War leaves a deep mark on a person’s consciousness, especially if that person is a child. She does not yet have a formed worldview, her psyche is flexible and vulnerable, and the experience she has experienced becomes part of her personality. Children who hear explosions, see destruction, lose loved ones or are forced to leave their homes are forever changed. They learn to live in constant stress, adapt to a world where danger can lurk anywhere, and this leaves an imprint on their behavior, emotional state, perception of themselves and others.
But the war is not the only factor that affects the psyche of children today. There is another powerful factor that is often forgotten – the digital world, games, social networks and content filled with violence and aggression. Today’s children know how to use smartphones and tablets even before school, spending much more time in games and on video platforms than in live communication. And while technology can be useful, its uncontrolled influence can have dangerous consequences.
How war changes children’s psyche
War breaks the sense of security, which is the foundation of children’s development. Even if a child is not a direct witness of hostilities, he may experience fear, confusion, and loss of trust in adults and the world around him.
Children learn to live in a new reality dominated by anxiety, uncertainty about the future, and sometimes feelings of guilt or powerlessness. They can become more withdrawn, aggressive or, on the contrary, too dependent on their parents. Constant stress affects their ability to learn, memory, and concentration.
One of the serious consequences is emotional numbing – when a child becomes so accustomed to constant fear and threat that he ceases to react emotionally even to terrible events. She may perceive violence, suffering, or destruction as something mundane, just as adults eventually stop being afraid of sirens.
But today’s children receive another powerful impulse that reinforces these changes – a digital world full of virtual wars, shootings and violence.
The influence of computer games and the digital environment
Even before the start of the war, many children spent a huge amount of time playing games where the main goal is to destroy the enemy, conquer territory, and survive in a virtual conflict. Today, when children are faced with war in reality, such content not only does not help them to calm down, but on the contrary – further entrenches the idea that violence is the only way to solve problems.
On the one hand, games can be a form of escapism – a way to distract yourself, to escape the traumatizing reality. But if they fill the entire space of a child’s life, this can lead to a decrease in empathy, problems with self-identification, and alienation from the real world.
It is also worth understanding that digital technologies have radically changed the way information is perceived. If earlier the child drew knowledge from books, live experience and interaction with people, now the main source is fast clips, bright videos that do not allow time for comprehension. This reduces the level of critical thinking, emotional sensitivity, and also leads to the fact that real life seems less interesting than virtual.
Especially dangerous is content that romanticizes war, aggression, forces children to perceive violence as something common or even heroic.
How it changes children and what it can lead to
The combination of the trauma of war and constant exposure to digital content can cause several serious consequences:
- Decreased level of empathy. The child ceases to empathize because violence becomes a common occurrence for him.
- Problems with real life. If the virtual world seems safer and more attractive, the child may avoid live communication, learning, and working on himself.
- Change of moral guidelines. In many games, the main thing is to survive at any cost, to defeat the enemy. This can shift moral guidelines, forming wrong ideas about good and evil.
- Risk of emotional burnout. Constant exposure to negative information can make a child apathetic, exhausted, aggressive.
What to do with it
First, it is important to realize that it is impossible to completely isolate a child from the realities of war or the digital world. But you can control their influence.
Adults should talk to children about what they feel, explain the events around them, help them express their emotions. Difficult topics should not be silenced – children feel them anyway, and if they do not receive an explanation, they begin to look for it themselves, often in the wrong sources.
It is also important to control the digital space in which the child is. It is not necessary to ban games or social networks, but it is worth discussing what they mean, how they affect the psyche, what alternatives exist.
Children should be given the opportunity to develop real skills. It can be sports, creativity, 3D modeling, drawing, music – something that helps them build their own world not in virtual reality, but in real life.
Psychologists also advise developing critical thinking in children – discussing with them how the media works, why war cannot be a game, what distinguishes fiction from real life.
The most important thing is to give children support. War changes them, the digital world reinforces these changes, but they still have a chance to grow up emotionally healthy, strong, and able to create a peaceful future. The main thing is to help them not get lost in a world where violence has become too common.
