- Technology use by children is a complex issue with arguments on both sides. While some see screens as inherently bad, others argue that screens can provide benefits like connecting distant family members. - Excessive use that displaces healthy activities is concerning, but defining "excessive" is difficult. Studies show children spend around 2 hours per day with digital devices, similar to other hobbies. - As with any new medium, there are typically moral panics about negative impacts, but long-term effects are unclear. Parental engagement and setting clear limits remain important to promote balance.

1. RESTLESS AND
UNFOCUSED: IS
THIS TECHNOLOGY
A PLUG IN DRUG?
Dr Bex Lewis
Research Fellow in Social Media and Online
Learning, CODEC, Durham University
Director, Digital Fingerprint
@drbexl
@digitalfprint
@bigbible
@ww2poster
http://www.childrenmatter.net
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2. Digital Native?
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3. The Screen Age
• “We live in a screen age, and to say to
a kid, „I‟d love for you to look at a book
but I hate it when you look at the
screen‟ is just bizarre. It reflects our
own prejudices and comfort zone. It‟s
nothing but fear of change, of being
left out.”
• Prensky‟s worldview really stuck with
me. Are books always, in every
situation, inherently better than
screens? My daughter, after
all, often uses books as a way to
avoid social interaction, while my
son uses the Wii to bond with
friends. http://j.mp/atlantictouch

4. Is it the “technology”?
“Tapscott (1998) suggests
that talk of children‟s
addiction to
computers, and the threat
they pose to family life is
evidence of an anti-
technology bias.
He points out that people
do not talk about book
addiction but rather use
more positive terms
such as voracious
readers to describe
children who spend
time on this hobby.”

5. Moral Panics…
• Every new medium has, within a short time of its
introduction, been condemned as a threat to young
people. Pulp novels would destroy their morals, TV
would wreck their eyesight, video games would make
them violent. Each one has been accused of seducing
kids into wasting time that would otherwise be spent
learning about the presidents, playing with friends, or
digging their toes into the sand. In our generation, the
worries focus on kids‟ brainpower, about unused
synapses withering as children stare at the screen.
People fret about television and ADHD, although that
concern is largely based on a single study that has been
roundly criticized and doesn’t jibe with anything we know
about the disorder.
http://j.mp/atlantictouch

6. http://j.mp/toddleripad

7. Truly Addicted?
• Often kids will describe
themselves as „addicted‟
to the internet. Most are
not, although they are
probably online too
much.
• Addicts are defined by
making something THE
most important
thing, mood
changes, needing more
to achieve
high, withdrawal
symptoms, conflict, and
relapses.

8. Willard: Keep Your Life in Balance:
Avoid Addictive Use
• Excessive use of technologies =
“resulting in lack of healthy
engagement in other areas of life”
similar to any other addictions.
• Pew Internet: those using digital
tech are also very engaged in
other activities. Simply another
form of communication for the
social.
• Other studies highlight
depression/social anxiety/suicide
thoughts, but as correlations, not
causes.

9. Usage Stats.. (Childwise 2012)
• Between 1997-2011
• PC/Laptop at home from 50% to 100%
• Own device, less then 20% (all ages) to
around 60% (5-10); 85% (11-16)
• Accessing the internet at home from 20% to
80% or more.
• By 2011
• Tablet ownership less than 20%
• Never accessed the internet: 3%
• Device in own room 50% (7-10), 75% (11-16)
• When used
• All times of day, but more frequently after
school til early evening (7-16)
• How much used
• In 2001 accessed 2.3 times a week, now 5.2
times,
• Per day remains at just under 2 hours a day.

10. http://j.mp/lse25k
25,000
Children

11. Bigger (Family) Issues
Gillis (1996) – moral panics
about „time famine‟ have a
long history, and families often
seem to have exaggerated
their togetherness…
When children spend time
playing on their computers, it
can be a good break from the
„time-disciplined‟ focus of
school, exam pressures, etc.
With a computer in their own
room can escape e.g. marital
conflicts, nags, chores, sibling
s…

13. Deeper Connections…
• Their grandparents live far away
and we only see them once a
year, so Skype calls are a great way
for them to keep in touch.
(Parent, 3-5 & 6-9)
• Facebook … is a brilliant tool for
communicating messages to
dispersed groups of people and for
maintaining contact with friends and
loved ones, and allowing a more
intimate involvement in family
lives, e.g. grandparents sharing
their grandchildren growing
up, even if they live far away.
(Parent, 18+)
Responses from
questionnaire
#digitalparenting research
http://digital-
fingerprint.co.uk/2012/12/b
ook-digital-parenting/

14. Multi-Taskers?

15. All Bad?
• Distractive
Watching TV on
demand, videos,
playing games =
pulling away from
study.
• Constructive
Children have related
IM/music/search open
whilst working on
something.

16. Pew Internet Research 2012
“We‟re all going to end up being more
distracted, shallow, fuzzy
thinking, disconnected humans who cannot
think or act critically. But this won't be
because of the internet, it'll be because of
the loss of values and resourcing of things
like education and civics and the ridiculous
degree to which popular media, etc., are
influencing our culture, values, etc.”

17. Pew Internet, 2012
• “I don‟t think there‟s anything inherently bad or anti-
-‐social about smartphones, laptops, or any other
technology. I do, however, believe we are entering an
era in which young adults are placing an inordinately
high priority on being unfailingly responsive and
dedicated participants in the web of personal
messaging that surrounds them in their daily lives.
For now, it seems, addictive responses to peer
pressure, boredom, and social anxiety are playing a much
bigger role in wiring Millennial brains than problem-
-‐solving or deep thinking.”
• David Ellis, director of communications studies at York
University in Toronto

18. Butterfly Brains?
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19. Dual-Screening? Just the Kids?
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23bbcqt&src=typd

20. Parental Role Models?
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21. Slave to the Machine?
We like to pretend that
we‟re in hock to our
machines “must take this
call” etc. … but the
machines don‟t care what
we do… do you really need
to check Facebook every 5
minutes?
“Sometimes a mild
obsession can be helpful
while you become literate in
a new medium, but then you
need to be able to make it
work in terms which fit in
with whatever you want to
do with your life.”

22. Too Scared to Engage?
• The issue we see is that
many parents lack
confidence in the use of
modern technology,
some don't have regular
access to these
resources and are
therefore unable to
supervise or even be
aware of what their
children might, or might
not be getting up to
online. (Parent, 13-15)
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23. There is an off-switch…
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24. Core Parenting Skills!
• I don't understand why parents can't just be parents.
My sons like to play with tablets and video games too
but when I feel they've played long enough or they
start getting obsessive, I tell them they're done and
to play with something else. If they give me a hard
time, I remove the item in question and put it in my
closet. Then they go play with something else.
• At first, they tried throwing tantrums (just like with
anything else), and just like every other time they've
tried, it got them nowhere so they stopped. End of
story.
• There's a special word that a lot of people seem to
have forgotten. It's only two letters long but is one of
the most powerful words in the English language.
"NO". Learn it, live it, love it. You're not doing your
kids (or yourself) any favors by letting them control
you
Charleseye comment on http://j.mp/toddleripadImage Purchased: Stockfresh

25. @drbexl @digitalfprint @bigbible
http://www.slideshare.net/drbexl/
Image Credit: iStockPhoto