How Much Tech Can Kids Take? 240
Barence writes "Are today's children facing technology overload, or simply gearing themselves up for life in a digital world? This article examines the effects of exposing children to technology at a young age. Researchers warn of the potential dangers of too much 'screen time,' pointing to alarming (some say scaremongering) research that suggests over-exposure leads to an increased risk of developing autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Educators, meanwhile, highlight how technology can improve interaction between child and parent, and provide essential life skills, such as enhanced communication and multitasking. Parents are left with conflicting messages — but how much technology is too much technology for children?"
As a techie and a parent (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not terribly worried. My kid is 8. She's a gamer. She loves getting email from grandma. And if she spends too much time in front of the screen, she eventually will get up and find a friend to play with. She's had her own PC since she was 3. She also plays softball, soccer, and chess. Generally, she only resorts to the tv or computer when she can't find a friend. She's an only child, so this is somewhat of a concern, but so far, hasn't been a problem.
Kids is too broad (Score:5, Interesting)
Many Factors (Score:4, Interesting)
Personally, I would not let my kids (if I had any) spend their entire existence in front of some sort of screen, allowing corporations to raise my kids for me. Of course, when it comes to education I can see certain advantages over the technology (or lack thereof) used back in my day; kids could be reading the latest history as it is being made, as opposed to textbooks that still refer to Reagan as the sitting President. But again, that goes back to the whole 'corporate control' issue; who decides what goes into a history etextbook? Actual, educated historians, or the salespeople and marketers at Houghton-Mifflin?
The effects of externalizing cognition (Score:2, Interesting)
ADHD: The new normal.
What we're seeing are the effects of something that no generation in the history of mankind has ever had to deal with: children who can legitimately depend on other devices to do things that heretofore were the exclusive domain of the well-trained brain. No generation has ever grown up with this level of technology integrated into their daily lives.
Re:Overloaded or Preparing for Future? Neither! (Score:5, Interesting)
My single concern is that there's lots of research that says the best thing kids can do to improve success later on in life is what is known as "undirected play" (a.k.a. recess). I doubt the play has to be physical in nature, but I suspect to see the benefits you want activities that allow kids to decide on their own (or as a group) who to play with, how to play, where to play, and what the rules are. These are not things that today's games are generally good at, ironically and especially true in the 'kids' games genres.
TV is the worst.. (Score:5, Interesting)
On the occasions where my 4 year old is somewhere that he watches TV, the way he looks and acts while doing it just makes my heart sink.
He doesn't move. He is completely fixated on the screen. He needs me to make several attempts before his attention is diverted from the screen. He can look away breifly to talk to you but is trying to glance back at the screen.
We have no TV service and no occasion for him to watch TV. We do have a small handful of movies we let him watch occasionally.
One thing that he enjoys and that we let him do (usually one or two days a week) is watch the "Mighty Machines" movies, some of which you can stream off netflix. These are at least modestly interesting, as he is very interested in machines of all types.
Another thing we do together is watch youtube videos of things hes interested in. Whether its trains or rockets or consturction equipment or car racing -- theres always something your child is interested in and usually a youtube video of it. But that is a two-person activity -- you and your child can ask questions about what you are watching, pause, replay, etc.
The best thing you can do for your kids is read to them constantly, in an interactive way From an early age. Ask them what things are in books they know. Ask them more questions about the world their books create.
Listen to the questions they ask. Never tell them to shut up when they are asking questions.
When you say "I don't know", make sure you control your tone. Your tone should say "I don't know the answer to that, but now that you mention it, I'm curious too!" instead of "your question isn't important enough to answer"
My 4 year old is an excellent reader, quite good at adding, counting by intervals, subtraction, etc. He likes to play "Angry Birds" on my wifes phone, although we limit that quite heavily. He knows how to login to my desktop machine, start up mspaint, start up wordpad, etc. He has some "Jumpstart" edu-games that he can play by himself.
We limit how much computer time he gets --- even when it is educational software.
I don't think anything (Besides normal TV) is intrinsically bad for kids in reasonable amounts. What parents should NOT do is use technology to babysit. What parents and kids benefit from is a variety of different experiences, all in reasonable duration and frequency.
Re:As a techie and a parent (Score:5, Interesting)
Being that humans are natually social beings (things like "cabin fever" erupt without it), it is essential.
