Technology era triggers materialism among children, study suggests
Children nowadays are often better with smartphones, tablets and computers than their parents. Therefore, they are easily influenced by technology and all its perks including all forms of advertising. A recent research has found that kids are now more interested in getting a smartphone or a car than falling in love.
Undoubtedly, technology is in the core of nearly everything today. It changes the way we live, work, communicate, as well as the way we think. The savviest adopters of electronic gadgets today are kids. Technology helps the development of new sets of values and norms in the new generations, that may not be tailor-made to parents likings.
According to the Cassadra Winter/Spring 2013 report on Generation Z, 73% of kids nowadays are more thrilled from the thought of driving a car or owning a smartphone, than finding a boyfriend or a girlfriend. This clearly shows that children are more concerned with materialistic dreams than the old-fashioned trembles of the heart. Even teens are reported to have similar interests.
That may be partly due to the fact that about 33% of younger kids own a tablet PC. In addition, it was discovered that this percentage grows in direct proportion with the age of the child. As a result, the amount of older kids who own a tablet has reached more than 50%. Also, the study registered a rise in eReader and tablet ownership over the last two years. Compared to 2011, the number of children who owned tablet devices has jumped by 23%, while those who have eReaders increased with 11%.
The research also found that children are often using technology for communication. The most popular way in which they stay in touch with their friends is texting. Second most common is calls from cell and land-line phones (34%). Only 23% of them rely on social networks to contact their friends and 19% – on email.
Even though children are often distracted, they have no problem with multitasking. Around 70% of them are engaging in other activities while they watch TV. In most of the cases (35%) they play games while they watch television. Unfortunately, 26% of them have the habit of doing their homework with the TV on.
Surprisingly, children love TV as much as they love the web. About 51% of the kids state that they prefer to watch TV, while 49% of them are bigger fans of the web.
With younger kids, however, devices and toys are not ranked at the same level. Most young children (67%) want an electronic gadget and not a toy (33%). The most popular mobile device among children is the tablet (56%), followed by smartphones (53%) and game consoles (46%).
