Can you imagine a world without technology or people caring too about the appearance of other people or themselves? Technology and physical appearance has effortlessly taken over modern culture and is dragging us away from problems in the real world. As much as we don’t want to admit it, this all comes from social media and it’s also gotten to the point where it’s affecting the childhoods of children since it’s now normalized to give a child access on a phone or tablet from ages as young as four years old, which is not only just the only problem of modern culture continuing to ruin childhoods.

Modern culture is ruining childhood since the increase of technology makes them surrounded in an environment where activities are only followed through them. Parents giving their children devices at a young age can lead to bad addiction when they’re reaching their teenage years and sometimes can be at fault of children making bad decisions because of something they see on their devices. “1 in 5 children have mental health problems, there is nearly 40% increase in adolescent depression and 200% increase in the suicide rate in children aged 10 to 14 over the past 15 years,” states the National Institutes of Health.

Children being open to technology allows them to be on social media apps such as TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram since they notice their friends on it. Cajor creator and writer Catherine He claims “we are essentially dealing with the change in lifestyle that has emerged with new technological developments, which led to a new way of conduct altogether.” Although social media platforms come with benefits such as being able to make it easier for people to communicate with their friends and family online, children could be exposed to the consequences of social media such as cyberbullying.

Another worrisome way that social media affects childhood is that young children feel like they have to change their physical appearance in order to feel accepted in today’s society and reach the expected beauty standards, since they’re being exposed to a huge percentage of people online not accepting that there are no flaws in the way they look. People don’t realize how many kids out there worry about how their body looks because of the way modern society has caused teenagers and adults to feel like their appearance really matters and not being able to see the unique features they have. 

When I compare my childhood to the children that are getting to or already experience the stages of childhood, I’m able to notice that appearance has changed in all aspects. Some of the things that stuck out to me the most is that nowadays even kids in elementary school care about the type of clothes they wear and even sneakers. Some kids find it odd if you wear shoes that came from a shoe brand that no one is usually familiar with and will actually make fun of you, whereas when I wore shoes from an unfamiliar no one seemed to make them such a big deal in a way that would make me feel bad.

I feel like parents shouldn’t give their child a device at a young age because it has already come to the point where the environment is surrounded by technology due to the rapid increase of new creations and the fear of missing out on small moments on social media. Most of the time young children have devices because they want to become distracted when they’re eyes are off them.

These devices also minimizes social interaction that children need to learn as they’re getting older, so instead parents should give their child a device as soon as they hit their teenage years since they’re more aware in the real world and could call them for help whenever they’re in danger.