As I finish up your unplugged challenges, I read today (3/31) this blog in the NY Times on the effect of disruptions on very young children's developing minds. It starts with a mom pulling two iPads out of her "magic bag" to give to her two very young children who were squabbling in a restaurant while the mom was trying to have a conversation with her brother, Nick Bolton, the author. The kids were immediately quiet. He wrote the article because his sister wondered if she were doing the right thing by shutting up her kids with iPads.
To summarize, Nick learned: (1) Dr. Gary Small, director of the Longevity Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, and author of "iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind", says we do know that the brain is highly sensitive to stimuli, like iPads and smartphone screens, and if people spend too much time with one technology, and less time interacting with people like parents at the dinner table, that could hinder the development of certain communications skills.
(2) Is it an electronics vs. non-electronics issue? Is coloring on a piece of paper better than coloring on an iPad? Ozlem Ayduk, an associate professor in the Relationships and Social Cognition Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, said it didn't matter. Children sitting at the dinner table with a print book or crayons were not as engaged with the people around them, either. “There are value-based lessons for children to talk to the people during a meal,” she said. “It’s not so much about the iPad versus nonelectronics.”
“Conversations with each other are the way children learn to have conversations with themselves, and learn how to be alone,” said Sherry Turkle, a professor of science, technology and society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and author of the book “Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other.” “Learning about solitude and being alone is the bedrock of early development, and you don’t want your kids to miss out on that because you’re pacifying them with a device.” (my emphasis). She goes on to say that children "need to be able to explore their imagination. To be able to gather themselves and know who they are. So someday they can form a relationship with another person without a panic of being alone,” she said. “If you don’t teach your children to be alone, they’ll only know how to be lonely.” Read more...
After reading your unplugged challenges, it makes me think maybe you are unable to be alone from technology (unless you are isolated from others). What do you think? You're in your 20s and in college, so you have more opportunities to see and talk to people, to develop social skills, but will your future relationships (personal, work) hinge on your friends on Facebook. If you are better talking to people in person, to what do you attribute this? If not, why not? Does it go back to childhood?
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After some thought, here is my take. Do I spend every waking moment on a screen. Pretty much. I play music on my iPhone all the time, I wake up to music, read my email, listen to public radio, check out Hulu+ or, this morning, I watched the rest of the American Masters documentary on Philip Roth. Everything I did was on screen. I write papers, read the news, read fiction and nonfiction, and listen to news media, on line. I also don't have a radio, so I listen live on my phone. But as I type this, I'm in a quiet space. No noise. Music is off. I am in a zone where I write best.
(Philip Roth writes, literally writes, standing up, and he lives in a very secluded space in NY because he needs quiet. It seems to work very well with him. When he's done with a manuscript, he sends it out to friends he trusts, and then they talk about the book. He tapes it so he can listen and not write while he's engaged and can listen better. He is 80.)
So I'm less distracted. I could have music on in the background and write this, but I like the quiet. (And my teenage daughter is away, so not blaring her music.) Do not disturb is on so only texts from people that matter. We don't use typewriters, so we write on the screen. The article I posted says that if kids use videos that are age appropriate, they do not act out. If we use our screens to do good work (e.g., homework, read), we can do so with less distraction, if we choose to do so.
The unplugged challenge was an extreme, but it was meant to get you to see how technology can really take over our lives if we do not stay conscious and try to slow it down, at least every now and then.
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