Now, the question is whether face to face interaction is necessary to be social, or one can be social through technology (email, social sites, video/voice/text chat) remains to be answered. I'm guessing the answer is "everything in moderation". Some face to face is essential, because there will always be face to face interactions - even if it's just with the mailman for a package, and there may be times one is thrust into needing to interact, so proper behaviour and expectations in such situations is a necessity. (E.g., if you desire to have a family. Or maybe you need to ask for help with some task, or broke down at the side of the street and need to call a tow truck).
Those who don't seek social interaction are known as recluse, and there's a reason why there's a negative connotation associated with the term.
Hell, the act of reading and writing posts on /. is a social activity.
Re:TV is the worst.. (Score:4, Interesting)
I watched a lot of TV when I was a kid. I mean, it didn't kill me or anything like that. But if I think about it, it was mostly about passing time.
The first few years of your child's life are the most critical for determining what kind of person they will be. Spend them wisely.
Re:Overloaded or Preparing for Future? Neither! (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, being online helped my child *with Autism*...
The computer provides a safe and effective way for him to interact with other people and stimulate his mind. Having access to a computer at all times since he was about 3 has been a huge help to him and is one of the reason he is now diagnosed as "no longer needing assistance". It has taught him to spell well and helped him with communication skills which was an area in which he was seriously affected.
The people behind this research seem to have an agenda to push and the article does not examine any links between autism and technology at all - it just says technology causes it...
I'm surprised the magazine behind the OP printed these views at all. I guess even PC magazines have reached "Tabloid" status in the UK. :(
GrpA
Eye troubles (Score:5, Interesting)
My wife is a vision therapist. She is seeing lots of kids come in who have trouble reading, playing sports that involve catching, and similar issues. When you're young your brain is really malleable but what it sees is what it expects as normal. When kids' eyes are constantly focussing on small high-resolution screens just a short distance from their faces, their brains consider that normal and adapt to that, meaning the kids have trouble, later on, with easily getting distant images to fuse. It's not like their eyes are crossed, but they do have to work harder, in some cases a lot harder, to maintain distance vision. She gets lots of kids who are considered slow learners or who "just hate reading" and after 12 weeks or so of visual training, suddenly they can catch balls easily, are reading at their grade level, and are enjoying reading.
Re:Many Factors (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd really be interested in hearing your "ADHD doesn't exist" argument. Because you've obviously never dealt with anyone with it and obviously don't have it yourself.
I find the suggestion that computer time 'causes' ADHD laughable because it's a difference in brain chemistry. Amphetamines calm us down. I met a guy that when he was 'up' would take a small hit of meth and sit down and paint. Alcohol makes me hyper. Amphetamines settle me down. Long before there was a computer in our house my mom knew she had to watch what she gave me.
The main argument against ADHD is "Well duh. I can obviously pay attention to stuff I like." Yes. I can easily app attention to something I like. I can go into a piece of code or a project and come out 12 hours later having not moved, eaten or done anything but what I threw my self into. The problem with the ADHD brain is you can't relax.
Since this is /., I'll probably catch some trollols "OMG U TUCH GURL!" But this is the most apt example I can come up with: If I'm giving a back massage or concentrating on actually DOING something. I can pay attention no problem. The problem comes when it's my turn to relax. It doesn't happen. Sure the return back massage feels great but, what was that last piece of code I was working on How od you calculate the sum of squares in a graeco-latin experiment design I wonder how I can implement that on my TI-89. I wonder if there is anything like this matlab function in the TI-89. I'll probably have to write my own. TI-89 what a shitty calculator. It came out in 1998 In 1998 my cellphone sucked and my android does so much more Why doesn't TI update their product line. Oh crap getting back massage try to relax, relax, why can't I relax, oh yeah that stats test. Stats is such an easy class what class am I taking next semester. Next semester do I have enough money to cover it. All in the span of a minute or two.
Cleaning the house doesn't get done because my mind jumps like that. "Oh, this be longs in the garage" Go to the garage. Start to put it away and find in the garage that needs to go somewhere. Eventually bouncing around the entire house doing 'nothing' and putting away small stuff.
