The Science and Tragedy Behind the New York Times’ “Screen Addiction Is Taking a Toll on Children”
Jane Brody’s recent New York Times’ article, “Screen Addiction Is Taking a Toll on Children,” set off a firestorm of comments (more than 600 at last count). Many of those commenting said they see for themselves children’s unnatural attachment to digital devices. However, others questioned the addictive potential of technology, asking “Where’s the research?” Here, I’ll explain the science and tragedy of child tech addiction…
Read the rest of this article in the Huffington Post
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Thanks dear Richard.
When you treat school as a kind of a shelter of human interactions for kids, you justly assume that the average class is quite humane. However, we see that contemporary schools, under some corporal-governmental pressures, are undergoing severe changes: Less hours dedicated to experimental based learning (including out-door activities etc.), and on the other hand, more hours near screens (be it tablets or computers). The effects of that, besides increasing solitude, radiation and cancer (and further addicting to virtual technologies), seems to be the deconstruction of the class as a social-discursive unit: each pupil to her/himself, while the subject-matter/knowledge being more determined and mediated to the students by the screen/computer, and less open for their independent-critical thoughts. What do you think about this hyper-computation of schools?
Thank you for your comment. I less focus on schools’ use of tech in my book “Wired Child” and instead have focused on the tech kids start using when the school bell rings. That being said, I think we should be really careful about how technology is used in schools. My two school-age daughters are often given assignments in which to complete on the computer at home which would be better accomplished using books or workbooks. I also think we should be really careful to make sure that money spent on tech doesn’t take away from resources for teachers that in turn leads to larger class sizes.