Effects of Internet on the Childrens Well-Being - Paper Example

Studies regarding Technology started by first finding out who among people could access the new technologies like the internet. After this researcher went on to investigate who used technology especially the internet and the time spent on the internet by people including what they do on the internet. This study starts by assuming that majority of children can access technology especially the internet, in school, at home or library. Thus, examining the actual internet usage among children and how it affects the childrens lives socially, physically or psychologically. It will involve carrying out investigations on the childrens level of physical activities, their social interaction and the generally how they relate with others. The study will also go ahead to examine how children allocate the time they have on both normal activities and internet.

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Various studies have been done by several scholars about the internet impact on people and the society and come up with advantages and disadvantages of internet use. Children are specifically significant subjects when studying the internet since they are believed to be the Net generation and also because the number of children that can access the internet keeps growing very fast. According to Pew Internet & American Life Project, 45% of children under 18years in American accessed internet (Pew Research Centre, 2000). Since there exist no specific regulations on internet access by governments, schools and parents raises more concern and the fact that existing research on this topic has mixed findings, it is therefore important to know the impact that the internet has on children development physically, socially and psychologically so as to reconsider or confirm the previous research results.

Statement of the Problem:

With this study, researchers will carry out an investigation on the effect of the internet on children. The invention of a new medium has always raised concern to the society as to how it will impact on children be it positively or negatively. Various studies have studied the effect of many types of media on children. In the 1920s the Payne Fund investigated the impact of movies on children

(Lowery & DeFleur, 1995). Some other researchers also studied the impact of internet concentrating on content, attitudes, health, conduct extra. Analysis of the internet content in the reported that the internet does not only provide educative content to its users but also some materials on the internet contains information that could be harmful to children. Also, studies also found out that children were more vulnerable to emotional arousal than adults by concluding that some internet content might interfere with a childs mind and behavior. These enticed us to carry out research to determine how the internet affect children so as to make better conclusion.

The Purpose of the Study:

The purpose of this study is to investigate and find out the impact that the internet has on children. The study will help researchers have a better understanding of the effects that the internet can have on young children.

Objectives of the Study:

General objective: To investigate the effects of internet on the childrens social, physical and psychological well-being.

Specific objectives:

To understand the concept of internet in more elaborated way

To identify the possible problems of using internet to children

To evaluate the total time spend by children on internet

To provide suggestions for better of controlling childrens internet access.

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW AND FRAMEWORK

2.1 Literature review:

Internet as a New Medium: The Internet as a New Medium has several implications on peoples lives. The internet both drives people apart and bring them together through social media. The Internet also plays a major part in privatizing of peoples lives and in some way communities are built using the internet too. Nevertheless, the internet isolates us so much and at the same time is promotes activism in people. Apart from this, the internet does affect children psychologically as much as it helps them psychologically. The internet also provide its users with great knowledge about sensitive aspects of life and it to some extent leave its users with no sense of the local community (Kubey, 2000)

With this, the Internet has become a very significant research topic in different fields from sociology, psychology, public health, education extra. Another characteristic of the internet is that it transcends both time and space. The internet provides the easy way of connecting with people from far away. In fact, both children and grownups connect with people and friends in various countries through social media (Wolcott, 1999).

Childrens Time Use: In a study by Bianchi and Robinson (1997) revealed that most studies were done on how children spend their time focused more on the time the children spend with their parents rather than on the internet. This study will concentrate on the time that children spend doing activities on different media devices and the time spent doing non-media activities. Several studies by different researchers (Timmer, Eccles, &OBrien, 1985; Carpenter, Huston, & Spera, 1989) stated that children spend most of their doing so many activities like playing, schooling, watching, sleeping, eating. Since the number of children who can access and use the internet is ever growing together with the time spent on the internet, many are worried that the internet might interfere with the childrens routine activities that are of more importance. A recent study by Gross et al. (2002) about childrens activities including using the internet found out that children spend the after-school time to do routine activities like meeting friends, talking on the phone, sports extra. In this study, children spend less time on the internet.

Reliability: It refers to the aspect of something being dependable or reliable (Lin and Chin 2007). Concerning the quality of service, the internet has a great impact in terms of reliability. Both Madu 2002 and Santos 2002 defined reliability as the capability of a device performing accurately and efficiently by updating internet website. Basing on the theoretical review of the study reliability is one of the frequent dimension of service quality.

2.2 Conceptual Framework

Dependent variables

Reliability

Childrens time use

Independent variable

Internet as a New Medium

2.3 Research Questions:

What are the general characteristics of the children using the Internet?

What is the amount of time that children spend on the internet as compared other media activities?

What are the general characteristics of children using other media like television, radio?

2.4 Hypothesis:

General characteristic of children using internet change.

Children spend more time on internet than they do spend other media activities

The general characteristics of children that use other media like radio remain the same in most cases

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

Research Design

As shown in the conceptual framework diagram this study has two independent variables and one dependent variable. The conceptual frameworks also show the relationship that exists between the independent variables and dependent variables. It is vital to explore the importance of this relationship so as to ensure the stipulated purpose of this study is met. Since the study intends to help, people understand the impacts of the internet on young children both the negative and positive effects. This helps people, and especially parents and guardians know how to regulate internet access by children.

Research Type:

This research type is descriptive in nature, and it is a casual study. Given that the type of study carried out to answer the research questions and test the hypothesis was a casual study. The study will bring out the cause and the effect of the relationship between the dependent and independent variables.

Sampling Method:

The following sampling method was adopted for this study;

Sampling Frame: the population for this study consisted of parents, guardians, teachers, children under 18years and some random people who were willing to participate in the questionnaire. The frame therefore consist of everyone in the area of study hence every parent, teacher, guardian and residents had equal chances of participating in the study.

Sampling Technique: The researcher employed a random sampling method where the participant was chosen randomly from the population. Among the randomly chosen everyone had equal chances of being interviewed given he or she fits the category.

Sample Size: Over 300 individuals were interviewed, this included 50 children above ten years and below 18 years, 100 parents, 100 teachers, and guardians and 50 other people who did not belong any category mentioned. This, therefore, makes the sample size to be 300.

Instrument:

The researcher will use a structured questionnaire to carry out the study. The questionnaire consist of 20 questions about the internet as a new medium, reliability, and childrens time use.

Data collection:

Both primary sources and secondary sources was used in data collection.

Primary sources:

Personal observation

Face to face interviews

Use of questionnaires.

Secondary sources:

Internet sources

Official documents about internet

Data gathered from the random text messages we did send

Data collection Method:

The questionnaires were distributed among the 200 individuals after the researcher thoroughly surveyed them. The questionnaires were easy to administer. As for the one on one interview researcher approached random people and interviewed them orally.

Data Analysis:

For data analysis, SPSS software was used since it provides in-depth analysis of data and great visualization. Regression analysis, correlation analysis, and reliability analysis were used in analyzing the data collected. Regression analysis can be used to test the hypothesis so as to find out which of the dependent variables provides a better explanation of the independent variables.

Findings

After data analyzing the data, it was found out that there exists a relationship between the independent variable and dependent variables which imply that the questions used were clear to the participants. Using the regression analysis, it was found that indeed the independent variable has both negative and positive effects on the dependent variables.

Discussion:

It is important for parents, guardians, teachers and other persons that take care of children manage how the children access the internet and teach children the effects that the internet can have on their subsequent lives. Since they cannot ration what children access on the internet, they can minimize the time that children access internet services by getting them involved in other useful activities. In school teachers should also ensure that the kids are occupied with school work so that they find no t...