Raising Digital Natives: Keeping Kids Curious, Creative and Caring

Having written a few articles regarding the effects of technology on our attention span and emotional wellbeing it seemed worthwhile to address our development. To speak to the challenges of raising kids in the Digital Age, and the importance of meeting those challenges.

The Digital Generation Gap

We’ve shared the causes of behavioral addiction and critically examined how social media exploits these tendencies. But kids growing up in a world where attention is the currency, face greater challenges, in no small part due to their parents lack of understanding. 

As Dr. Jim Tayler points out in a 2012 article in Psychology Today, “with this new technological frontier in its infancy and developments emerging at a rapid pace, we have neither the benefit of historical hindsight nor the time to ponder or examine the value and cost of these advancements in terms of how it influences our children’s ability to think.”¹

Research has shown that the neural networks in the brains of Digital Natives (those who have grown up in or are growing up in the digital age) differ dramatically from those of Digital Immigrants (those who acquired familiarity with digital systems as an adult). And we are just starting to see the effects of this disconnect, South Korea and other countries now offer treatment programs for children as young as five years old who are addicted to technology.²

Even for those with the best of intentions controlling a child’s exposure to something as ubiquitous as technology is no easy task, “While experts instruct parents to limit their children’ ‘screen time’ and keep the television out of a child’s bedroom, most families seem to have a tough time making or enforcing such roles”.³

And then there is the fact that children are being raised by parents who are themselves distracted by technology. As Adam Alter explains, “Using head-mounted cameras, researchers have shown that infants instinctively follow their parents’ eyes. Distracted parents cultivate distracted children because parents who can’t focus, teach children the same attentional patterns”.⁴

The Importance of Imagination 

And what of creativity? We have previously explored the positive side to boredom in fostering creativity. With this in mind, children with a mobile device always in their hands have in some ways been given a leash to rein in creative thinking and imagination.

Dr. Mari K Swingle addresses the importance of unstructured imaginative play in her book i-Minds, “by introducing the medium far too early we train little brains to need entertainment as opposed to seeking it or making it themselves. We remove the critical first step, observation, followed by the second, curiosity”. ⁵

A Recommendation

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends no screen time for children under two. This is a recommendation worth repeating as in 2014 38% of children under two had used a mobile device (compared to 10% in 2012). By four 80% of children had used a mobile device. 

A Real World Recommendation 

As stated, technology is ubiquitous. So a more realistic approach may be to follow the advice of the organization reSTART and (if your children are using educational apps) connect the screen to the real world. 

An example includes an app that asks a child to sort blocks by color and parents then asking the child to label the color of clothes as they sort laundry together. Essentially to make this about active engagement rather than passive viewing. 

Technology Breaks

Explore options for “breaks” from technology. In recent studies, children were given a DANVAZ (Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Behavior) exam before and after four days tech free at summer camp. There was a 33% error drop in the kids’ abilities to accurately state a person’s mood based on facial expressions and body language.

Read Up

As with adults education is key “The UK Children Go Online investigation by Sonia Livingstone at the London School of Economics found that 92% of nine- to 19-year-olds have accessed the internet from a computer at home or school, but 30% have received no lessons at all on using the internet and only 33% of regular users have been taught how to judge the reliability of online information.”⁶

Children understanding the nature of technology, and how to use it for their benefit and not their detriment, is entirely dependent on knowledgeable adults.

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Sources

1. Changing the way children think by Dr Jim Taylor
2.  The Big Disconnect, by Catherine Steiner-Adair
3. Generation Digital, by Kathryn C. Montgomery
4. Irresistible, by Adam Alter
5. i-Minds, by Mari K. Swingle 
6. Losing our imagination by Susan Greenfield
7. Featured image by sahil trikha from Pixabay