Are Children Under 10 now Growing Up in a Different World Than College-Age Students Did? How is it Different, and What Does That Mean for Them?

A toddler who hasn't even learned to walk properly won't eat his/her supper without the ‘benign’ presence of a smartphone. Smartphones are the new baits that probably have replaced the candies and are an easy to go solution for parents to tackle their kid's tantrums. These kids are growing up in a technologically advanced world. They have experienced restrictions, masks, sanitizers, lockdown, and so on thanks to the pandemic. I can't recollect a single day in my childhood when I didn't go to play outside despite, however, the weather might have been. 

 

Nevertheless, they are provided with more opportunities in terms of skills they can avail themselves of any course online.  Ed-tech giants publicizing 5-year-olds learning to code have become a common sight.  When we, “Gen Z” were in that phase we never had much internet exposure be it in terms of exploring the web or social media in fact as I recollect the internet itself was a luxury. We grew up playing games like Snake Xenzia, sudoku, etc. on the classic Nokia keypad phones. 

 

However, I believe social media and internet exposure to these kids is more of a bane than a boon.  Parents should track the kid's activity on their phones as kids till attaining a certain age are naive and lack the maturity to single-handedly get exposed to everything available on the internet. Hence it becomes our responsibility to make sure they see good things. Video games involve a lot of violence, including fighting & killing. It results in kids as small as my 7-year-old cousin expressing aggressive behavior over losing a mere game at such a tender age.

 

Certainly, they are portraying adulthood traits and behavior inappropriate for their age due to unregulated exposure to apps that aren't designed for tweens. I wonder what kind of teens they would be, definitely astute than us.