Technology And Interpersonal Communication: Is Technology Threatening Children?

Technology and Interpersonal Communication:
Is Technology Threatening Children?
Humans cannot survive physically or emotionally without the support of others (Adler & Proctor, 2011). From the day a person is born, the only way to communicate is nonverbally through facial expressions, and eye contact thus creating relationships with others. As humans grow, they progressively learn verbal skills to better express themselves. The technological advancements, and ease of accessibility to the Internet, Facebook, text messaging, and other social media devices, have become a critical part of life. However, with technological communication being relatively new, it would be important to analyze the positive and negative effects it could bring to children.

It is important for children to go through this learning process, so that in the future they can communicate effectively. Scientists call interpersonal communication the interaction between two people through face-to-face contact via verbal and nonverbal communication (Adler & Proctor, 2011). The start of every human relationship is through nonverbal communication; infants master nonverbal interactions since it is their only means of communication. Universal signals such as smiles, laughter, eye contact, sour faces, and many more are nonverbal cues; these signals are essential in the beginning, as children start to communicate and bond relationships with their parents. As children grow, they will learn how to communicate verbally by listening to the people around them. Verbal development matters through the toddler years, and it is essential that parents take the time to teach children how to effectively communicate; it is during this period when children learn the most. There are four different stages of learning communication skills: beginning awareness, awkwardness, skillfulness, and integration; all of these skills come into play as children begin to interact with those around them. The word “haptics” is the scientific term for touching; this type of signal can communicate many types of messages for example, a hug can send a message of love

A recent survey from Delen, Kaya, Ritter, & Sahin (2015) found that 81.2 percent of parents limited the time children spent on technology, 71 percent monitored their child’s browsing history, 61.3 percent of parents used a firewall to help protect them, and 54.9 percent used parental controls for monitoring. Constant monitoring has proven to be beneficial in maintaining their children from spending too many hours online, as well as safe from the harms the World Wide Web has. Although many parents are aware of the harm that technology can bring to a child, technological advancements do have many benefits. For example, children are approaching their parents more often to guide them while they search for answers in the Internet to complete their homework. With the parent’s involvement, using computer-based technology shows the child how to correctly navigate online. As stated by Finn and Kerman (2004), “training programs may also help parents and students to increase their confidence level in using Internet technology and take care of security issues with filtering software.” Even though technology has many benefits, it can harm children if their parents are not proactive in their monitoring. According to the Pew Research Center “in 2009 found that 4% of 12–17-year-olds (and 8% of 17-year-olds) who owned cell phones had sent a