Do you realize that nowadays children often use smartphones in their daily life? Why? What’s the benefit and the impact of using smartphones for children? Here, we’re going to discuss the benefits and its impact of smartphone use for children.

The advancement of technology has made us enter a more sophisticated and modern world. In this era, people began to follow a lifestyle that tends to be practical but still looks modern. Some tools are created to help facilitate human work. Smartphones were created to help humans to communicate, find news, and information on the internet.

Nowadays, almost all ages use smartphones. Children are also among the smartphone users. Usually, children use smartphones to help them learn new things that they have never known about before. Here are some of the benefits of smartphones:

1. Education

Smartphones can help children in their learning needs. Smartphones provide features that will help children in identifying numbers, letters and pictures through apps and interesting videos.

2. Entertainment and Social Facilities

Social media provides features that can shows text, images, and videos. Interesting and funny pictures or videos will make children feel entertained. Online games provided by smartphones are also one way for children to feel entertained. Social media features provided by smartphones will help children socialize with their friends and parents. Social media provides services for chatting, so children will always be connected with their friends and family when they are chatting.

Smartphones provide many features that help children in their learning process, such as learning apps to recognize pictures, letters and numbers. Smartphones also provide entertainment applications such as social media and online games. Many positive things can be obtained if parents can choose the right smartphone features for their children, some of them are:

1. To Communicate at Distance

Smartphones provide features for children to stay connected with their parents and friends. This feature will make children feel not so lonely when they are away from their parents.

2. Easy Access to Get New Information

Smartphones can support children to learn new things by searching for information, reading books digitally, and exploring what is happening in the world in that day. Smartphones provide internet that help children explore new things and find interesting information that they have never known before.

3. Increase Children’s Creativity

The ease of finding information through smartphones can increase children’s creativity levels. Interesting information that is often accessed by children is DIY (Do It Yourself), an activity that increases children’s creativity in making or fixing something with their own hands.

4. Children’s Learning Tools

Smartphones help children in the visual learning process through image, letter, and number identification application features that can increase children’s ability to learn new things. Smartphones will make it easier for children when they find it difficult to do their tasks.

5. Improve The Ways of Thinking, Reasoning, and Memory Skills

Smartphones can be one of the means to improve children’s memory and thinking skills when processing new information. When getting new information, children will understand more about the things they just found out. Features on online gaming applications can also improve reasoning in children’s brains.

Unfortunately, most parents have been giving smartphones to their children since they were toddlers. The reason some parents do this is because they are busy at work or they have a busy work schedule. Sometimes, they are too busy to finish their work and have no time to take care of their children. In the end, parents only give smartphones to their children when they are busy doing their work.

The use of smartphones continuously and without supervision from parents will have an impact on changes in children’s mindset and behavior in everyday life. Children who are already addicted to smartphones will turn into individuals who are irritable, defiant, and copy the behavior according to what they see on smartphones. The negative impacts that will arise if children begin to show their dependence on smartphones, are:

1. Change in Children’s Behavior

The use of smartphones in children will change the child’s social behavior with the surrounding condition, such as family and friends. The changes in children’s behavior are caused by children that being too comfortable playing smartphones, so they will feel disturbed and angry if someone reminds them to stop playing smartphones.

2. Changes The Children’s Mindset

Social media is a platform where everyone is free to express themselves. Children will get a lot of information only through social media. Unfortunately, not all content on social media is appropriate for children to see. Children who use smartphones without parents’ control will assume that what they see on social media is true, this is what causes children to follow or imitate what they watch, so that their mindset will changes.

3. Damage The Eyes

Smartphones make children feel dependent and cannot stop to continue playing smartphones. Staring at the smartphone layer all the time will make the child’s eyes tired.

4. Reduced Sleep Hours

A child will give up their sleeping hours just because they don’t want to stop playing smartphones.

There are many benefits of smartphones. Smartphones can help children with their school work, interact with parents from a distance, and also improve memory and thinking skills in children. Unfortunately, the continuous use of smartphones without parent’s control can bring many negative impacts. The child’s attitude will change into a person who is easily angry and tends to rebel against what parents say. So from now on, parents should control the use of smartphones in their children. Parents should also try to limit the use of smartphones in children and start teaching them to interact with their surroundings.

References:

Latifatus Saniyyah, D., Setiawan, D., & Ismaya, E. A. (2021). Dampak penggunaan gadget terhadap perilaku sosial anak di Desa Jekulo Kudus. Edukatif: Jurnal Ilmu Pendidikan, 3(4), 2132-2140.

Hijriyani, Y. S., & Astuti, R. (n.d.). Penggunaan gadget oleh anak usia dini pada era revolusi industri 4.0. No publication.

Ramadhan, V. A. (2023). Dampak gadget terhadap perkembangan anak: Memahami efek positif dan negatif. In M. I. W. Sukron (Ed.). Retrieved from https://clsd.psikologi.ugm.ac.id/2023/11/23/dampak-gadget-terhadap-perkembangan-anak-memahami-efek-positif-dan-negatif/