The impact of computer use on children's and adolescents' development

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Abstract

In recent years, electronic games, home computers, and the Internet have assumed an important place in our lives. This paper presents a review of the research on the impact of home computer use on the development of children and adolescents. Time use data are presented along with a discussion of factors such as age, gender, and ethnicity, which impact the time spent on computers as well as the activities engaged in. Research on the impact of computer use on cognitive skill and academic development, social development and relationships, and perceptions of reality and violent behavior is reviewed. The special role of the Internet in the lives of adolescents is brought out using data from the HomeNet study. The paper concludes with recommendations for future study in order to better understand the growing impact of computers on our youth.

Introduction

The time is ripe to assess the impact of home computer use on child and adolescent development. Over the past few years, a growing number of U.S. households have added electronic games, home computers, and the Internet to other technologies — the telephone, radio, TV, and stereo system — that consume children's time. Furthermore, the Annenberg Public Policy Center has reported that among U.S. households with children aged 8 to 17, 60% had home computers, and children in 61% of households with computers had access to Internet services; in other words, 36.6% of all households with children had Internet services, more than twice the percentage of that in 1996 (Turow, 1999). When a national sample of children and teenagers was asked to choose which medium to bring with them to a desert isle, more children from 8 to 18 chose a computer with Internet access than any other medium (Rideout, Foehr, Roberts, & Brodie, 1999).

Surveys of parents suggest that they buy home computers and subscribe to Internet access to provide educational opportunities for their children, and to prepare them for the “information-age” (Turow, 1999). Although they are increasingly concerned about the influence of the Web on their children and express disappointment over their children using the computer for activities such as playing games and browsing the Internet to download lyrics of popular songs and pictures of rock stars, they generally consider time wasted on the computer preferable to time wasted on TV, and even consider children without computers to be at a disadvantage (Kraut, Scherlis, Mukhopadhyay, Manning, & Kiesler, 1996).

While the research on whether computers are a positive influence in children's lives is mostly sketchy and ambiguous, some initial findings are beginning to emerge. This article starts with a discussion of the time spent by children on computers and the impact of such computer use on other activities such as television viewing. Then we review the available research on the effects of computer use on children's cognitive and academic skill development, social development and relationships, as well as perceptions of reality and violent behavior.

We present data from the HomeNet project, which was a field trial by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, who studied household use of the Internet between 1995 and 1998 Kraut et al., 1996, Kraut et al., 1998. By reducing economic and technological barriers to the use of computers and the Internet from home, this study examined how a diverse sample of families would use the technology when provided the opportunity for the first time. Starting in 1995, the study provided 93 families in the Pittsburgh area with home computers and connections to the Internet, then collected data about them for 2 years through in-home interviews, periodic questionnaires, and automatically whenever members of these families went online. The goal was to provide a rich picture of the factors encouraging or discouraging use of the Internet, the manner the Internet was used, and the impact of such use over time. The sample included 208 adults and 110 children and teenagers (ranging in age from 10–19 years), hereafter referred to inclusively as teenagers. Here we present data on teenagers' use of the Internet.

In examining the impact of computer use, we have primarily looked at two popular applications of the computer, including games and the Internet. Because games played on a computer are similar to games played on other platforms (e.g., stand-alone game sets such as Nintendo and Sega or hand-held games, such as Gameboy), we use the term “computer games” inclusively to refer to all kinds of interactive games regardless of platform. Even the distinction between games and the Internet is getting blurry as interactive games can be played on the Internet. With the expected convergence of different media in the near future, assessing the impact of computer technology on children will only get more complex and challenging.

Section snippets

Time spent on computers

Understanding the impact of computer use requires good estimates of both the time children spend on computers, and the time taken away from other activities. Time use data on children's use of computers has been gathered mostly through self-reports and reports by parents. Despite their overall usefulness, particularly for sampling a large number of people, self-report data are beset by problems of accuracy and reliability stemming from memory limitations and inaccurate estimations on the part

Computer games and the development of cognitive skills

Many computer applications, especially computer games, have design features that shift the balance of required information-processing, from verbal to visual. The very popular action games, which are spatial, iconic, and dynamic, have things going on at different locations. The suite of skills children develop by playing such games can provide them with the training wheels for computer literacy, and can help prepare them for science and technology, where more and more activity depends on

Home computer use and academic performance

In this section we examine the impact of computer use on children's performance in academic areas such as math, science, language arts, and writing. Teenagers in the HomeNet sample reported that the most common educational use of computers was simple word processing for school assignments. In addition, students used links to the web to find information for various class reports. For example, one student found information on Pittsburgh's role in the underground railroad for a Black history month

Effects on social development and relationships

In the following sections, we examine the various ways in which computer use impacts social development, from the impact of game playing on the development of friendships and family relationships to the impact of the Internet on relationships and psychological well-being.

Conclusions and future directions

Available estimates of time use vary and are mostly based on self-reports, suggesting the need for more reliable estimates. Teenagers use the computer more than younger children or adults. Use is also greater for boys compared to girls, for Whites compared to Black or Hispanic children, and for children in households with higher parental income and education. Children still seem to be spending more time watching television than using computers, although computer users watch less television than

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