Have you ever been interested in what the research shows about the effect of digital screen time on children’s brains?
The recent peer reviewed Pediatrics article Digital Screen Media and Cognitive Development is well worth a 20 minute read, and is also a good summary of sum of the literature, but I will summarize it briefly here.
< 2 years old ————————————– Bad
2-5 Years old ————————————–Mixed Results
School Age —————————————-We don’t know
Other factoids.
- Violent media is bad.
- What the parents do with their media counts ( ie if a parent is on their iPhone, they probably aren’t playing with little Johnny).
- There may be a negative impact on reading ability.
Anyway, I think this article is a little too positive, but it is a good starting point to follow the research (thanks to a good set of references).
For example for me, even as an adult, I am concerned that I have lost some of my edge to read deeply because of my screen time; I am even less comfortable about the effect on children.
In addition, time underlies all of this. Consider this: Although TV have been around for some time, since social media has only been around for 10 years, we really don’t know what kind of adults our children less than 10 years old ( who are fully digital native) are going to become.
Finally, will all of this social media and smart phone use make the next Shakespeare or Beethoven or Madame Curie or Churchill more or less likely?
Sadly, I doubt it.
We need to be careful.