6. It Inhibits Social Skills
Social skills are learned from day one by the people your child keeps company with. It’s more important for a young child to spend valuable, quality time with a parent than it is to be on a play date with another toddler that hasn’t developed many social skills yet either. What kind of message are you giving your child when you set them in front of an electronic device so you can do the same? How do they learn how to play cooperatively and share, laugh, and have fun, with actual people they can touch and chase after and delight in? Being swung up into the air, or tickled, or taught by someone who is fully engaged, being listened to and responded to teaches them how to be awesome, true friends one day. Nothing can take the place of genuine one-on-one time with a loved one who truly cares. Erratic and undependable responses from parents who are lost in the clutches of technology are not healthy for kids. According to Dennis-Tiwary, professor of psychology at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, a child’s temperament is greatly affected by their parents’ use of technology. He measured the effect and found that children had a difficult time connecting to their parents and sadly showed fewer signs of happiness and curiosity.
