Social Media on Children's Cognitive Development

Literature Review

• Early Childhood
•             Early childhood is children aged 0-6 years. At this time, children develop very rapidly in all areas of growth and development. These developmental aspects include biological aspects, cognitive aspects, social-emotional aspects, creative aspects, and communication aspects that are appropriate for the stage of growth and development. Montessori states that this is a sensitive period because children easily receive stimulation from their environment. This stimulation process contains brain nerves that are trained to improve all aspects for optimal plants. Providing effective stimulation adapts to the needs of the child.
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• Cognitive Theory
• Description
•                   Cognitive is a term that refers to a person's mental ability or intelligence in processing information, understanding concepts, and solving problems. Cognitive abilities include various aspects such as thinking, memory, attention, perception, language, and problem-solving abilities. Cognitive skills are essential in everyday life, especially in learning, work, and social interaction. Cognitive development describes how a child's mind develops and works, this is to develop and improve the ability to think. Children need to receive stimulation and provide information to optimize their development and developmental functions.
•                   Early childhood cognitive development offers great opportunities during the first 4 years of growth. This is because they will start learning new things during this time. Intellectual development in children aged 0-4 years increases by 50%, 4-8 years increases by 30% and the remaining 20% develops in children over the age of 8 years.13 Therefore we should not take it for granted and should always provide a good stimulus for development in childhood.
• Jean Piaget's Theory
•                   Jean Piaget's cognitive development theory explains the stages of cognitive development of children from infancy to adulthood. This theory is relevant to the topic of the influence of social media on children's cognitive abilities because it can help understand how the use of social media can affect children's cognitive development at each stage of development.
• Social Media
•        Since their inception in the early 2000s, social media platforms have consistently gained popularity, particularly among adolescents and young adults. However, the exact definition of "social media" is not entirely straightforward and is often used as a broad term encompassing various internet-based applications. These applications include social network sites (SNS), blogs, microblogs, and video or image-sharing sites, which enable users to connect with others and share their content (Burgess et al., 2017, p. 1).
•             The young individuals in a general sense delineated their engagement in a considerable amount of time with social media during an ordinary day, and how these platforms served significant functions in their lives. It was also evident that various types of social media coexisted and served different purposes, which also varied based on factors such as age, gender, social standing, and personal characteristics.
•             According to the prevailing national data by The Swedes and the internet in 2023, the most commonly utilized social media networks were Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, which almost all of the participants accessed daily. This was followed by YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok, which many individuals made use of regularly and engaged with in diverse manners. Additionally, some respondents also made mention of less frequently employed platforms such as WhatsApp, Reddit, Pinterest, and Twitch.
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Methodology

          In this research, we have identified various articles and journals related to the cognitive development of children in the context of social media. Our research method involved collecting data through a literature review and then analyzing it to conclude the result.

Result and finding

          The results of the analysis show that the use of social media does influence cognitive development in children. The use of social media has a positive and significant impact on the cognitive abilities of children aged 7-14 years. In addition, appropriate and controlled use of social media can increase attention and concentration, curiosity, memory, creativity, and language. The results of this analysis are taken from (Santoso et al., n.d.):

• Concentration and Attention
•             The analysis shows that because children like new and interesting things, they can improve their attention and concentration. With his interest in social media, the child shows that he is focused on something. This can be seen from the way he keeps paying attention to what he sees.
• Curiosity
•             The results of the analysis show that children have high curiosity. This is reasonable and beneficial for children at an early age as they need a lot of exploration, especially about their environment, to exercise their cognitive development. As such, his curiosity yields more results.
• Memory
•             Children can improve their memory with stimulus. This is shown by children who can retell what they see, sing songs, mimic movements on social media, and recognize colors and other elements that are similar to what they see.
• Imagination
•             By providing videos such as cartoon movies, children can imagine based on what they see on social media. They have high dreams, can fly like a bird, swim like a fish, and become a princess. All of this is following the movie they like.
• Creativity
•             The results of the analysis show that providing incentives through social media will make it very easy for children to be creative. This can be seen from the example when a child is given instructions on how to form a building from Magic sand. These children developed their creative skills by playing with their magic sand and forming different shapes, such as houses, animals, and castles.
• Language
•             Children start to hear a lot of new vocabulary and imitate it through social media content such as music videos and cartoons. because children are reliable imitators by nature. In addition, children can remember and sing some songs that match their language style.
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•             However, the negative effect is that inappropriate social media can damage cognitive and other development in early childhood, excessive or uncontrolled use of social media is also one of the impacts of using social media in early childhood. Children who spend too much time on social media can become more emotional, rebellious, and difficulty socializing with those around them (Santoso et al., n.d.). The wrong use of social media can also affect the way children think and make them more individualistic. These negative impacts are usually heavily influenced by environmental factors, especially family relationships. As a result, parents need to monitor their children when utilizing social media.

Conclusion

          Social media is used for many things that help us in our daily lives. The use of social media is not only for adults but also for children. This study looks at how social media impacts on early childhood cognitive development. The impact produced by social media is not only the positive side but also the negative side of early childhood cognitive development.

          There are several positive aspects of social media on children's cognitive development, such as concentration and attention, curiosity, memory, imagination, creativity, and language. Through social media, these aspects can be developed well. However, it must be kept in mind that excessive use of social media can lead to addiction, emotionality, rebelliousness, and difficulty socializing with others. This can be overcome by parents who always control their children in using social media at an early age.

References

Khoiriyati, S., & Saripah, S. (2018). Pengaruh media sosial pada perkembangan kecerdasan kognitif anak usia dini. AULADA: Jurnal Pendidikan Dan Perkembangan Anak, 1(1), 49-60.

Santoso, A. B., Gheralldy, A. R., Saffana, A. N., & Zahari, M. F. (2022). Analisis Pengaruh Media Sosial Terhadap Kemampuan Kognitif Anak. HIMIE Economics Research and Olympiad (HERO), 221-230.