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Left to their own devicesDr Bex Lewis
Senior Lecturer, Digital Marketing, Manchester Metropolitan University; Director: Digital Fingerprint; Author: Raising Children in a Digital Age (2014)
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https://www.facebook.com/BBCArchive/videos/472572483115787/
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Image: via Facebook
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https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/
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HAVE smartphones destroyed a generation?
“Giving lip service to the difference between correlations and causality, as Twenge does at several points, is not enough. ‘Of course, these analyses don’t unequivocally prove that screen time causes unhappiness’, she writes (her emphasis). ‘[I]t’s possible that unhappy teens spend more time online’. In fact, the analyses she refers to don’t prove causality at all, let alone unequivocally. At another point Twenge writes that ‘Depression and suicide have many causes; too much technology is clearly not the only one’. In fact, we don’t know (at least from the evidence she presents) that it is a cause at all.”http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/parenting4digitalfuture/2017/08/11/some-thoughts-on-the-atlantic/http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/parenting4digitalfuture/2017/08/11/some-thoughts-on-the-atlantic/
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http://cdn.mutually.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/banana.jpg
• What age would you give a child a phone and why?
• Is there a fixed age, or does it depend upon the child and what you know of them?
Discuss: What age is OK?
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Source: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/research-and-data/media-literacy-research/childrens/children-parents-nov16
An ideal time to discuss mobile phone boundaries with your child is the day you buy their first one. These should include:
– sticking to a budget
– the use they can put it to/any access you may have
– understanding what to do about security if the phone gets stolen/limiting the chances of it being stolen
– knowing what will happen if they lose or break it
Mobile phone boundaries?
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janell-burley-hofmann/iphone-contract-from-your-mom_b_2372493.html
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https://www.verywell.com/social-media-contract-for-tweens-and-parents-3288520
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/12103150/Rembrandt-The-Night-Watch-The-real-story-behind-the-kids-on-phones-photo.html
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• Interactive: The child should be required to do something, otherwise they may just as well be watching TV; interaction means they will be engaged in what they are doing and learning from it.
• Complementary: A link to current school subjects, hobby or a day’s activity. Repetition and variation will support learning.
• Variety: Learning happens every day in a variety of ways, both direct and indirect. Children benefit from variety and making choices. Interactive screens are part of the variety.
• Moderation: Don’t let it be the only way they learn. Too much of any single thing can be detrimental. Keep mixing it up.
• Age-appropriate: Just as we consider the appropriateness of the films our children watch, the same consideration needs to be given to the content they consume on a tablet.
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/parenting4digitalfuture/2017/09/06/tablet-totalitarianism/
It’s not about the time, but the content
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It is interesting to note that we’ll frequently talk about internet addiction, but this accusation is not made at those whose noses are buried in a ‘good book’, or a newspaper. There’s something about the digital that attracts particular criticism, and we need to consider whether it is valid condemnation, or whether any of our habits or lifestyles, when viewed as a whole, require more consideration.
Question of addiction?
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Charlotte Robertson, the co-founder of Digital Awareness UK, said: “We speak to thousands of students on a daily basis about safe internet use and while it’s a matter of concern to see the emotional impact social media is having on young people’s health and wellbeing, it’s encouraging to see that they are also employing smart strategies such as digital detoxing to take control of their social media use.
http://bit.ly/GuardianSocMedChildren (05/10/17)
Social Media Backlash?
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“Some have tested extreme detoxes. Susan Maushart, writing for the Daily Mail, undertook a six-month “technology blackout” for her entire family, which she viewed as a consciousness raising exercise rather than a long-term strategy.7 Paul Millar, a technology journalist, disconnected from the internet for a year but found that, after the initial feeling of “freedom”, he picked up other bad habits. He ignored his post and his friends, allowed the dust to gather on his exercise equipment, failed to turn boredom into creativity, and sat and did nothing. On analysing this for an article for The Verge magazine, he was able to make more informed technology choices once he reconnected.” Raising Children in a Digital Age, p181
Tech ‘time out’
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“In some ways, it seems difficult to explain the power of social media on my everyday life, including my academic life, because I’m so embedded within it, that many things have just become ‘normal’. If I need some ideas, some quotes, some suggestions of readings, I will just put a post up, and see what catches people’s attention, but it goes much deeper than that! I always want to emphasise the importance of online/offline interactions, and how the lines between them have blurred more and more as the years have gone on. Potential collaborations start online, and lead to offline meet-ups, or a conversation starts offline, and the ideas continue flowing online. Sometimes they stay fully online, and that’s fine too!”
‘Bex Lewis’, in Ord, T. Theologians and Philosophers on Social Media, 2017
It’s not just ‘the kids’…
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1. Should we resist giving (smart) phonesto children until as late as possible?
2. Should we recognise that phones now have multi-functional uses and we need to help our children to use them well?
Which/Why?
Discuss
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Be involved
• Seek to understand what/how they are using
– Not just the latest ‘moral panic’
• Negotiate boundaries: write family agreements
• Talk to them, listen to them
• Be alongside them - especially in the early years
• Consider your own habits
Do not … leave them to their own devices
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Connect further:
http://drbexl.co.uk/
Thanks for your participation
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(2014) (2017) (2017)
