The Big Disconnect summary

Any new parents can tell you how magical it is to look into their baby’s eyes or hear their child’s voice for the first time. So what happens when parents are too distracted by their smartphones to spend enough time with their babies? It could have devastating effects on their development.

Babies need a lot of sensory attention from their parents. After all, that’s how they develop, both emotionally and intellectually.

What was your favorite childhood game? Hide and seek? Playing dress up? Computer games might allow children to dress avatars up with clothes and accessories, but is it ever the same?

Probably not. In fact, digital gaming seems to make preschoolers less creative and playful overall.

You probably remember a few instances from your childhood where you were exposed to images you weren’t old enough for yet. Maybe Freddy Krueger or the clown from It gave you nightmares or made it hard for you to fall asleep for a while.

Children are at a much higher risk of this happening today. Technology makes it a lot easier for scary monsters or people to enter their world.

Did you ever have nightmares of being naked at school when you were a kid? Thanks to social media, that nightmare can now be a reality. Social media can exacerbate a child’s emotional instability by publicly exposing them in ways they can’t control.

In one such case, three 11-year-old girls had lunch with three boys of the same age, and one of the boys took a photo of them. The girls didn’t mind at the time, but the boy ended up cropping their heads onto another photo of three naked women and circulating the new image online. It spread around their school, which was mortifying for the young girls.

When you were a teenager, did you ever lie about your sexual experience to fit in? Young people want approval from their peers, and social media now offers them the chance to embellish their identities.

It’s easy to create an alternative persona for yourself online, but digital personas can be harmful to young people.

Remember how embarrassing your parents were when you were a teenager? Maybe they got into a fight with your teacher or tried to befriend your secret crush. Whatever the reason, children often want to keep their problems to themselves.

But it’s important that parents earn their children’s trust, which is key in protecting them from danger online. Children only tell their parents about their online problems if they feel they can rely on them.