Toxic Childhood: How The Modern World Is Damaging Our Children And What We Can Do About It

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In the book, Palmer argues that a toxic mix of technological and cultural changes are having a negative impact on the development of a growing number of children, and she outlines six main ways in which childhood has become increasingly toxic over the years. Six examples of toxic childhood This article by Catherine Bennett is worth a read – it reminds us that ‘in the good old days we just had to endure beatings’, although in fairness to Sue Palmer I don’t think she actually romanticizes the past, she’s really just pointing out the new and different problems children now face in a post-modern age. Whether such technology led socialisation practices end up being detrimental to those children who are exposed to them remains to be seen, but what’s interesting is that so many of the techno-elite are taking steps to limit their own children’s exposure to such technologies. Below are just a few examples:

Within this traditional sociological paradigm, children are seen as passive recipients of culture. The 1990s saw work emerge which criticised the then dominated notions of child development and socialisation, where children were seen as the passive recipients of socialisation ( Burman, 1994). Children aged 13-15 can work, but there are restrictions on the number of hours and the types of ‘industry’ they can work in. Babysitting is one of the most common jobs for this age group. EducationWe will start by looking at the sociology of child development and the types of sociological perspectives of childhood. These include the functionalist and Marxist views of childhood. The government has also recently announced an increase to the amount of time children should spend in school. From September 2024 children should be. in school for 6.5 hours a day or a minimum of 32.5 hours a week. The decline of listening, language and communication skills It was also refreshing to see someone who believes that the use of text language won’t negatively impact a child’s general ability to read and write.

Childhood makes up part of the families and households option in the first year of A-level Sociology. Children throughout the developed world are suffering: instances of obesity, dyslexia, ADHD, bad behaviour and so on are all on the rise. And it’s not simply that our willingness to diagnose has increased; there are very real and growing problems. The book, as I stated before, comments on everything that most of us would identify as problematic. We probably haven’t said too much aloud for fear of being accused of being grumpy old men or women, or of not being modern in our outlook. The undeniable truth is that Sue Palmer is right and we all must act before it is too late to save this and the previous generation from themselves.Education – The introduction of compulsory education and the increase in both funding of education and the raising of the school leaving age. Dr Marc Bush, chief policy adviser at the charity YoungMinds, said: “We know that teenage girls face a huge range of pressures, including stress at school, body image issues, bullying and the pressure created by social media. However, there are sociologists who point to the downsides of some changes, especially in the last 50 years. The common sense view is to see the above changes as ‘progressive’. Most people argue that now children are more protected that their lives are better, but is this actually the case? Blue light emitted by smartphones and tablets reduces the production of melatonin, the ‘ sleepy hormone’ – NB I can just imagine a vicious cycle at work here – can’t sleep, get on your phone – which makes it less likely that you’ll get to sleep!