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Adam Lyons
Adam Padgett
ENGL 102-027
October 26, 2016
Computers and Adolescent Development
Inquiry: How is tablet use affecting adolescents psychological development?
Proposed Thesis: The discomfort that parents feel when considering the little known effects of
computer technology and its relation to adolescent development is an acceptable reaction, but the
integration of technology into childrens lives causes an overall positive impact on the
development of the adolescent mind as long as it remains a tool.
Intro
Recently, engineers of computer technology such as tablets, smartphones, and laptops
have been improving and generating new, better technology for mass consumption every year.
The constant process of improving and polishing computer technology is steadily increasing the
demand for the new and improved devices, and in return it is solidifying mankinds complete
dependence on them. With electronic dependence on the rise and the rate of innovation showing
no means of slowing down, present and future adolescents are being brought toward an
unforeseeable future of technology. The modern childhood experience is extremely different
from past generations and the unknown effects disconcert many parents, causing the adults to
question the effects of technology on adolescents social, academic, and disciplinary
development.

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The question of how the adolescent psyche is affected by electronics such as tablets,
handheld games, and regular computers is answered through three basic criteria that a child
needs to grow up successfully: social, academic, and disciplinary attitude development. All in all,
the effect on child development is positive, but it is positive as long as the amount of use is an
acceptable dose. Academics can benefit greatly from computer technology integration as long as
it stays a tool and continues to benefit social development by giving adolescents the ability to
connect to others and speak to others more easily and more immediately. Its positive effects on
development all stem from the idea that computer technology stays as a tool and not a way of
life.
Bilton, Nick. "The Child, the Tablet and the Developing Mind." The New York Times. The New
York Times, 2013. Web.
In Biltons New York Times article The Child, the Tablet, and the Developing Mind, he begins
with a personal anecdote that tells about a time when he, his sister, and her children were in a
restaurant and his sisters children began to fight. To resolve the scene, she brought out two
tablets and in an instant they quit. This incident brought Bilton to question childrens tablet use
and he combined analyses from doctors and tests to answer the question whether or not tablet use
causes a hindrance on adolescent attitude and social development. To see its social impact on
adolescents, Bilton examines work by Ozlem Ayduk of the University of California in which he
brought it down to a general observation between children with crayons and children with
tablets. He found that children sitting at the dinner table with a print book or crayons were not
as engaged with the people around them (Bilton) and shows that tablet use at the table plays the
same role as crayons at a restaurant did with previous generations, concluding that it will not
make a bigger difference on a childs social development. His conclusion on tablet use aids my

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social development point that it really causes no negative outcome and the overuse of tablets that
Bilton talks about really helps my disciplinary development point because it helps show the
downside of the overuse of a good tool. Bilton also examines work by Sherry Turkle from
Massachusetts Institute of Technology that shows that the overuse of tablets is taking away a
childs imagination by pacifying the child from moments of self-reliance and losing opportune
moments of imagination (Bilton). Bilton discusses how tablets unnecessarily fill a time of selfthought and solitude in a childs life where they have nothing to do but teach themselves, taking
away from imaginative and creative development (Bilton). Bilton also elaborates on the idea that
a child who does not create ideas on their own or use their imagination to a larger extent will
have a lack in the mental discipline of thinking for oneself because If you dont teach your
children to be alone, theyll only know how to be lonely (Bilton) due to the fact that they will
always have a dependence on something to be there to help them.
Brown, J. Mariah. "Does The Use of Technology in the Classroom Increase Students Overall
Academic Performance? Thesis. Gonzaga University, 2011. (2011): 1-45.
Http://web02.gonzaga.edu/comltheses/proquestftp/Brown_gonzaga_0736M_10115.pdf.
Web.
Mariah Browns masters thesis on the effects on technology covers an analysis on Technology
Enhanced Learning, or TEL, on the K-12 education system. Through different analyses and
sources she is able to conclude that TEL is an extremely effective tool that helps academic
performance in ways like student motivation, collaboration with other students, and autonomous,
but that it is effective only as a tool to enhance academic progression and performance (Brown
14-15). Browns masters thesis is a great piece to be used with my paper because it supports the
idea that computer technology is a great tool to be used for development for children, especially

