With the positives, technology brings negatives. Technology impacts sleep significantly, affecting children with poor quality of sleep. “Daily touching screen use among infants and toddlers were shown to negatively impact sleep onset, sleep duration and nighttime awakening” (Small et al., 2020). As children spend unreasonable amounts of time on technology, it will affect them greatly. “It is unclear whether the act of looking at screens or media content disrupts sleep; however, it is well-known that the wavelength of light exposure affects the circadian rhythms that govern sleep” (Small et al., 2020). Meaning that the act of going on technology may not affect us, but the light it emits is what is causing children to have poor sleep quality, low melatonin levels, and decrease in cognitive performance (Small et al., 2020). When using screens before bed can increase alertness and stimulation. “However, when they include screen time during this critical “unwinding” period, they are filling their minds with information, knowledge, and thoughts” (Brooks, 2018).

​

Low-quality sleep technology also can affect attention spans. There is proof that technology links to shorter attention spans in a study conducted, “The survey showed that 91 per cent of teachers believe children’s attention spans are becoming shorter as they opt for screen-based activities over conventional reading” (Brech, 2020). Children are becoming bored and not paying attention as much due to technology. Technology gives people the ability to switch between applications and different things, preventing a child from getting bored.

​

Technology then affects self-regulation as children are unable to have self-control towards devices. They consume all their energy on the devices, and it becomes an addiction that they cannot control or get a hold of. The inability to self-regulate their technology leads to damage to brain function. “Damage to brain systems connecting emotional processing, attention, and decision-making are affected in both substance addicts and technology addicts” (Ford, 2017).

 

Finally, problem-solving is greatly affected as children and teens will just do a quick google search and not critically think on their own. Children are finding the easy way out of things because of technology. “We let them cut and paste in new and faster ways. We let them copy information from safe and approved places on the internet or captive database. They can type much longer papers without thinking as much about editing, as the computer will catch the spelling and most of the grammar mistakes for them” (Thompson et al., n.d.). Children do not need to do as much thinking because technology is always there for them, backing them up whenever needed, so they do not put as much effort into things as others who do not have access to technology.