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Lauren Taylor

Professor Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1104

14 February 2019

Topic Proposal: Is Our Future in Jeopardy?

Introduction/Overview

For this proposal I will be examining the potential effect that computers, smartphones,

and video games have on child development. I will focus mainly on the impacts they have on

social development, face to face interactions, and what role the brain plays in all of this. It is an

important topic to discuss in today’s society as technology is becoming a prominent part of most

everyone’s life from being involved in most jobs to being a way in which people communicate

instantly. It does not only affect the future children of society, but also the older generations.

Social skills are necessary for most jobs, schools, friendships, and more. Nearly all countries

have some sort of use with computer and smart phones, meaning that this is a concern for the

entire world. The upcoming generations need to be raised to know how to interact properly or

else this could raise an abundance of issues such as lack of social interactions, decline in things

such as clubs/sports, and more.

While people may try to argue that growing technology is beneficial and not harmful,

Robert E. Kraut stated in his article, “The Impact of Home Computer Use on Children’s Activity

and Development”, said that “…increased use of the Internet may be linked to increases in

loneliness and depression.” Kraut later talked of how increased computer use at home may

“…displace other activities that have more development value…”, showing how technology is

taking priority over other things such as sports, outdoor activities, and more. The majority of his
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information came from prior research and surveys which can be seen as reliable as they were

done with potentially no bias.

To start off my research I went straight to Google. When I search “technologies effect on

child development” I clicked the “scholarly” links which lead me to many journals and surveys

that were beneficial. The place I got the majority of my useful information from was the J.

Murray Atkins Library database. By searching key words, for example “technology” and “child

development”, I was able to find reliable resources that obtained much more information than the

articles I found on Google. The library’s website has a live chat with librarians at all times of the

day and this truly helped strengthen me in my research. By reaching out to one of the librarians,

I was able to find articles from different websites rather than the same three I kept using over and

over again. This feature on the site is both beneficial and convenient for large projects that

require a lot of background research.

As I did more research I was able to focus my topic from technologies effect on child

development to its effect on specifically social behaviors. Talking of development in general is

too broad as so many things go into a person’s growth as an individual. My professor, Malcolm,

helped lead me to the direction of the social part of things as I could not figure out how to best

narrow down my topic. This seemed both interesting and beneficial to know. Everyone, it

seems, has a different opinion on the topic and opinions change daily as new findings come out.

However, there are two main sides. All over the media individuals argue that technology’s

expansion is either beneficial or that it is taking over our society and its basic functions. Almost

every media source has touched on the topic from New York Times to CNN. Most individuals in

the older generations are the ones who see it more in a negative light, mainly because they did

not grow up around it themselves and are not use to its prominent use in the world we live in
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today. Others, who are for technologies growth, may work in fields that take advantage of it,

such as, the medical field, businesses who use media as an outlet to advertise, and more.

Initial Inquiry Question(s)

Does easy access to computers and smart phones threaten the possibility of proper child

development of social skills?

My Interest in this Topic

I am interested in technologies effect on child development, specifically on social skills,

because I hope to have my own children in the future. Raising a kid cannot be easy, as I have

heard from my parents on multiple occasions, and I want to know how to do it correctly. It is

important to be aware of what is happening in your surroundings and technology is growing at a

rapid rate in modern day society. Who knows what will be able to be done by your fingertips

within the next ten to twenty years. I would like to be more informed about the specific effects

technology has on a young child’s brain, how much computer time can affect the development of

the brain, how it takes away from other activities that build social skills and teamwork such as

sports and clubs, and more. There is a lot that goes into the development of a growing brain and

it is all important to my topic. I only know how scared individuals are, me included, for how the

next generation will turn out, meaning I have a lot of research to do on my hands.

Even today, parents are stressed about how much access their children have to technology

at such a young age. I have read and know that too much involvement in a computer screen can

cause things as harmful as depression which is frightening. In order to make sure my children,

and all other children for that matter, are raised “correctly” I and all other future parents need to
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look into the matter personally. From gathering different opinions to looking at surveys and

experiments, I need to know about the specific effects on a child’s brain and how that might

impact their interactions with others. My parents were scared for my generation, so who knows

how ruffled we all will be later on.

Next Steps

In order to find more research on my topic I will be using an abundance of resources. I

will make use of the J. Murray Atkins Library building and website provided by The University

of North Carolina at Charlotte. The live chat with an on-duty library will assist me in finding

scholarly articles more painlessly. These articles, for the most part, are more reliable and the

databases on the website provide a variety of different sources to reference. In my research here,

I will use quotations to find specific phrases that deal with my topic as well as limit the years I

am obtaining these articles from. Technology has changed tremendously over the past decade;

therefore, semi-recent articles will be more reliable. My plan is to also research some famous

publications and media sources such as New York Times, CNN, Psychology Today, and more.

Most media sources have touched basis on this topic as it is relevant to everyone in the world. It

is an important subject to be conscious about. Some of these sources may contain bias, however

they are dependable and will have information on the psychological and social issues that are

necessary to be learn about.