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in their academic career because, as Brown proves, the TEL systems can increase overall
academic performance for students (Brown 14) with tests and techniques like the multi-user
virtual environment, or MUVE, that implements educational games to help with students focus
on autonomous learning (Brown 15). Overall, using Brown as a source gives more credibility to
my paper through her own credibility with her countless sources of scholarly evidence.
Roschelle, Jeremy M., Roy D. Pea, Christopher M. Hoadley, Douglas N. Gordin, and Barbara M.
Means. "Changing How and What Children Learn in School with Computer-Based
Technologies." The Future of Children 10.2 (2000): 76-101. Web.
In his academic journal, Roschelle helps explain and show that the integration of computer
technology into the classroom brings many great benefits to the students. This will be useful for
my paper because one of the most prevalent arguments for my academic points is that technology
creates a new tool at a students disposal to help strengthen their academic development.
According to Roschelle, engagement is a key factor in academic for success and if a child lacks a
range of tools to help them learn, they lose focus and care and their academic development
suffers (Roschelle 79). Roschelle also argues that integration of computer technology helps the
students engagement and focus in not only key subjects that use technology more for
comprehension such as math and science, but in other classes that are presentation-based because
technology such as desktop publishing and desktop video can be used to involve students more
actively (Roschelle 79), and can keep those children more engaged with a new technique of
learning and comprehension (Roschelle 79). Roschelle even examines group based learning
programs that promote communication and intellectual thought and stimulation between students
(Roschelle 80), which creates a relevance to both the academic and social points of my inquiry.

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Rowan, Cris. "The Impact of Technology on the Developing Child." The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web.
In Rowans Huffington Post article about technology and its impact on children, he analyzes the
overuse of computer electronics and how it negatively effects child attitude problems. The article
focuses on the intake and effect of the modern youths daily screen time with computer
technology in the non-academic aspect and comes to the conclusion that with excessive use of
computer technology like tablets or laptops, todays youth is struggling with self regulation and
attention skills necessary for learning, eventually becoming significant behavior management
problems (Rowan). The articles viewpoint that overuse of tablets and television is relevant to
my topic because it centers on my main point that computer technology is great for adolescents,
but too much of a great tool inhibits a childs disciplinary development.
Shapiro, Lauren A. Spies, and Gayla Margolin. "Growing Up Wired: Social Networking Sites
and Adolescent Psychosocial Development." Clinical Child and Family Psychology
Review 17.1 (2013): 1-18. Web.
In Shapiros paper, the attention of the piece is directed toward the connection of social media
use with computers and its effects on adolescent social development by showing different
evidence such as the social compensation hypothesis. This hypothesis states that if adolescents
with more antisocial behavior are given a communication substitute like social media, then those
children will be more sociable in a new, more comfortable way (Shapiro 4). Shapiros analysis
on the relationship of social media and adolescent social development connects seamlessly with
my social development argument because it shows the positive outcomes that come out of an
adolescents use of computer technology. Shapiro examines how adolescents who utilize social

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networking increase their social development by joining a place where adolescents can express
their likes and dislikes as well as their worldviews and get immediate feedback (Shapiro 2),
creating a web of adolescents who are given the free ability and incentive to share more. Along
with examining the positive effects of computer technology and social media on social
development, Shapiros paper is also relevant to my statement that too much of the computer
technology tool is a bad thing because Shapiro argues those who lack in real world connectivity
with friends and instead spend the majority of their time online do not benefit from the positivity
that social networking can provide (Shapiro 3).
Vandewater, Elizabeth A., Mi-Suk Shim, and Allison G. Caplovitz. "Linking Obesity and
Activity Level with Children's Television and Video Game Use." Journal of Adolescence
27.1 (2004): 71-85. Web.
Vandewaters paper is a construction of data that is put together to reflect the relationship
between large amounts of time spent with television and video games and its role in child
obesity. The piece takes several analyses on hypotheses such as the couch-potato hypothesis, the
metabolic hypothesis, and the caloric intake hypothesis and connects them to come to the
conclusion that obesity in the children being examined had a strong correlation to copious
amounts of time spent with television (Vandewater 72-73). The hypotheses as a whole correlated
with my disciplinary development point because they all point out that obesity is connected
directly to mass consumption of television and the alarming increase in child obesity is raising
many concerns as it leads to poor attitudes about exercise and kinesthetic activities (Vandewater
83). Through my examination of Vandemwaters paper, it helped me to cement my point that in
the end, it all comes down to the fact that too much of something great, like computer

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technology, can and will be a hindrance, especially in terms of computer technologys effect on
the psychological development of adolescents.