Children and Technology

My youngest brother is four years old and can work my mother’s iPhone and iPad better than she can. It baffles/impresses/scares me. It baffles me that a child who cannot read can somehow know what buttons to push and what icons to click on. It scares me to think that a child who should be playing outside with legos, cars, and airplanes is instead sitting in front of a screen playing Angry Birds and Bejeweled. I sometimes worry about my brother, Brenner, and how much time he spends playing games on my mother’s iPhone or iPad. The child development nerd in me can’t help but ask questions such as: Is it bad that children can navigate technology so well at such a young age? How much time on technology is too much at such a young age? How will this affect their cognitive development? Language development? Social development? I can’t imagine that children who spend significant amounts of time in front of a screen would have very well-developed social skills. 

As I contemplated these questions, a quote from an October 2011 Conference address popped in my head. Speaking to the youth of today, Elder Bednar said:

 “Your fingers have been trained to text and tweet to accelerate and advance the work of the Lord—not just to communicate quickly with your friends. The skills and aptitude evident among many young people today are a preparation to contribute to the work of salvation.”

According to Elder Bednar, our generation and the generations to come are meant to be technologically savvy! We are not just better able to understand technology because of our culture or some random societal influence. Heavenly Father intentionally gave us these skills for the specific purpose of advancing the work of the Lord. I had never really thought about that possibility before, until I heard this talk. So maybe it’s not a bad thing that Brenner is so technologically intuitive. As long as we regulate how much time our kids are spending immersed in the media. Everything in moderation, right? I think parents of the future generations (and now) will need to make a concious effor to teach our kids that technology can and should be used for positive things, such as advancing the work of the Lord.