Examination of the relationship between technology use of 5 and 6 year old children and their social skills and social status

From Digital Culture & Society

As the effects of communication and information technologies are constantly being studied and debated both academically and in the popular media, certain biases have become ideologically present. For many, device culture is impairing the social skills of the youth and over-users. This idea is repeatedly cited as one of the disadvantages new generations have in comparison to older generations who were not so heavily intertwined with technology and personal devices. Hulya Gulay Ogelman, Hande Gungor, Ozlem Korkukcu and Hatice Erten Sarkaya (2018) conduct their own study in their article “Examination of the relationship between technology use of 5-6 year-old children and their social skills and social status” to see for themselves if these ideas are true. The group state that the focal objective of the study was to discover the effect of technology use durations in the subject group’s social skill level and social status. Before explaining the results of their study, they provide a lengthy explanatory section which provides a psychological overview of social skills, status and impact. This portion is very well written and breaks down the initially complex or interconnected ideas quite well. Next, they provide a literature review and then a brief summary of their method, participants, measurements and procedure. All of these contributions help paint a very detailed and highly analytical understanding of the area of research and their subsequent results. In conclusion, the group found that the use of technological devices had minimal, if any, predicting effects of social skills, but could and did effect their social impact or social status. In this respect, early emersion into device culture does have effects, but they may not be as detrimental those exposed as commonly believed or portrayed.

In their analysis of socialization, they explain that psychologically, the group explain that socialization is one of the most common factors effected or perceived to be effected by new information and communication technologies. The group uses research from multiple other scholars who have found that learned social behaviors help form stronger bonds with others and prevent exhibiting behaviour that is deemed at the cultural moment socially unacceptable. Social skill level is explained as the frequency one uses certain skills to navigate this unwanted behaviour for themselves and others. Social status is also a determinate of peer relationships which contributes to these attempts at mediation. Finally, social impact is described as a collection of positive and negative contributions to their peer group. These three things together are what the researchers looked at in relation to time spent watching television, or using portable computers, tablets and smartphones. Therefore, the social skill level is measured by the frequency one uses a body of social skills and that socio-economic status can even be related or influence social interaction at that age level.

This age category is an integral part of an thorough examination of how socialization occurs and how it can be altered due to the arguably fragile and underdeveloped child mind. In relation to this, the group states that the objective of their study was to find the effect of technology use throughout the week on the social skill levels, social impact, and social preference of children 5-6 years old. This age group, as they state, is old enough to use the technology autonomously, but young enough to not be fully aware of the constructs of society and its ideologies. Additionally, around this age children are developing their social understandings and navigating the world of communication, school and home. Choosing this age and identifying why is critical to the results and conclusion of the study, making it a needed and informative read.

The participants consisted of 162 children split quite evenly between male and female, as well as attending 7 different kindergartens in Turkey. The group’s decision to have multiple variables such as gender and location demonstrates their desire for inclusive research results that are not specifically predicated on only one social environment. This extends to the understanding that just life different classrooms, different children go home to different families in different neighbourhoods, and even though geographically they may be seen as similar from afar, smaller localities can also foreseeably alter an individual’s behaviour.

In the results, the group found that device use and socialization actually had lesser in common than initially perceived, but it did have a traceable impact. The study, overall, fund that the use of technological devices on weekends and weekdays did not significantly impact the social skills of young children. They also directly state that this is in direct contrast to other studies and popular ideas about technology use in general. However, the authors point out that it did have a varied effect on their social impact and social preference. For example,

In summary, children tended to act relatively normal overall, but increased technology use affected their power and influence over the peer group, and did spike negative verbal and non-verbal behaviour. This does not mean children do not understand the behavioral constructs and skill set that is actively considered appropriate by society and those around them, but that thy might be enacting behaviours from the digital realms they inhabit, which through saturation might become normalized to them.

Although the article does not specially state this, it definitely points to larger ideological implications of the growing technological device use in children and society in general. From the results of this study, one could argue that the process of socialization and its understanding is changing. The study’s result could also motivate parental and education intervention if children are not socialized and developing the tools to understand the historical benefits of socialization that are alluded to in the introduction to the topic by the authors. This study and the theories that it contributes to about device use and interpersonal behaviour is conclusive and also heuristic It shows the effects within the study group, but also begs questions about the further development of these children, the effects on other age categories, and the overall sociological, political and economic effects to people and culture at large.