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How does the impact of personalized devices affect child

development?

Technology

Micah Marrain

12 ELA 3

Mr.Janosch

11/22/17
The impact of personalized devices affects child development in many different ways.
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Erik Erikson was a psychologist who developed one of the most popular theories of child

development. Erikson was interested in how social interaction and relationship played a role in

development and growth of human beings. Erikson discovered that the development of child to

adulthood should be socioemotional, Cognitive, and psychological.

Erikson found there are eight stages of child development. The first Cognitive stage is the

trust vs mistrust, birth to 18 months. During the first stage of this psychosocial development,

children develop a sense of trust when caregivers provide reliability, care, and affection. A lack

of this will lead to mistrust,(Erik Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development). To explain this

stage of development an infant totally depends on his parents. If the parents fail to provide care

and love, the child will come to feel that he or she cannot trust or depend upon the adults in his

or her life which leads to mistrust. This mistrust will develop fear and belief that this world is

cruel and harsh.

The Socio Emotionally stage is Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt, which is the ages from

two to three. Along the second stage of this psychosocial development, children are just starting

to gain a little independence. They are starting to perform basic actions on their own and making

simple decisions about what they prefer, (Erik Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development).

When parents allow their kids to make choices and gain control of what they do, they gain an

ability called self -determination. This self-determination can really help a child when they get

older to be independent and to not give up when times are hard for them. When a child is not

making choices by themselves they can really become antisocial, and you do not want that.

The Another socio emotionally stage takes place during the early school years from

approximately age 5 to 11, which is Industry vs. Inferiority. This stage speaks about children

that begin to develop a sense of pride in their accomplishments and abilities. Children need to be
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encouraged and motivated to start something new and finish it in a way that they feel that is

right. Children who are encouraged and commended by parents and teachers develop a feeling of

competence and belief in their skills,(Erik Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development). Those

who receive little or no encouragement from parents, teachers, or peers will doubt their abilities

to be successful.

The fifth and final psychosocial stage that I will be talking about is Identity vs. Role

Confusion. This stage covers the period of early adulthood when people are exploring personal

relationships,(teenage years from ages 12-18). While going through this stage teenagers need to

develop a sense of self and personal identity. Success leads to an ability to stay true to yourself,

while failure leads to pole confusion and a weak sense of self. While Erikson believed that each

stage of psychosocial development was important, he placed a particular emphasis on the

development of ego identity,(Erik Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development). This stage is

particular important because when you talk about identify they are referring to all of the beliefs,

ideals, and values that help shape and guide a person's behavior. In that statement if you integrate

cell phones into a child's development how would this change things?

Ever since cell phones were invented they affected the way children develop into

adulthood. In 1973 the first cell phone is created and the world is going crazy, parents, teens,

and children are getting them. Now there are 4.16 billion people who owns a mobile cell phone

and they have become a big part of children's lives and parents lives,(38 Infographic Explores

Mobile Phone Evolution – Facts & Figures).

When technology/cell phones was presented to the world some people were very

surprised and curious but some people were also very unsure and scared about how it would

affect their lives and the people around them, this is very important because cell phones bring
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both positive and negative effects on people, these effects also are affected by the age of the user.

Compared with their elders, younger cell owners are especially attuned to both the positive and

negative impacts of mobile connectivity,(Part III: The Impact of Mobile Phones on People’s

Lives).

One positive impact of a person owning a cell phone is that people get to stay in contact

with their peers and family. When it comes to the positive impacts of cell phone ownership, fully

two-thirds (65%) of cell owners say that mobile phones have made it “a lot” easier to stay in

touch with the people they care about,(Part III: The Impact of Mobile Phones on People’s Lives).

It is very important because a lot of people with no cell phone can’t really communicate with

other people and that can affect you socially. Another fact is that you can plan with peers and

family too. Roughly half of cell owners say that their phone has made it at least somewhat easier

to plan and schedule their daily routine,(Part III: The Impact of Mobile Phones on People’s

Lives). This is also important because planning your day is very beneficial for your mental state,

if you are not really planning your day you will most likely be stressed.

Another positive impact of a person owning a cell phone is that if a person is in trouble or

needs some help they can easily call somebody to get some help.81% like that their cell phone

can help them get assistance in an emergency (this includes phrases such as “emergencies,”

“safety,” or “security”), in a 2012 survey, (Part III: The Impact of Mobile Phones on People’s

Lives). This is important because of safety reasons and this could affect you psychologically, you

want to know in your head that if you are in trouble you have cell phone that could dial 911 in a

crisis.

In contrast the negative impact a cell phone could have on its user is that the person

owning the phone will most likely have total dependence on the phone. When you look at a
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phone there is all these apps is there for immediate use. For example no longer I have to ask my

mom for a cooking recipe, if I could go on the google search engine and look for a recipe.

Another example is that I don’t have to ask my dad to change a tire when I could go on youtube

on search for a video that could help me change my tire. Also I could drive to any place, or any

state without asking anybody for directions, with my GPS. This justifies that a cell phone can be

used for basically anything.

Finally another negative impact the cell phone has on its user is that if you are always

connected to the phone, then all of a sudden the phone is disconnected, you are gonna feel lost.

For example when I first got my cell phone I was always on it. I could not get off of it until my

mom took my phone away from me for 2 months. I felt so lost and weird like if you had taken

care of a baby for so long and got connected to that baby and someone out of nowhere came and

kidnapped your baby, that's how it felt. In this age the cell phone is one of the most important

tools to have and if you are missing that you will basically be in the stone age .

God is our creator and has created us to love and exist together on this earth. Erik

Erikson’s cognitive socioemotional and psychosocial is the concrete, ultimate journey of

individual development we follow this process from childhood to adulthood. So in my opinion

the cell phone has impacted and affected child development to the point where it has become the

most important device in our lives.

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Work cited

"Cell Phones Are Next Frontier For Internet Companies; Because people spend so much

time on their mobile phones, Internet companies are jumping on the opportunity by

introducing more Web-browsing features to cell-phone users." InformationWeek, 29 July

2005. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?

p=GPS&sw=w&u=nysl_me_73_shb&v=2.1&id=GALE

%7CA134638368&it=r&asid=96ff92e4f9ca27801d53d06ab7bc4e80. Accessed 21 Nov.

2017.
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Papadopoulou, Eleni, et al. "Maternal cell phone use in early pregnancy and child's

language, communication and motor skills at 3 and 5 years: the Norwegian mother and

child cohort study (MoBa)." BMC Public Health, vol. 17, no. 1, 2017. Academic OneFile,

go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&sw=w&u=nysl_me_73_shb&v=2.1&id=GALE

%7CA509119730&it=r&asid=f53973b54ee41be66221bbe8a9eac4ca. Accessed 21 Nov.

2017.

Erikson, E.H. Childhood and Society. (2nd ed.). New York: Norton; 1993.

Erikson, EH & Erikson, JM. The Life Cycle Completed. New York: Norton; 1998.

Carver, CS & Scheier, MF. Perspectives on Personality. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn &
Bacon; 2011.