill growth is stunted as well, as children lack experience connecting with other people. Children exposed to media often end up socially awkward, shy, or withdrawn. As time with media means time not spent interacting with parents or other children, exposure to media and technology is associated with poorer cognitive development and language development in young children. The primary method through which young children develop emotionally is by observing other people. They learn by listening to conversations, observing facial expressions, and watching how others navigate social and emotional situations. Screen time takes away from this, and leads to an inability to show or feel empathy for others or comprehend complex emotions. Additionally, content spreading today has, in the effort of being as addictive as possible, become so hyperstimulating that it acts similarly to a drug in the mind of a child, hijacking reward centers with flashing colors and sound effects. An example of this is the incredibly popular youtube channel CoComelon, which has garnered over 150 billion views (yes, billion) from their animated nursery rhymes.
Why It Matters
This “hyperreality” of screens and content develops the minds of young children on stimulation that is so far separated from that provided by the real and tangible surroundings of a child that they become prepared for a world that is utterly incongruent with reality. Their ability to interact with the world around them, to meet and communicate with and connect with people, to think and to imagine, to focus and to pay attention, to sympathize and empathize, depends very heavily on the young and impressionable years of their lives, and damages made during this time are very hard, if possible at all, to correct for later in life. The first five years of a child’s life is the most important period for development, and the most important predictor for success in life, regardless of what one may determine success to be. Social-emotional skills by age 5 are incredibly strong predictors of college degrees and job stability, and to neglect the future of a child in favor of the ease at which an iPad or tablet can regulate a child’s behavior is upsettingly depressing.
While all of these effects are terribly detrimental, they lie completely on the fault and responsibility of the parent. In many cases, parents don’t understand the harm that this kind of media can cause, or simply don’t care. While this problem may be underreported, there are still many organizations which offer guidance and guidelines on how to raise a child in the age of the internet and unavoidable media interaction. The undertaking of raising a child can be a beautiful responsibility, but it is a responsibility that must be fully taken. Understand how children develop, understand how they learn, and grow, and know the time, and effort, and care that is necessary. Children are here to interact, to share, and talk, and yell, and laugh, and play, and think, and feel. They were not made to sit in front of a screen and watch CoComelon.
Written by Nathan Brooks, Photographer: Rylie Meek, Social Media: Anglela Duplantis