Technology has become much more advanced in recent years, and the rate of which has been accelerating rapidly. So naturally, we have become much more accustomed to having the presence of technology in our daily lives. This has been greatly changing the way students are taught in grade schools. However, could this change be more damaging than it is helpful? One of the main areas to look at when determining this is whether or not the access to technology is beneficial to the learning process, and how it affects their mental and emotional health.

This generation has been known to be the most depressed in human history, with 1 in every 5 teens suffering from it by the time they become adults. Our childhood is the point in time where our brains and bodies develop at its most extreme rate. This is our most vulnerable stage in life, so how we learn our social skills is the main factor that determines our how we function around other people. So in what ways does modern technology affect  the depression levels in students?

Well the most influential factors to look at is social media. Too much access to online medias have been proven to give teenagers, especially young women, a negative self-image through comparison, which can also cause students to feel envious. There is a desire for attention that is grown in a person when they spend all their hours scrolling through their feed, looking at the lives of other people. This gives way to students showing themselves off in a manner of dress, outlandish language, and disruptive behavior. Anyone who has been inside a public school has seen this kind of attitude displayed at every turn.

According the research done by the Monitoring the Future Study, teenagers who spend ten hours or more on their devices a week tend to be significantly less happy than their classmates, who get involved in school activities. It’s even proven that the increase of the amount of time spent on social media directly correlates to their depression levels, which can cause a 27% impact. That means there is automatically a ¼ greater likelihood for them to suffer from mental health issues early in life. These effects normally start happening as soon as eighth grade year.

Even the very presence of the screen can have a side-effect on someone’s mental stability. Research has concluded that the human brain can be very sensitive to Radio Wave particles seen on electronic devices. This could be why people normally have severe headaches when looking at their cell phone for too long. The direct effect of the constant access to those waves is still very unclear, but it has been made clear that too much exposure to a non-developed brain, like that of a child, could not grow in the same way a normal brain would. If this is an observable thing, then why wouldn’t schools put set limits on the amount of computer game activities their class does?

Going back to social media, its original purpose was to get people more connected with each other. While that has proven to be very effective in adults, the generations that are growing up with this new advantage seem to be the group with the highest growing rate of anxiety. These recent generation of newly graduates were in no sense properly trained for social situations. To successfully communicate ideas to each other is a fundamental tool for society to operate. By giving kids the access to the world of technology too soon we are holding their training in basic human life skills. Instead of letting elementary students have freerange on chromebooks, they must be comfortable enough to talk with the teacher and their classmates face to face.

It is the school’s number one priority to protect the well-being of the students and to help them grow into law-abiding citizens. There is so much on the line when dealing with the minds of children, and we only have one chance to shape the way they will learn and grow through life. After all of the evidence that has been stated, it is clearly shown that goal simply cannot be accomplished by installing chromebooks into the younger classrooms.