Question

If you had to design a study in psychology what would it be? Describe a topic that you would choose and explain why you chose this topic. Then, in a few sentences describe the study that you would design.

Answer 1

The Psychology of gadgets and social sites on children

If i had to design a study in psychology i will do it on young children and their affection to gadgets and social networking sites. Today, it’s not uncommon to see almost every child or young adult (and not so young ones) hooked to smartphones or tablets, completely oblivious to their surroundings. I have lived in India, Dubai and Singapore and have seen people all around completely hooked to their electronic gadgets like smartphones, tablets and laptops without any awareness of their surroundings. This is the current sad picture around the world, Especially children are spending more time on gadgets rather than with their friends and in outdoor activities.

Though the internet still retains its good qualities, with the increasing use of gadgets in children’s lives in addition to no controls on internet usage, the net is becoming the root cause of a lot of behavioural, emotional and psychological problems in children. It has become a vehicle which allows children to download age-inappropriate games, spend a lot of time on social networking sites, even allows them access to pornography and this led them to forgoing spending on things like school work or playing outdoors.

One of the causes for this is the escalation in the useage of gadgets in children shortly before bedtime, resulting in delay in time to go to sleep, and shorter sleep time. Another cause could be that since these children don’t spend time outdoors. Lack of physical exercise and social disconnection can be seen in early childhood which leads to many psychological problems. It’s easy to think that giving the child a device will be beneficial to the child they can learn better and more using apps, save time going to the library for research and that they will not interrupt the parents’ busy lifestyles. But later when children become addicted to these devices, it gives us a harsh warning about the psychological problems these children will face in their adulthood.

I would design a program that can help children have right balance of physical activities and use of social networking sites and gadgets. Having physical activities in school and early childhood. Parents play an important role in development of a child. So providing them important information about pros and cons of the gadgets and social sites is important. The games that children play on gadgets same can be formed in physical activities in school and playgroups. Parents sholuld encouraged to play outdoors rather than indoors; it will help children develop skills like imagination, creativity, team spirit and problem solving. Building child counselling group in school in order to help students who are more attached to gadgets and social networking sites. Making them aware of the social world, social settings and  make appropriate decisions in the real world. Gathering data from school and parents is also can be done so as to find similarities in cases and to find the exact solutions to the problems.

electronic devices can be extremely useful to teach children a variety of things through applications (apps) or do research using the internet, but spending time only on these restricts their physical, mental and emotional growth. Our children are becoming socially inept to deal with situations as they require immediate solutions it’s easier to unfriend someone on their social network rather than work out the issues between friends. When children become addicted to these devices, it gives us a harsh warning about the psychological problems these children will face in their adulthood.