If I'm with my girlfriend and we're talking about something in the car I can be 5-10 subjects away when I break the silence a minute later and say something and get some odd looks. Because she assumes we're still talking about the one thing we were talking about or something very similar. Hell in the time it's taken me to finally write this post I've opened 20 Fark tabs, read those topics. Started responses in those threads. Opened a few XBMC Forum threads. Put those in another window. Checked my bank statements and still have 2 dozen tabs open. Put the Chili in the fridge. Found something in the fridge I wanted to reheat. Put it in the microwave. Got distracted waiting for it to finish and started laundry.
When I'm on my meds it's a noticeable difference. I'll start in one corner of a room and knock it out like it's nothing. I'll write posts in one response. I can sit down and do ONE thing to completion or near completion. And I didn't have a computer in the house until High School. I made it through college all on my own. I finally went to the family doctor at 27 and got on Welbutrin. It's not an amphetamine and they're not really sure why it works for ADHD, but I can tell you it's made a big difference in my life at home and at work.
So fuck you and everyone else who thinks its made up. Why not go around the old folks home and yell at the alzheimers patients about their 'made up disease'
Re:As a software engineer and a parent (Score:3, Interesting)
As a techie and a parent with ADD I am a little more concerned. There are strong reasons to think that TV time is linked to ADD, and I don't see why computers would be different.
Indeed I have been using redshift on my Linux laptop now for a bit over a week and have found my own ADD greatly helped by the software's color shifting, suggesting to me that the color balance (too much blue in particular) may be partly to blame. We already know this affects other parts of the human brain and can affect sleep. However my experience is that at least for those of us with genetic predispositions for ADD (my dad and my grandfather both have or had it), the color balance may in fact be a factor.
The fact is, the pace of change is very high and it takes years or decades to notice the effect. I think we are generally better holding off and exposing kids later, and also drastically reducing the amount of screen time (whether computer or tv) that kids get.
Re:Many Factors (Score:5, Interesting)
I support the above post.
I have a six year old son with ADHD, and sadly I had no choice but to put him on medication. Do I like it? No, of course not. Was it the right choice? I definitely believe so. He was failing PREP. Yes ... the very first year of school, and he was failing because he couldn't focus. He was also highly disruptive in class and ended up spending several hours per week in the school office. However, all the teachers love him because he's a very sweet little boy (their words, not mine). A lot of people believe that ADHD medication (such as Ritalin) is a sedative - it's not, it's a stimulant. It's equivalent to a couple of cups of strong coffee. The problem is that people with ADHD have had their brains develop such that they cannot focus on certain inputs to the exclusion of others as most people can. Try standing in the middle of a room at a party or a night club, and talk to the person with you. Most people can manage it. Someone with ADHD and no medication finds it incredibly difficult to remain focused on the conversation, because they can also hear the other conversations in the room, and the music, and the person clinking a glass together in the neighbouring kitchen. All at once, and without the inherent ability to exclude unwanted inputs. The purpose of Ritalin is to speed up the brain so that the ADHD person can get all those inputs and actually process them.
It's actually genetic. My brother has ADD too. He's a successful masseuse now because it's a single task, in a quiet room, that can keep his attention. Don't ever ask him to hold a ladder for you because he'll wander off to look at a butterfly by the time you get to the top (yep, this actually happened when he was 21).
Autism seems to be related, though they don't know how. I have an autistic child too, and that's a whole other ballgame. But just because you are lucky enough to have a "typical" brain which can't even CONCEIVE of these different mental pathways, doesn't mean that these conditions don't exist. They can't conceive of what it's like for you either. All they know is that people are incredibly intolerant of what is - to them - perfectly normal.
Having said all that, I have to be very careful of their technology input, especially since autistic minds can struggle to differentiate from what they see on TV and what is actually real. They probably watch more TV and play more computer games than they should, but to be honest that's better for them than a mother having a nervous breakdown. I am strict about what they are allowed to watch though. Most children's TV is completely out. Ben 10? Forget it. Documentaries? Go for your life. They love things like Dirty Jobs and Mythbusters. My six year old probably beat you playing Starcraft 2 last night. ;) It encourages keeping track of various things and strategising.
