Pandora’s Blog

I LOVE IT!!!

Ok, first of all, remember the whole “don’t sit too close to the TV” parental warning when we were kids. “Don’t watch too much TV; it’ll rot your brains!”

Well guess what, now social networks are the culprit of child stupidity. OK, they didn’t say “stupid” in their research, but ask any middle school teacher how proficient today’s tweens and young teens are and you will find that kids are getting dumber and lazier by the year.

Why is that? Surely the TV didn’t rot my brain (mostly because my parents didn’t get cable until a couple years ago, nearly 10 years after I moved out!). Maybe my generation was a little hooked on the boob tube, but we knew the value of having friends and people we could have meaningful conversations with. We also were forced to play outside and could find America on a map.

But the problem now lies within the immediacy and instant gratification that the Internet gives, specifically social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. I have been saying this would have an effect as yet unseen for years. Well, maybe now it’s being seen.

In a way, the are ‘re-wiring’ the brain into an infantile state comparable to small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment. The lead researcher said that children’s experiences on social networking sites “are devoid of cohesive narrative and long-term significance. As a consequence, the mid-21st century mind might almost be infantilized, characterized by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathize and a shaky sense of identity”.

She also called for some investigating into whether or not the near total submersion of our culture in screen technologies over the last decade might in some way be linked to the threefold increase over this period in prescriptions for methylphenidate, the drug prescribed for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

So, what can you do as a parent? Well, first of all STOP GIVING YOUR KIDS EVERYTHING. They are losing the ability to develop appreciation for anything, because so much of what they do is based in a virtual world and comes to them “now.” Giving your kids everything and letting them do whatever they want prevents them from needing to pause for a moment to reflect on why they may need something and how will it do them good.

Second – MONITOR YOUR CHILD’S INTERNET ACTIVITY! You need to know what your kids are doing online, but also – how much time are they spending. Is all their time online just quick meaningless conversations and posts on social networks, or are they using the internet to learn and explore (hopefully not porn – but boys will be boys). Thankfully, with programs like PC Pandora, you can keep tabs on your kids and know what they are doing. They’re not going to tell you everything – they certainly aren’t’ going to admit they are addicted to social networking (and most are)…. But you, as their parent, need to know.

Want more proof this is real. A teach I know who teaches middle school English can’t get any of her kids to read more than 5 pages in a book without complaining that they are “lost” or “don’t know what’s going on.” It’s not because the classic that we read have become harder… it’s more so that if the whole book isn’t summarized and given in 3 pages, nay sentences, the kids suffer a mental meltdown. They don’t have the attention span (or, in some cases, the ability) to read for a bit and figure things out on their own. They want the instant gratification of knowing exactly what’s happening and what the point of the story is.

How can that be good later in life? Talk about needing to stop and smell the roses.

Here are the stories from two UK papers. Enjoy… and BEWARE!

Facebook and Bebo risk ‘infantilising’ the human mind
Greenfield warns social networking sites are changing children’s brains, resulting in selfish and attention deficient young people
Patrick Wintour, political editor, guardian.co.uk

Social networking sites, such as Facebook, are putting attention span in jeopardy, says Baroness Greenfield. Photograph: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Social network sites risk infantilising the mid-21st century mind, leaving it characterised by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathise and a shaky sense of identity, according to a leading neuroscientist.

The startling warning from Lady Greenfield, professor of synaptic pharmacology at Lincoln college, Oxford, and director of the Royal Institution, has led members of the government to admit their work on internet regulation has not extended to broader issues, such as the psychological impact on children.

Greenfield believes ministers have not yet looked at the broad cultural and psychological effect of on-screen friendships via Facebook, Bebo and Twitter.

She told the House of Lords that children’s experiences on social networking sites “are devoid of cohesive narrative and long-term significance. As a consequence, the mid-21st century mind might almost be infantilised, characterised by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathise and a shaky sense of identity”.

Arguing that social network sites are putting attention span in jeopardy, she said: “If the young brain is exposed from the outset to a world of fast action and reaction, of instant new screen images flashing up with the press of a key, such rapid interchange might accustom the brain to operate over such timescales. Perhaps when in the real world such responses are not immediately forthcoming, we will see such behaviours and call them attention-deficit disorder.

“It might be helpful to investigate whether the near total submersion of our culture in screen technologies over the last decade might in some way be linked to the threefold increase over this period in prescriptions for methylphenidate, the drug prescribed for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.”

She also warned against “a much more marked preference for the here-and-now, where the immediacy of an experience trumps any regard for the consequences. After all, whenever you play a computer game, you can always just play it again; everything you do is reversible. The emphasis is on the thrill of the moment, the buzz of rescuing the princess in the game. No care is given for the princess herself, for the content or for any long-term significance, because there is none. This type of activity, a disregard for consequence, can be compared with the thrill of compulsive gambling or compulsive eating.

“The sheer compulsion of reliable and almost immediate reward is being linked to similar chemical systems in the brain that may also play a part in drug addiction. So we should not underestimate the ‘pleasure’ of interacting with a screen when we puzzle over why it seems so appealing to young people.”

