The American Association of University Women (AAUW) hosted a forum at Keokuk Public Library’s Round Room on Monday evening, featuring a round-table discussion about the effects of digital media on youth. Barb Edler made introductions, with Janet Fife-LaFrenz and Jane Abell present from the AAUW.
A variety of speakers provided a wide range of perspectives. These included: Principal Megan Davis with George Washington; Bonnie Peevler, Keokuk Board of Education member and previous psychologist; Principal Nathan Harrison from the High School; high school student Callie Leenertz; Jim Short, Keokuk Middle School principal; Kelsey Barclift, KMS counselor; Mabyn Mitchell, parent and seventh grade instructor; Alicia Logon Soper, social worker; and Jane Abell, AAUW representative and former language arts instructor.
Abel started giving some background on AAUW, an organization in place since 1881 with a mission to advance equity for women and girls. Next speaking about insight learned, she also shared three book resources: “The Anxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt; “Technology’s Child” by Katie Davis; and “The Dangers of Digital Media for Children,” by Michel Desmurget.
At this presentation, audience members would learn childhood is when major neural growth happens, with maximal connections occurring by about age 5, yet with many more years needed to prune this growth into ideal configurations. Increasingly, free-play time has been replaced by screen-play time. Children who would formerly utilize free-play to learn self-control, patience, problem solving, and social skills cannot achieve this with mainly passive activities associated with screen-watching. Meanwhile, problems with focus, time management and emotional distress are rising.
While in-person interaction must be practiced to communicate well, a lack of personal interactivity in these tap-and-click ecosystems has led to cognitive delays, language deficits and fine motor skill diminishment,
Despite the benefits of screen readers, Peevler relayed that not talking about books read, and not being read to in person, is problematic. She observed smaller vocabularies, with difficulties regulating emotions and communications emerging.
Parents laying technology on youngsters without proper guidance discover they generate insecure attachments matching an addiction model. Constant on-time results in perceived inability to step away, swipe off, block unwanted content or turn off devices. Attention spans shorten, and constant craving for instantaneous feedback makes slowing down unreachable. Addictive yearning for rushes of excitement takes over as device interaction activates reward and punishment mind-paths, arguably by design. Kids never learn to delay gratification. But being able to resist impulsivity and wait for a later but larger reward has, throughout human history, promoted survival. Not even being able to wait in line without frustration speaks to the problem’s magnitude. Soper noted kids have low frustration tolerance due to boredom uncomfortability.
The common experience of meltdowns whenever devices are absent is therefore no surprise. Essentially, the devices are working like a pacifier, but to what end? Cutting off a device is perceived like an emergency, with insecurity leading users to think disaster could strike any moment when “out of the loop.”
With the social aspect so imbedded, kids face negative repercussions from peers when not interacting digitally. Even if they do step away, emotional conflict can precipitate when observing others’ online activity, with likes and numbers of posts linked to perceived popularity, self esteem and self worth, something very important in brackets like adolescents.
Barclift echoed an issue of kids being up all night on devices, affecting attendance. Sometimes online conflicts creates fear of going to school, with bullying an overwhelming obstacle. Soper saw normalization of inappropriate phrasing of comments towards other youth online leading to some youths acting as “therapists” for each other in efforts to placate troubles. Cyberbullying proliferates with young females finding their fit in groups, with appearance and snapchat competitions taking over. However Harrison and Abell both noted that boys still have a tendency to go for the physical over the verbal, showing that females may be more vulnerable to cyberbullying.
By the time parents or educators recognize a need to intervene, it can be overwhelming.
Short contrasted, “there is a lot of positive that goes along with it, which is funny to me,” considering online content. Calling it “a consuming piece in some cases” he nevertheless said, “it’s is a part of their lives. You cannot take that away from them… It does not work.”
The decision to take cells out of the school is positively impacting relationships, time management, attitude and overall mental health. It was “the biggest change that I’ve seen in a good way,” Short said. But bullying outside the school is still a problem, always finding a way in. Describing a former “free reign” with cell phones, Harrison said, “I was uncomfortable with that.” A disturbing finding– kids were spending 7-9 hours daily on phones, not including schoolwork. The turning off policy leaves kids refreshed and better able to be here now.
Student Leenertz gave her own perspective, sharing that unplugging at night helps her spend more time with family and improves sleep. She sees fellow students paying attention to the school work, not rushing through as they will not receive phone time as a reward, as they had in the past.
Members of the community were subsequently invited to participate in a question and answer session. A good number of audience members took this opportunity to describe they see going on today, giving strong opinions backed with evidence for why they felt one pedagogy or another would work best in creating stimulating, enriched and structured learning environments for children while still reaping the benefits of advanced technologies seen today. The main ideas included that technology is appreciated and with guidance can be beneficial, but when kids turn to devices instead of human beings as a default, this could be a signal of other problems such as home issues. Being aware of both the power of devices and the power to manage them were key takeaways.
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