Impact of Digital Revolution and Young Generation

Digital Revolution is the advancement of technology from mechanical and analog technology to the digital electronics available today. The era of Digital Revolution began from the late 1950s to the late 1970s. This time period saw the adoption and proliferation of digital computers that continues to date. Digital Revolution is also termed as the Third Industrial Revolution.

According to various researches, the impact of digital revolution on young generation is found to be profound. According to a recent study, more and more number of children is nowadays migrating online with the help of smart phones and tablets.

Positive impacts

In this time and era, technology has become a central pillar to kids’ future achievement and has become a necessary part of their education. With parental guidance, the digital media can be a godsend gift for the kids as it offers them with a truly educational media experience which will help them to enhance their knowledge. Also, without the help of parents and teachers, the kids are able to learn new things like teaching themselves to play guitar simply by watching videos on the internet.

The devices and digital media also offer busy parents the necessary break from parenting, which is reasonable and fair.

Negative impacts

Health

• Prolonged use of digital devices can be dangerous for kids. It is accompanied with health complications as it affects the sleeping pattern of kids and prevents the kids from engaging in physical activities.
• This is one of the leading factors for India’s rising childhood obesity rates.

Social isolation

• Unchecked and unfiltered use of digital devices can also exacerbate mental health issues among children. Various studies have shown that prolonged use of digital devices can make young children to exhibit higher rates of aggression.
• In addition, children tend to develop addiction to the online apps and games which eventually results in social isolation and mental illness.
• The phenomenal growth of social media, smart phones and digital devices has transformed the lives of kids so much so that the kids tend to spend more time with media rather than their parents or teachers.

Other effects

The digital media usage in children makes them particularly vulnerable in picking up and continuing stereotypes and biases. As these young children lack the ability to think critically about what they are seeing, they tend to absorb the social and moral messages appearing on those digital media. They lack the cognitive sophistication and are not able to spot the differences between real and sponsored content. The very recent example is the large number of children committing suicide by playing the Blue Whale Game.

Further, edutainment being a $6 billion industry in India, gives more emphasize on the colours, characters and plots which tends to keep the kids more entertained. The industry does not seem to be concerned over what is going to help children learn.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, educative content which is age appropriate, free of biases and violence would promote problem-solving ability, compassion, moral values, manners and empathy among children. There is nothing wrong about children using digital devices but it can have positive impact only if the parents moderated their usage. According to experts, the impact of digital media on children ultimately depends on the content and moderation.