Greenfield also warned there was a risk of loss of empathy as children read novels less. “Unlike the game to rescue the princess, where the goal is to feel rewarded, the aim of reading a book is, after all, to find out more about the princess herself.”

She said she found it strange we are “enthusiastically embracing” the possible erosion of our identity through social networking sites, since those that use such sites can lose a sense of where they themselves “finish and the outside world begins”.

She claimed that sense of identity can be eroded by “fast-paced, instant screen reactions, perhaps the next generation will define themselves by the responses of others”.

Social networking sites can provide a “constant reassurance – that you are listened to, recognised, and important”. Greenfield continued. This was coupled with a distancing from the stress of face-to-face, real-life conversation, which were “far more perilous … occur in real time, with no opportunity to think up clever or witty responses” and “require a sensitivity to voice tone, body language and perhaps even to pheromones, those sneaky molecules that we release and which others smell subconsciously”.

She said she feared “real conversation in real time may eventually give way to these sanitised and easier screen dialogues, in much the same way as killing, skinning and butchering an animal to eat has been replaced by the convenience of packages of meat on the supermarket shelf. Perhaps future generations will recoil with similar horror at the messiness, unpredictability and immediate personal involvement of a three-dimensional, real-time interaction.”

The solutions, however, lay less in regulation as in education, culture and society.

Greenfield argued that the appeal of Facebook lay in the fact that “a child confined to the home every evening may find at the keyboard the kind of freedom of interaction and communication that earlier generations took for granted in the three-dimensional world of the street. But even given a choice, screen life can still be more appealing.”

She quoted one user saying they had 900 friends, another saying the fact “that you can’t see or hear other people makes it easier to reveal yourself in a way that you might not be comfortable with. You become less conscious of the individuals involved [including yourself], less inhibited, less embarrassed and less concerned about how you will be evaluated.”

But Greenfield warned: “It is hard to see how living this way on a daily basis will not result in brains, or rather minds, different from those of previous generations. We know that the human brain is exquisitely sensitive to the outside world.”

Social websites harm children’s brains: Chilling warning to parents from top neuroscientist
By David Derbyshire, Daily Mail

Social networking websites are causing alarming changes in the brains of young users, an eminent scientist has warned.

Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Bebo are said to shorten attention spans, encourage instant gratification and make young people more self-centred.

The claims from neuroscientist Susan Greenfield will make disturbing reading for the millions whose social lives depend on logging on to their favourite websites each day.

But they will strike a chord with parents and teachers who complain that many youngsters lack the ability to communicate or concentrate away from their screens.

More than 150million use Facebook to keep in touch with friends, share photographs and videos and post regular updates of their movements and thoughts.

A further six million have signed up to Twitter, the ‘micro-blogging’ service that lets users circulate text messages about themselves.

But while the sites are popular – and extremely profitable – a growing number of psychologists and neuroscientists believe they may be doing more harm than good.

Baroness Greenfield, an Oxford University neuroscientist and director of the Royal Institution, believes repeated exposure could effectively ‘rewire’ the brain.

Computer games and fast-paced TV shows were also a factor, she said.

‘We know how small babies need constant reassurance that they exist,’ she told the Mail yesterday.

‘My fear is that these technologies are infantilising the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment.’

Her comments echoed those she made during a House of Lords debate earlier this month. Then she argued that exposure to computer games, instant messaging, chat rooms and social networking sites could leave a generation with poor attention spans.

‘I often wonder whether real conversation in real time may eventually give way to these sanitised and easier screen dialogues, in much the same way as killing, skinning and butchering an animal to eat has been replaced by the convenience of packages of meat on the supermarket shelf,’ she said.

Lady Greenfield told the Lords a teacher of 30 years had told her she had noticed a sharp decline in the ability of her pupils to understand others.

‘It is hard to see how living this way on a daily basis will not result in brains, or rather minds, different from those of previous generations,’ she said.

She pointed out that autistic people, who usually find it hard to communicate, were particularly comfortable using computers.

‘Of course, we do not know whether the current increase in autism is due more to increased awareness and diagnosis of autism, or whether it can – if there is a true increase – be in any way linked to an increased prevalence among people of spending time in screen relationships. Surely it is a point worth considering,’ she added.

Psychologists have also argued that digital technology is changing the way we think. They point out that students no longer need to plan essays before starting to write – thanks to word processors they can edit as they go along. Satellite navigation systems have negated the need to decipher maps.

A study by the Broadcaster Audience Research Board found teenagers now spend seven-and-a-half hours a day in front of a screen.

Educational psychologist Jane Healy believes children should be kept away from computer games until they are seven. Most games only trigger the ‘flight or fight’ region of the brain, rather than the vital areas responsible for reasoning.

Sue Palmer, author of Toxic Childhood, said: ‘We are seeing children’s brain development damaged because they don’t engage in the activity they have engaged in for millennia.

‘I’m not against technology and computers. But before they start social networking, they need to learn to make real relationships with people.’

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 12:46 PM and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.