A Theoretical Framework for Organizing the Effect of the Internet on Cognitive Development

Abstract: The number of children and adolescents accessing the Internet as well as the amount of time online are steadily increasing. The most common online activities include playing video games, navigating web sites, and communicating via chat rooms, email, and instant messaging. A theoretical framework for understanding the effects of Internet use on cognitive development is presented. The proposed framework, based on the cognitive information processing model, the sociocultural perspective, and the PASS cognitive processing model, organizes previous research in terms of the cognitive consequences of common online activities. From a cognitive-developmental perspective, the Internet is a cultural tool that influences cognitive processes and an environmental stimulus that contributes to the formation of specific cognitive architecture. Media is a contraction of the term media of communication, referring to organized dissemination of information and entertainment such as newspapers, magazines, film, radio, television, and the World Wide Web (McChesney, 2004). In a comprehensive survey of media use in preschool children, Rideout, Vandewater, and Wartella (2003) reported that 99 % live in a home with a television, half have more than two televisions in their home, and 36 % have a television in their bedroom. “Nearly half (48%) of all children six and under have used a computer, and more than one in four (30%) have played video games ” (p. 4). Given such early and extensive use, the impact of media o