| Refractive Reflections |
07-25-2014 05:21 AM |
Is Technology Causing Kids to Have A Shorter Attention Span?
There's a slow amount of research that's beginning to investigate on whether today's technology (especially with the prevalence of handheld technology, gaming, and high-speed internet) may be conditioning the developing brains of children and adolescents. There's not a direct "cause and effect" relationship, but there are emerging correlations between high-tech gadgets and ADHD/ADD.
Quote:
The rise in ADHD has coincided with the rise of mobile devices. According to a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation, children on average spend nearly seven and a half hours each day staring at screens. That’s up 20% from just five years ago. Is there a relationship between the two? Perhaps. It’s not so clear-cut.
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Researchers are reluctant to say there is a direct correlation between gadgets and ADHD, but there are strong parallels between the upswing in diagnoses and an increase of screen time. One important finding: children and young adults who overdo TV and video games are nearly twice as likely to suffer from a variety of attention-span disorders, according to a study in the journal Pediatrics.
“ADHD is 10 times more common today than it was 20 years ago,” said Dimitri Christakis, the George Adkins professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington in Seattle. “Although it is clear that ADHD has a genetic basis, given that our genes have not changed appreciably in that time frame, it is likely that there are environmental factors that are contributing to this rise.”
Part of the problem is the fragmented, action-packed nature of electronic media. Christakis found that faster-paced shows increased the risk of attention issues. The brains of children adapt to that speed, so when they’re forced to work in the slower pace of life, they often struggle to pay attention because it’s less stimulating and rewarding.
When Josh puts down his iPad, his brain finds the real-world underwhelming compared with virtual ones.
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http://techland.time.com/2013/07/08/...gets-and-adhd/
Quote:
Practicing anything repetitively physically changes the brain. With time and effort, you get better at the specific task you're practicing, whether it's shooting at the enemy in a video game or hitting a baseball. Those repetitive actions and thoughts stimulate connections between brain cells, creating neural pathways between different parts of your brain. The more you practice a certain activity, the stronger that neural pathway becomes. That's the structural basis of learning.
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Such games also require players to think of an overall strategy, perform several tasks simultaneously, and make decisions that have both an immediate and long-term impact. “That's very much like the multi-tasking inherent in most jobs today,” says Dr. Willis. “These young people may be better equipped to switch between tasks easily, adapt to new information, and modify their strategy as new input comes in.”
Useful skills, to be sure, but exercised excessively they can also become problems. After all, when kids become so accustomed to multi-tasking and processing large amounts of information simultaneously, they may have trouble focusing on a lecture in a classroom setting.
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http://journals.lww.com/neurologynow...ct_the.17.aspx
So how does this all relate to today's children selecting particular television programs? It's all just speculation on my part, but with technology encouraging such immediate gratification, it could explain why some children are preferring more fast-paced and louder cartoons like Spongebob rather than the calmer and subtle cartoons that require longer and increased attention, in focusing on the developments of the characters and plot which they would consider "boring".
I'm not saying this is the sole reason, but it's always interesting to consider as a small possible part of the reason. **shrug**
Plus we have to consider parental influence and upbringing, and parenting has changed significantly from when we were children since technology has developed a larger "babysitting" role for children. |
