Londyn Henry
Staff Writer
It would be fair to say that a lot of us miss our childhood. Being friends with kids in the neighborhood, staying outside all summer, and playing make-believe at recess. Many look back on these fond memories with the hope that the future generation will experience the same thing. The reality is much more bleak. In 2026, children are consumed by technology and social media, making it both their hobby and their identity, which deforms the idea of “having a childhood.” Instead, they spend their days with their faces glued to a screen, simply because the adults in their life are allowing it.
Unfortunately, it is no longer popular to act like a kid while being a kid. An onslaught of “child influencers” are flooding the Internet, producing vlogs and “Get Ready With Me” videos, all featuring an “influencer” that is in elementary school. While these accounts are run by parents, one must ask: Why would a parent create a social media account for their children – one that the entire world can see? Well, maybe we could look at the money that popular social media pages generate, and consider that to be a reason behind this exploitative behavior.
Children creating content on a global scale is just part of the problem. Allowing a child to have a device in front of their face for hours a day limits interaction, making it that much harder for them to learn social skills and develop their imagination. Society is essentially making it impossible for them to regulate their emotions, much less hold a conversation with someone else. Couple that with the crippling technology addiction that it could form, and parents are setting their children up for failure. When you expose a child to mind-numbing media for hours at a time, you increase their acceptance for content that isn’t rooted in reality, such as computer-generated content, or what some call “AI slop.” This isn’t even taking into account the inappropriate messages that are sometimes hidden in videos that seem innocent enough.
Just ask the teachers throughout the early-childhood education system. Many are exhausted with the short attention spans and attitudes that children have. Again, kids become accustomed and molded to what surrounds them. When you allow your child to stare at a screen watching short – form content all day, it is going to affect nearly every aspect of their life.
Don’t forget that it isn’t the kids’ fault; they don’t know any different. It’s not like an 8-year-old is walking into Target and buying their own iPad. It is the parents and guardians that enable this behavior that is harmful to a child’s development. Society needs to come to the realization that raising a child on such excessive and available technology is like handing a child a ticking bomb and expecting them to know how to defuse it. Allowing your child to have social media, let alone maintain a social media presence, is opening the door to future dependence and danger at the hands of the internet.
