We must concede that the rapidity of these technological changes, and their impact on our youngsters must have significant influence upon the ways kids perceive, experience and adapt to their world. Of course, most of the effect of modern day technology is beneficial, but we must give pause to at least be mindful of potential long term negative impacts upon the psychological and social development of our children. It is only 50 years since Erik Erickson wrote Childhood and Society , in which he discussed the stages of child development. The family played a major role in filtering and modulating the interplay between the developing child and society's influences. With technology, that role has not only changed, but it has definitely diminished.
Children now live in an ecology of technology.
The gradual transition described by Erickson from the child's autosphere to the social macrosphere no longer exists. The brain of the young child is overstimulated by the new multimedia environment with its sound effects, and rapidly changing, attention grabbing images. I do wonder about the effect on the attention span of the developing brain. Frustration is a feeling state that emanates from our innate aggression. If it cannot be tolerated, aggression in words or in deeds is the result.