Are Our Children Becoming Too Dependant on Computer Based Information?

Some of the results coming from recent research highlight that our children are displaying an alarming propensity to lean rather too heavily on web based information.

For some time our kids have performed their school work on a computer, researching homework support material on the web, producing printed packages for essays and projects, and we have all clapped our hands with glee at our kids ability to use this undeniably useful, modern facility.

However, there is a sinister undertow in this seemingly perfect educational dreamscape; our children are losing their ability to reason, to solve problems, to analyse, to apply logic. The computer does all this for them, so they do not have to.

We all know that the weaker counterpart of a set of twins will experience difficulty in learning to speak, because the stronger of the duo will take over, and speak on behalf of his or her brother or sister. If you do not need to utilise a skill, it dies off, or in some cases does not develop in the first place.

Twenty or thirty years ago, we were all concerned about our children's dependence on smaller resource tools, such as calculators. Now we are accepting, quite cheerfully it seems to me, the introduction of a far more powerful influence on our childrens abilities to work things out for themselves.

Alarmingly, most young adults are unable to calculate even simple figures in their heads. They will turn to their mobile phone calculator feature, or log onto a computer, to work out the simplest percentage calculation or to add up a small column of figures. They do not even consider writing the figures down on a piece of paper and working it out that way.

Another worrying aspect of our kids reliance on computers is that, should they be unable for any reason to find the information on the web, they will abandon their search and not even consider utilising a reference book, even supposing they knew where to start and how to use an index system on hard copy.

Children's problem solving abilities are being considerably impaired by modern technology. Computers are the greatest inventions of the modern world and a wonderful resource for our children, but we must begin to repair the damage caused by our kids' over dependence on such facilities, before it is too late.

Jan Gamm writes reflections on life with an emphasis on world travel. She has lived in many countries and traveled extensively in the Far East, the Middle East, America, South America and throughout the South Pacific. She writes for fun and for money whenever she can manage it.

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