Re:As a techie and a parent (Score:5, Interesting)
My cousin is just like that. (Score:2, Interesting)
My cousin is 7. She too has had a computer of her own since she was 3 (a used pink iMac at the time). She too is a young gamer. She has access to an Xbox 360 and a Wii, and has her own DS and Alienware M11x laptop. I take particular pride in that latter device, having come up with the idea and played an instrumental role in convincing the grandparents we share, other cousins, my parents, my own siblings, etc. to contribute. She plays Sims 2 and Sims 3 as could be expected for a girl her age, but she also plays Fable and Portal. In fact at the top of her Christmas list is a plush companion cube. (I kid you not.)
But she also plays soccer and piano. She easily spends just as much playing with plush puppies or dolls with her younger sister as she does playing video games. She does her homework without fail. She has good manners, is in excellent health, etc. She is simultaneously the most ambitious and intelligent child I've ever come across. I expect her to go far, and from what I've seen of Portal, I expect video games to actually help her.
That said, sometimes I must admit I envy her. Her parents also play and she has access to a fiber optic connection. Growing up my family's first computer was a 386 running Windows 3.1 when I was 11. No internet access - that came with a 2400 baud modem on a second family computer years later, clunky CRT with VGA resolution, etc. We had a Nintendo and later a Super Nintendo. My parents' childless coworkers had funny ideas about how much interaction children should have with video games, and sadly, my parents would listen to them. My siblings and I would often have to do crazy things to get a chance at playing a good video game. This doesn't mean we didn't get the opportunity. No! I've got wonderful memories of Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy III and Secret of Evermore. Rather, as an adult in my 20s, I can't play any game for more than a few minutes without worrying about overdoing it and I feel this is a lasting effect of that environment. I tend to game vicariously these days.
It's a very different story for the rest of my immediate family. My father has his Xbox 360 and my mother plays that evil Facebook game (Farmville). Now that was something, having my mother of all people leave a voicemail a year or two back asking me to play Farmville. She was always the one most against video games! (I did not play.)
False Correlation (Score:3, Interesting)
Some children can self regulate. (Score:2, Interesting)
I think that was NewWorldDan's point at the end, that [technology] hasn't been a problem for his daughter. Perhaps you couldn't self regulate as a child and it's good that your parents' intervened, but that isn't true for everyone.
I must wonder why those other programmers are the way they are and if it really is because of what you assume? For some, sure. They've got their computer and they don't need anything else. For others, perhaps they had no other choice? It does happen. Perhaps their parents pushed them? That happens, in everything and in the era of the dot-com boom I'd imagine it happened to a great many.
I'm only in my 20s and I've seen plenty of social people become social hermits for a myriad of reasons; and I've seen quiet ones bloom in their 20s, 30s, 40s, etc. Then there is the old work life versus home life paradigm. I for one, at school and work am about precision whereas at home, "the remote will turn up".
I grew up in the middle of nowhere - eight miles from anything. I had five things I could do: (1) take a machete into the forest and hack at things (and yet I'm terrified when I see a child walk too fast with scissors, imagine), (2) get on my bicycle and get lost for the day (yet I want to put a GPS device on every child I know), (3) annoy the siblings, (4) build stuff with Lego and (5) fiddle around with the computer. I would do all five, often, but because people are so acutely aware of their technological shortcomings, it was what knowledge I had about computers that would be noticed and shared by strangers.
When I met my fifth grade teacher, she took me aside and asked me that if I was ever mad with her that I please come talk to her and not do anything to her computer. I never had done anything malicious to a computer and still haven't. Yet from then on throughout K-12 it seemed every instructor knew this about me before I met them. It was silly. Still, I come across as quiet and if you had just met me and if someone told you their impressions of my computer knowledge, you might label me as one of those IT people. You wouldn't be the first to assume such a thing and truth be told, I used to work for a software company, but not as a programmer. I was a bookkeeper - who would goof off on the weekends. Nevertheless at first glance, I would seem to fit the stereotype. I'm quiet with a laptop near and a few virtual machines running.
That is, if you met me early in the day or on a day I haven't worked or in a college classroom. You see at the end of my usual day I have chalk, glitter, dirt, etc. all over my clothing. I don't seem very antisocial with glitter, believe me! I've had a day of laughter and smiles. Of craft and Lego projects. Of going to the park or lake, or out for ice cream. I'm a nanny and I've been one for more than five years. Funnier still, what I shall do at the end of my studies won't focus on computers or children. I have and will always encourage less reliance on anecdotal experience and bias observations.
I hope my perspective is of use to you.